Low and Very Low Birthweight Disadvantage in Compulsory Education Achievement and the Transition to Upper Secondary Education in the Finnish Birth Cohorts of 1987 to 1997
: Lindberg, Matti
: 2023
: INVEST Working Papers
: 76
: 2737-0534
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/dk369
: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/dk369
We compare compulsory education and upper secondary education success of very low-birthweight (VLBW) and low-birthweight (LBW) adolescents (ages 16 to 19) to that of their normal-birthweight peers in the complete Finnish birth cohorts of 1987 to 1997. We use register data on grades, educational transitions, and completed degrees. Results of both population-level and sibling-fixed effects models indicate that in Finland, (V)LBW disadvantage is translated into educational disadvantage mainly through drop-out and completion of an adjusted compulsory education syllabus. Among pupils who are able to complete standard syllabus and to transition to post-compulsory education within normative time-frame, (V)LBW is not associated with lower grade point average or with meaningfully lower probability of completing an upper secondary degree by the normative age.