Age, Period, and Cohort Trends in Americans’ Vocabulary Knowledge

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 22. Media and Literacy

Abstract

For a quarter of a century researchers have been debating the extent to which Americans’ vocabulary knowledge varies as a function of how old they are (age), the year in which they were observed (period), and the year in which they were born (cohort). This debate has important implications for educational policy and practice, and speaks to America’s competitiveness in the global economy. Unfortunately, prior assessments of age, period, and cohort trends in vocabulary knowledge have either assumed a priori that one of the three (usually period) does not matter or else have relied on problematic statistical methods. We revisit this debate using a new methodological approach. We find that vocabulary knowledge increases through about age 70 (age); it declined in the 1980s but increased later (period); and, on average, vocabulary scores rose across the 1890 through early baby boom cohorts and then was lower across most more recent cohorts. We explore explanations for these trends, and draw preliminary conclusions about the roles of temporal trends in the quality of school and the frequency with which certain words appear in print.

Authors

• Liying Luo, University of Minnesota

• John Robert Warren, University of Minnesota