Children markedly older in their year group tend to be less motivated in high school and academically behind children who are age appropriate, new research from the University of Sydney shows.
The study, by Associate Professor Andrew Martin from the University's Faculty of Education and Social Work, assessed 3,684 students at seven high schools. It challenges the relatively recent trend for parents to delay school entry, particularly for boys.
"Students who were markedly older for their year group were less motivated and not performing as well in literacy and numeracy tests than students who were within the traditional one-year age range," said A/Professor Martin, one of the world's leading educational psychologists and author of How to Motivate Your Child for School and Beyond.
"The negative effect of being older for a year group was also found for children who had repeated a grade," Professor Martin said.
While previous studies have looked at age and children's school performance in the early primary school years, this latest study, just published in the international Journal of Educational Psychology, is one of the first to look at the effects of students' age within a year group in high school.
"I found there is little or no evidence of advantage to being markedly older in a year group in terms of academic development in the high school years," commented A/Professor Martin.
Age appropriate students, particularly those young for their age-cohort, seemed to fare best, Professor Martin found. Younger-for-cohort students reported enjoying school more, fewer absences from school, being more positive about school and more likely to complete homework, with the very youngest even outperforming their classmates on some measures.
These younger students are a good comparison with students one year older than them (eg. the delayed entry students) because they are in the same year group, Professor Martin noted. Many of the younger children's parents would also have considered the option of holding their child back, but chose to send their child to school.
Professor Martin said the policy implications, suggesting that in most cases on-time entry is appropriate for students.