Objectives: To assess what family socioeconomic attributes determine child educational achievement, and whether educational mobility affects cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in young people. Design: A comparative study of two prospective birth cohorts.
Participants: 3,200 Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong’s “Children of 1997” birth cohort and 6,000 British adolescents in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Exposure: Parental socioeconomic position and parent-child educational mobility.
Outcomes: Educational attainment from public examination scores and CVD risk factors (body mass index, blood pressure, lipids and glycemic traits).
Expected results: Determinants of child educational achievement are culturally sensitive, but we expect them to be responsive to parental education and/or occupation in Hong Kong and the UK. Influence of educational mobility on CVD risk factors is universal, but stronger in migrant children.
Significance: These findings will inform strategies to promote social mobility in Hong Kong and will be highly relevant to the rest of China where educational opportunities are improving but challenges remain with mass internal migration.