Class Difference: Material

Question 1

Four Main Factors of Material Deprivation

Answer 1

1. Housing
2. Diet and Health
3. Financial support and the cost of education
4. Fear of debt

Question 2

Housing (Direct and Indirect) (Outline)

Answer 2

• Overcrowding can have a direct effect by making it harder for the child to study. (no homework, disturbed sleep from sharing beds or bedrooms)
• For young children, development can be impaired through lack of space for play and exploration
• Indirect effects on child’s health such as greater risks of accidents in crowded housing. Cold or damp housing can cause ill health.

Question 3

Diet and Health (Outline)

Answer 3

• This may result in more absences from school due to illness and difficulties concentrating in class.
• All of which are likely to have a negative effect on the child’s education.

Question 4

Financial support and cost of education (Outline)

Answer 4

• Bull (1980): refers to this as ‘the costs of free schooling’.
• Children from poor families have to do without equipment and miss out on experiences that would enhance their educational achievement.
• Financial support to poorer students staying in education after 16 that was available through EMAs was abolished in England by the Coalition in 2011.

Question 5

Fear of debt (Outline)

Answer 5

• Fear of debt may help to explain why only about 30% of university students come from working-class backgrounds, despite the fact that this group accounting for about 50% of the population.

Question 6

Diet and Health (Studies)

Answer 6

• Howard (2001): Young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. (Therefore, weakening immune system)
• Wilkinson (1996): among 10 year olds, the lower the social class, the higher the rate of hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorders.
• Blanden and Machin (2007): Children from low income families were likely to engage in ‘externalising’ behaviour (fighting and temper tantrums).

Question 7

Financial support and cost of education (Studies)

Answer 7

• Tanner et al (2003): found that the cost of items such as transport, uniforms, books, computers, calculators and sports, music and art equipment, places a heavy burden on poor families.
• Flaherty: stigmatisation may help to explain 20% of those eligible for FSM do take up their entitlement.
• Smith and Noble (1995): poverty acts as a barrier to learning in other ways, such as inability to afford private schooling or tuition.
• Ridge: Children from low income families often take up jobs like baby sitting that have negative impacts on their schoolwork.

Question 8

Fear of debt studies

Answer 8

• Callender and Jackson (2005): found that working-class students saw debt as something to be avoided and saw more costs than benefits of going to university
• Also found that attitude to debt was important in deciding whether to apply to university. The most debt averse students were over 5x less likely to apply than the most debt tolerant students.
• UCAS (2012): Number of UK applicants fell by 8.6% compared with the previous year. (2012 was the year that tuition fees increased to 9,000)
• National Union of Students (2010): found that 81% of those from the highest social class received help from home. (against 43% from the lowest class)
• Reay (2005): working-class students were more likely to apply to local universities so they could live at home and save on travel costs (gave less opportunity to go to high status universities)