Effects of the Home Environment and SES Flashcards
What is SES?
A measure of a person’s economic and social position in relation to others
One’s access to economic and social resources and the social positioning, privileges, and prestige that derive from these resources
Effects of SES often ____ over time
Accrue
SES is measured using a composite score of
Parent education
Family income
Parent occupation
What else can you get an SES measure from in the UK?
Postcode
What does the postcode SES measure consist of?
Income
Average level of employment
What might SES effect?
Access to opportunities
Human capital
Social capital
Access to opportunities
Money enables opportunities eg. books, out-of-school activities
Human capital
Skills or knowledge of individuals eg parents can pass on education
Social capital
Beneficial connections in social networks eg family or friends who may be able to offer your child internships etc
Shonkoff & Philips (2000)
Cumulative experience of risk factors during a sensitive period of brain expansion and growth can compromise neurocognitive development
Farah et al (2006)
Studied a group of children from low-SES households and a group of mid-SES household
They found differences in three areas of cognition
- Language
- Memory
- Executive functions
Found no effect on reward processing
Explanation of Farah et al (2006)
Correlation between resisting impulses and SES emerges later in childhood
This effect could be a pragmatic adaptation to the contingencies learnt over time rather than as a direct result of SES influencing reward processing
SES and cognitive development
Lower SES children tend to have poorer language and executive function skills
Jordan, Huttenlocher & Levine (1994)
Preschool children from lower SES homes tend to begin school with lower maths skills than those from higher SES homes
Duncan & Brooks-Gunn (1997)
Children from low SES families often arrive at school less prepared to learn, placing them at long-term academic risk
Duncan et al (2007)
Less exposure to numbers in low SES homes has a knock on effect on later skills as maths learning is incremental
Starkey & Klein (2008)
Cross-cultural research on early maths development in China, Japan and US found an SES-related age gap in early maths knowledge at age 3
Variables linking SES to maths skills are present early in life
The achievement gap at school entry persists over time, and _____ with development
Becomes more pronounced
Duncan & Magnuson (2012)
For maths and reading attainment, gaps between bottom and top SES groups are roughly twice as large as the bottom and middle of the SES distribution
Suggests a fairly linear SES gradient for those achievement measures
Mediation model
Executive functions may mediate the relation between SES and children’s maths skills
What is a mediator variable?
A variable that explains the relationship between an IV and a DV
Two main accounts explaining the link between SES and cognitive development
Investment model
Stress model
Theories are no mutually exclusive
Investment model summary
Lower SES have less capital so are unable to invest as much in their children
Stress model summary
Lower SES leads to long-term stress which has negative consequences biologically and can make parents less effective
Investment model - cognitive stimulation
Lower SES children tend to receive less cognitive stimulation; read less often, more watch more TV
Investment model - resources
Higher SES parents are more likely to buy games or materials targeting academic skills
Investment model - tools for maths thinking
Higher SES parents use more language involving numbers
Starkey et al (1999)
Asked lower-SES and mid-SES parents about the nature and frequency of maths activity they provided for their 4 year olds
Mid-SES parents more likely to have a range of maths activities and were played with more frequently than low-SES
Blevins-Knabe & Musun-Miller (1996)
Frequency with which children engaged in number-related activities at home the previous week was positively correlated with maths skills
Levine et al (2010)
Number talk at home at age 2 predicts maths skills at age 4
Stress influences how your _____ responds
HPA axis
The HPA axis produces ____
Cortisol
Blair (2011)
In low-resource, unpredictable environments, stress response systems develop in a way that promotes reactive rather than reflective self-regulation
Evans & Kim (2010)
The longer children live in stressful conditions, the more this will effect their bodily response to stress
Children will have a higher basal rate of cortisol and a more muted reaction to standard stressors
Blair et al (2011)
High salivary cortisol at 7, 15 and 24 months were associated with lower executive functions
Stress directly affects ______, particularly _____ not associated with the stress response
The formation of new memories
Memories
Why does stress affect memory?
Due to the disregulation of the HPA axis
Hippocampus is important in long-term memories
Indirect pathway of stress through parenting
Stress can affect cognition indirectly via more harsh and inconsistent parenting
Stress makes it harder to regulate emotions and behaviour
Can nurturing parenting reverse the effects of stress?
Yes
