SES Flashcards
What is SES?
A measure of a person’s economic and social position in relation to others
What do the measures of SES focus on?
- Parental education
- Parental Income
- Parent Occupation
What have researchers proposed that SES affects?
Access to opportunities: money enables opportunities e.g. books, out of school activities, therefore greater learning potential
Human capital: skills or knowledge of individuals e.g. parent’s education which they can pass on
Social capital: beneficial connections in social networks e.g. family friends that can provide internships
Which areas did Farah et al. find a difference in?
- Language
- Memory
- Executive functions
They also found no effect of SES on early reward processing
What are the pre-existing differences at school entry?
- Preschool children from lower SES families begin school with less maths knowledge than pre-schoolers from higher SES families
What evidence is there to show that the achievement gap wides over time?
Rathbun and West (2004) found a maths achievement gap at school entry between lower SES children and higher SES children but also found that this gap widened over the first 4 years of primary school
Outline the possible pathways of SES
The achievement gap might initially lead us to think there is a direct link between SES and maths skill
But differences in executive function may mediate the relationship between SES and a child’s maths skills.
Outline the investment model
Lower SES parents have less capital so are unable to invest as much in their children
Lower SES children tend to receive less cognitive stimulation
Higher SES parents are more likely to buy materials targeting academic skills for their children
Higher SES parents tend to use more language involving numbers
Outline SES differences in home activities
Considerable differences in the home maths practices reported by parents that were SES-related
Mid-SES parents were more likely to have a range of maths activities in the home that were broader and played with more frequently than lower SES parents
Outline how differences in maths home activities predict maths skills
The frequency with with children engaged in number-related activities at home the previous week was positively correlated with their maths skills
Parental practices early in development predict maths skills longitudinally
Outline the stress model
Lower SES leads to long term stress which has negative consequences biologically and can make parents less effective
Outline some direct effects of the stress model
Leads to long term negative effects on brain development which leads to poorer cognition
Stress influences the reactivity of the HPA axis affecting behaviour regulation and affecting brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex which underpins executive functions
Promotes reactive rather than reflective self-regulation
Higher basal rate of cortisol
Affects formation of new memories
Outline some indirect effects of the stress model
Stress can affect cognition indirectly via more harsh and inconsistent parenting
Makes it harder to regulate emotions and behaviour
The effect of parenting on children’s executive functions has been found to be linked via cortisol
Outline how these effects can be reversed
Nurturing parenting
Foster children who had dysfunctional stress activity in their HPA axis related to adverse life events
Had a parental intervention designed to help parents identify distress and respond to this in a sensitive way, children had reduced HPA activity 9 months later
