SES Flashcards
Socioeconomic status
Measure of social/economic position in relation to others
The best measures of SES use a composite score
Derived from
- Parent education
- Family income
- Parent occupation
- Area deprivation
How can we get a comprehensive index of SES in the UK
IMD (index of multiple deprivation)
Adler et al., 1999
SES thought to operate at multiple levels
- Social capital
- Human capital
- Access to opportunities
Farah et al., 2006
Participants
Low SES and mid SES households
Farah et al., 2006
Findings - low SES (3)
Poorer on:
- Language
- Memory
- Executive functions
Executive functions are high-level…
Cog. skills involved in goal-directed thinking
“High level cognitive skills involved in goal-directed thinking”
Executive functions
Executive functions include skills like (2)
Working memory
Inhibitory control
Banfield, 1968 (impulse/reward and SES)
Findings
Ability to resist impulse + appreciate value of future rewards increases with SES
Banfield 1968
Which social group is more impulsive?
Lower SES
Banfield 1968
Lower SES groups
Are more impulsive with rewards
How did Farah et al.,s findings conflict Banfield?
He found no effect of SES on early reward processing
Farah suggested that the correlation between impulse/SES…
Might emerge later in childhood (adaptation to contingencies learnt over time)
Cragg + Gilmore, 2014
Executive functions are
Important for early maths
What might be able to account for SES based differences in math skills?
Individual diffs. in executive functions
Jordan, Huttenlocher + Levine 1994
Preschool children from lower SES families…
Begin school with less math knowledge
Duncan + Brooks-Gunn, 1997
Children from lower SES often arrive
To school less prepared to learn, placing them at long-term academic risk
Duncan et al., (2007)
Children from lower SES families often arrive in school less prepared to learn.
Possible reason for this?
Less exposure to numbers
Knock on effect on later skills
Starkey + Klein (2008)
Cross-cultural research in…
China, Japan + US
Starkey + Klein (2008)
Cross-cultural research
Findings (1)
- SES-related gap in early maths knowledge at age 3
Starkey + Klein (2008)
Cross-cultural research
The findings suggest that
Variables linking SES to math are present early in life
Which researchers found that the SES gap widens with time?
Rathbun + West (2004)