Blending the Lines: Methodological Challenges in the Quest to Understand Social-Class Experiences of Low-Income University Students

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgianna L. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
University Students ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Methodological Challenges

scholarly journals What You Do Versus Who You Are: Home-Learning Activities, Social Origin and Cognitive Skills among Young Children in Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 610-625
Author(s):  
Patricia McMullin ◽  
Frances McGinnity ◽  
Aisling Murray ◽  
Helen Russell
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Birth Cohort Study ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Home Learning

Abstract This article explores the role that home-learning activities (HLAs) play in the relationship between social origin and cognitive development using an Irish birth cohort study, Growing Up in Ireland. Numerous studies using different measures of the home-learning environment (HLE) have shown that it has considerable influence on young children’s cognitive development, and that the HLE is often linked to social origin. We find a social gradient in vocabulary even at age 3 years, with the largest gaps for mothers’ education. Family income, mothers’ education, and social class are also associated with vocabulary independently, though these associations are reduced by adding all three measures simultaneously. The extent of HLAs helps explain a very small part of the education differences and none of the income or social class differences in vocabulary. We find some evidence that HLAs may be more salient for children from families with low income and lower social class backgrounds in terms of supporting vocabulary development, thereby compensating somewhat for disadvantage. HLAs also appear to encourage vocabulary development between age 3 and 5, and play a role in reducing the gap in vocabulary between high- and low-income children.

scholarly journals The Influence of Social Class on Family Participation in Children’s Education: A Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador R. Vazquez ◽  
Patricia M. Greenfield
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Family Participation ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Children's Education ◽  
Children’S Education

Parental involvement in children’s education is commonly accepted as beneficial. However, family social class plays a crucial role in the efficacy of homework help. In a comparative case study, a low-income immigrant family from Mexico and a middle-income family in Los Angeles were observed helping their children with math homework and were asked questions about goals, tutoring strategies, and beliefs about learning. Qualitative analysis focused on two effective teaching methods: scaffolding and productive struggle. The low-income mother with little formal education provided direct help rather than a scaffold, and disapproved of hard problems. However, an older sibling with more education than her mother used scaffolding and believed that difficult problems aid learning. In these respects, she resembled the college-educated middle-income mother. The sister exemplifies how older siblings in immigrant families provide bridges to educational achievement for younger siblings. We suggest effective ways for schools to involve parents who lacked educational opportunity themselves to participate in the education of their children.   How to cite this article: Vazquez, S. R., & Greenfield, P. M. (2021). The Influence of Social Class on Family Participation in Children’s Education: A Case Study. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 30(1), 133-147. https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v30n1.89185

scholarly journals Psychological Factors Related with Substance Use Among Regularly Drinking University Students with Low Income

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (183) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hatice Demirbaş ◽  
İnci Özgür İlhan ◽  
Fatma Yıldırım ◽  
Yıldırım Beyatlı Doğan
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
University Students ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Psychological Factors

scholarly journals The Influence of Social Class on University Students’ Prosocial Behavior Based on the Game Perspective

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Hao Ding ◽  
Feng Xu ◽  
Jia-Ming Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
University Students ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Trust Game ◽  
Design Experiment ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
The World ◽  
Research Objects

In the present research, based on the game research paradigm, the research tools are the dictator game and the trust game, and the research objects are Chinese university students. We adopt 2(self-social class: high, low) × 2(target social class: high, low) between-subjects design experiment to investigate the influence of social class on university students’ prosocial behavior. Across the experimental study, we find that (1) in the two situations of dictator game and trust game, self-social class has no significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior; (2) in the situation of dictator game, target social class has a significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior, and it is regulated by self-social class. Under the condition of low self-social class, the higher the target social class, the more prosocial behavior of university students, which confirms the perspective of status and negates “if you are poor, you will be good for yourself.” Under the condition of high self-social class, the lower the target social class, the more prosocial the behavior of university students, which confirms the perspective of fairness and echoes “if you are good, you will be good at the world”; (3) in the context of the trust game, target social class has a significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior, and there is no interaction effect with self-social class.

A Framework for Evaluating Children's Books About Poverty

2022 ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Danielle E. Hartsfield
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Middle Grades ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
One Step ◽  
Low Income Families

Enacting a class-sensitive pedagogy means disrupting negative discourses about social class and affirming the lives and experiences of children and families from poverty and the working class. One step that educators can take toward embracing a class-sensitive pedagogy is the inclusion of books with poor and working-class perspectives in the curriculum. This chapter describes a framework that educators can use to analyze and evaluate depictions of poor and working-class characters in books for children. This framework can support educators with selecting books that are respectful of and affirming to children from low-income families. In addition, the chapter offers book recommendations and approaches for integrating children's literature in elementary and middle grades classrooms.

A social identity perspective on the social-class achievement gap: Academic and social adjustment in the transition to university

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Veldman ◽  
Loes Meeussen ◽  
Colette van Laar
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Achievement Gap ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
University Students ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
First Generation ◽  
First Year ◽  
The Social ◽  
First Year University

First-generation students show lower academic performance at university compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research established the value in taking a social identity perspective on this social-class achievement gap, and showed that the gap can partly be explained by lower compatibility between social background and university identities that first- compared to continuing-generation students experience. The present paper aimed to increase insight into the processes through which this low identity compatibility leads to lower academic achievement by examining first-year university students’ adjustment to university in two key domains: the academic and the social domain. These were examined as two routes through which the social-class achievement gap may arise, and hence perpetuate this group-based inequality. Adjustment was examined both through students’ actual integration in the academic and social domains, and their internally experienced concerns about these domains at university. A longitudinal study among 674 first-year university students (13.6% first-generation) showed that first-generation students experienced lower identity compatibility in their first semester, which was in turn related to lower social, but not academic, integration. Lower identity compatibility was also related to more concerns about the social and academic domains at university. Low identity compatibility was directly related to lower academic achievement 1 year later, and this relationship was mediated only by lower social integration at university. These findings show that to understand, and hence reduce, the social-class achievement gap, it is important to examine how low identity compatibility can create difficulties in academic and particularly social adjustment at university with consequences for achievement.

Understanding studentification dynamics in low-income neighbourhoods: Students as gentrifiers in Concepción (Chile)

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (14) ◽  
pp. 2863-2879 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Prada
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Student Population ◽  
Dynamic Effects ◽  
University System ◽  
Urban Contexts

The studentification of neighbourhoods in university towns is a topic addressed in several studies, together with its varied effects. However, there are no contributions to this issue from the Latin American sphere, where the increase in the student population in recent decades constitutes one of the main sociodemographic changes of the region. This article analyses and interprets the changes produced in a marginal area, the neighbourhood of Agüita de la Perdiz (Concepción, Chile), as a consequence of the arrival of university students. From the application of a methodology that combines the use of quantitative and qualitative data, results obtained confirm the existence of some transformations similar to other case studies, together with other particular ones, explainable by the socially peripheral character and the informal origin of the neighbourhood analysed. Likewise, the quality of the Chilean university system would suppose segregation between students with more or less resources at the time for looking at lodging, so the profile of the students who stay in the neighbourhood is well defined. The conclusions indicate an emerging type of gentrification whose trigger was the arrival of students; an improving of the image of the neighbourhood is also observed in parallel to a deterioration of neighbourhood links. The study of this case contributes with new elements on the varied and dynamic effects of studentification in ‘peripheral’ urban contexts.

Given Names, Social Class, and Professional Achievement

1982 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 543-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank N. Willis ◽  
Lois A. Willis ◽  
Joseph A. Gier
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Professional Achievement ◽  
Black Poor

Previous research has shown that persons with unusual given names were more likely to have problems in personal and social adjustment. In the present study, given names were recorded for 2300 residents of high and low income areas and for 4000 professionals. Unique given names were more frequent for women, for the poor, and for blacks, and infrequent in the professions. The highest percentage of names not found in the professions occurred among the poor, especially the black poor.

“Why me?”: Low-Income Women’s Poverty Attributions, Mental Health, and Social Class Perceptions

Sex Roles ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 319-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin D. Mickelson ◽  
Emily Hazlett
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Low Income

Housing Inheritance and Inequality: A Response to Watt

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Hamnett
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Housing Tenure ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
The North ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Unemployed

Paul Watt's (1993) response to my article ‘A nation of inheritors?’ (Hamnett, 1991) raises some interesting and worthwhile questions about the class basis of housing inheritance which I would like to address and clarify. To recapitulate briefly, my article attempted to assess the validity of Saunders's (1986, 1990) arguments regarding the importance of home ownership and housing inheritance in the creation of a new consumption cleavage independent of social class. Using data from a survey of beneficiaries I argued that although housing inheritance is distributed across the class spectrum, the incidence of inheritance is far greater amongst home owners, higher social classes and those living in southern Britain (where home ownership is longer established) than it is among council tenants, the lower social classes and those living in the north. I argued that there is nothing inherent in a person's social class, housing tenure or location which makes inheritance more likely. On the contrary, the determinants of housing inheritance are influenced by the social characteristics of dying home owners. Because the structure of inheritance reflects the structure of property ownership a generation ago, current differences in the incidence of inheritance will reflect the class and tenure characteristics of the dying population and their relationship to the class and tenure characteristics of beneficiaries. The incidence of housing inheritance is higher among home owners and those in higher social classes because their parents are more likely to have been home owners. I went on to argue that because home ownership has become much more widely spread across the class spectrum over the last 40 years (Hamnett, 1984), the incidence of housing inheritance in 30–40 years' time is likely to be more widely spread than it is today. Thus, I concluded that whilst Saunders' arguments regarding the distribution of house inheritance are not empirically supported today, they may be more so in 30–40 years' time. I argued, however, that although housing inheritance was likely to be more widespread in future than it is today, the children of tenants were unlikely to inherit. Given the growing social residualisation of the council sector I argued that ‘the less skilled, the low income and the unemployed’ were likely to be excluded from inheritance.

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