We know socioeconomic disadvantage has an impact in the classroom. Decades of research shows that children from economically poorer backgrounds are more likely to experience mental and physical health problems, as well as poorer education outcomes across their lifetimes.
But have you ever considered the impact that this disadvantage has on children’s social lives? New research from the University of Cambridge suggests you should.
Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer is a PhD student in the department of psychology at the university, and, with others, she has found a link between pupils’ economic disadvantage and the social difficulties they face.
The research took data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which follows the lives of around 19,000 children born at the turn of the century, and asks them a range of questions at different stages of their lives.
Aged 11, they were asked questions about self-esteem, wellbeing, emotional difficulties, peer problems, bullying, victimisation and externalising difficulties (which include hyperactivity and conduct disorders).
The link between disadvantage and social relationships
They were also asked about how they perceive their family income in comparison with others: whether they thought their family was poorer, richer or the same as other families. Objective socioeconomic status was also taken into account, by looking at the children’s equivalised weekly family income.
Piera Pi-Sunyer and her co-author, Dr Jack Andrews, a PHD student in neuroscience and mental health at University College London, analysed both sets of answers to see if there was a link between the two, and if it changed as children got older. They found that lower socioeconomic status is associated with poorer mental health and social difficulties at the age of 11 - but so is perceived lower socioeconomic status.
“Adolescents who perceived themselves as poorer in comparison to their friends’ families had worse wellbeing and self-esteem. They internalised and externalised difficulties more, and were victimised more than those who perceived themselves as either richer, the same, or said they didn’t know,” Piera Pi-Sunyer explains.
This is important, she adds, because it suggests that “perceived economic inequalities”, as well as actual economic inequalities, have an influence on children’s mental health and on their “close relationships”.
In other words, children who come from a poorer background - or at least believe they do - may find it harder to form and maintain close friendships than those who are from more affluent backgrounds.
However, Piera Pi-Sunyer stresses, it isn’t only children from the most disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds who may be affected - it is also those at the other end of the scale.
In fact, the study consistently found that those who perceive themselves as “the same” as their friends had the least difficulties across all the mental health outcomes, but especially for interpersonal problems.
“This suggests that for some of these outcomes, it’s not only perceiving oneself as coming from a poorer family, but rather a different one from friends which puts you at an increased risk,” Piera Pi-Sunyer says.
But why, exactly, is this happening?
“One hypothesis is that those who feel economically different from their friends might be interpreting this as a risk to their group belonging, which is very important to adolescents,” says Piera Pi-Sunyer. “It might be this lack of belonging, or perceiving difference, which might be increasing the salience of inequalities and be putting them at risk of lower mental health.”
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The study suggests that this is certainly an issue at age 11. But what about beyond that?
Well, the researchers found that the association between perceived socioeconomic status and close relationships wasn’t there at age 14. In fact, they found that being victimised decreased to a greater extent for those who perceived themselves as poor aged 11.
It’s hard to say why this is, Piera Pi-Sunyer explains. We do know, however, that between the ages of 11 and 14, social groups are constantly changing, which means that, by the age of 14, children “may have different people to compare themselves with”.
Alternatively, she adds, friendships may simply have had time to develop, or young people may be prioritising different qualities when it comes to measuring themselves against others.
“It could actually be that even if their social groups are not changing, maybe their perceived disadvantages are changing or their relationships are stronger,” she explains. “They may find other indicators of belonging or simply don’t see inequalities in their economic background any more, because they prioritise other things. They might be constructing this idea of their disadvantage in a different way.”
Ultimately, though, we need further research to investigate the causes in more detail, she concludes.
Pupils perceiving themselves as different
One of the limitations of the research was that at the age of 14, the Millennium Cohort Study didn’t ask adolescents the same question on perceived disadvantage, so this research couldn’t directly compare the ages. Another limitation is that this was based on correlational research, and, therefore, no causal link can be made.
“We can say that those who perceive themselves as poor were also experiencing worse mental health, but we can’t say that it’s because they perceive themselves as poor that their mental health is worse,” Piera Pi-Sunyer explains.
“It could be that those who have less self-esteem are actually perceiving themselves as being poor, because of the lower self-esteem. So we can’t make any causal links, just correlational, and association conclusions.”
What, then, are the implications for the classroom?
A key takeaway, she says, is recognising that just as teachers are aware of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in their classrooms, at the age of 11, so are the students.
“It’s important to interpret these results in collaboration with teachers, who are the experts, and to ask them how they think that reducing salience of economic disparities in classrooms could increase inclusion amongst students of different backgrounds,” says Piera Pi-Sunyer.
Another takeaway might be the importance of paying attention to all children’s perceptions of their economic status, and to consider not just the impact this might have on their learning but also on how they relate to the other children in your class.
It’s not just about knowing which pupils are on the free school meals or pupil premium registers, then. It’s about looking more closely at who might feel singled out from their peers - and how they might be struggling with the effects of that perceived difference.
