In plain language
Getting along with others — sharing, cooperating, managing conflict — matters enormously for how children do in school and later in work. We know that children from wealthier families tend to show better social adjustment, but surprisingly little research has asked whether the socioeconomic makeup of the school a child attends is also linked to their social development.
Using the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, the researchers followed 9,369 children from age 4 to age 8. They tested whether the average socioeconomic status (SES) of a child's school predicted parent- and teacher-reported social skills at age 8, after controlling for the child's own social adjustment at age 4, family SES, and other background factors.
Children attending more advantaged schools showed more prosocial behavior and fewer peer and conduct problems. Critically, this advantage was concentrated almost entirely among children from lower-SES families — consistent with the idea that children assimilate to the social norms of their school context. The findings suggest that school socioeconomic segregation may be one route through which social inequality is transmitted, and that disadvantaged children may benefit most from attending socioeconomically mixed or advantaged schools.
Key findings
- In a longitudinal sample of 9,369 Australian children (51% boys) followed from age 4 to 8, higher school-average SES predicted better social adjustment at age 8, controlling for age 4 social adjustment and family background.
- Children from more advantaged schools were more likely to show better prosocial behavior and fewer peer problems and conduct problems.
- A family SES by school SES interaction showed the benefit of an advantaged school context was present only for children from lower-SES backgrounds.
- Regions-of-significance analyses showed significant school-context associations almost exclusively among students from lower-SES families; children with the lowest SES benefited most from a wealthier school context.
- Results replicated across both parent and teacher reports of social adjustment, despite modest agreement between the two sources.
- The pattern was consistent with assimilation mechanisms (children adopting the social norms of their school context) rather than contrast effects.
How to cite
APA
Parker, P., Sanders, T., Anders, J., Shure, N., Jerrim, J., Noetel, M., Parker, R., Ciarrochi, J., & Marsh, H. (2023). School socioeconomic status context and social adjustment in children. Developmental Psychology, 59(1), 15-29. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001463
BibTeX
@article{parker2023school,
author = {Parker, Philip and Sanders, Taren and Anders, Jake and Shure, Nikki and Jerrim, John and Noetel, Michael and Parker, Rhiannon and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Marsh, Herb},
title = {School socioeconomic status context and social adjustment in children},
journal = {Developmental Psychology},
year = {2023},
volume = {59},
number = {1},
pages = {15--29},
doi = {10.1037/dev0001463}
}
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Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.