Introduction
A person’s socioeconomic status (SES) refers to their standing in society or within a specific group. While this may assert reference toward financial security and social class, studies continue to implore that this standing in the community affects academic performance. The truth is that socioeconomic status means having a positive influence in society which may create a bedrock for a quality of life that provides opportunities in the form of privilege. On the opposite side of the spectrum, poverty and a deficiency of options are apparent in academic success. It is the result of a myriad of psychosocial and physical factors. The paper offers an outlook into which SES factors correlate and inhibit academic achievement through their impact on societies, families, and psychological health.
Discussion
The first explanation is that SES refers to a way of life that holistically affects the functioning of a society. When an individual has a low social standing, their lifestyle is likely to be dull and listless, with attributes such as poor health and a shortage of resources at an individual level. The bird’s eye view of the situation is more profound as unequal distribution of resources and healthcare incentives significantly negatively impact the quality of life as they contribute to the growth of poverty (van der Weide & Milanovic, 2018). The inability of some demographics riddled with deficiency to commit to education stems from the struggle to acquire basic needs, hence the reflection of poor academic performances.
The second explanation features the dissection of families and how they eventually integrate with SES to define education attainment. An analysis of child development in a family with a low SES standing before the beginning of formal education depicts limited opportunities to expand one’s vocabulary and mind-processing capabilities. The child in that family ends up developing at a slower pace compared to one who got exposed to the various informal education platforms available before school begins. That disparity in SES levels creates a significant schism in academic excellence when they eventually go to school, and the more results-oriented education begins to define their achievements (Dolean et al., 2019). It points to the failure to recognize that early reading is a skill that requires nurturing with exposure to new material, especially in the form of well as family engagement.
Lastly, there are the psychological ways through which SES manages to infiltrate a student’s capabilities and psychologically impede their ability to deliver academically. A clear instance is a family unable to provide a sustainable environment in the home for cognitive development without their financial constraints manifesting. The student will not be in a position to deliver academically, unlike a student from the higher end of the SES spectrum who has every opportunity to deliver. Another factor under the psychological attributes is the manifestation of learning-related issues in low-end SES families. While it is still novel, research shows poor executive function for low SES children in childhood and adolescence (Moriguchi & Shinohara, 2019). Still, it reflects that future studies continue to explore how much influence SES can have on a child’s cognitive skills and overall psychological development.
Conclusion
There are various explanations for the correlation between the family’s SES and how it affects their child’s academic achievements. From a societal point of view, there is the negative impact of inequality which propagates poverty and inadequate resources to seize available opportunities. Family setups contribute to this SES-academics connection by failing to nurture through family engagement. At the same time, psychological factors explain the mental aspect of low-SES and high-SES getting affected by their backgrounds. The correlation between the family’s SES and their child’s performance is there. Still, it is more plausible that more studies from a psychological perspective will reveal more unknown ties.
References
Dolean, D., Melby-Lervåg, M., Tincas, I., Damsa, C., & Lervåg, A. (2019). Achievement gap: Socioeconomic status affects reading development beyond language and cognition in children facing poverty.Learning And Instruction, 63, 101218. Web.
Moriguchi, Y., & Shinohara, I. (2019). Socioeconomic disparity in prefrontal development during early childhood.Scientific Reports, 9(1). Web.
van der Weide, R., & Milanovic, B. (2018). Inequality is Bad for Growth of the Poor (but Not for That of the Rich). The World Bank Economic Review, 32(3), 507-530.