Socioeconomic status

Recently, research has revealed a lesser-recognized attribute of SES as perceived financial stress, as it defines the "balance between income and necessary expenses".

[6] Socioeconomic status is typically broken into three levels (high, middle, and low) to describe the three places a family or an individual may fall into.

Youth in poorer households are particularly at risk for many health and social problems in the United States, such as unwanted pregnancies, addiction, drug abuse, diabetes and obesity.

[7] Additionally, low income and education have been shown to be strong predictors of a range of physical and mental health problems, including, meningitis, respiratory viruses, arthritis, coronary disease, and psychosis, schizophrenia.

Income can also come in the form of unemployment or worker's compensation, social security, pensions, interests or dividends, royalties, trusts, alimony, or other governmental, public, or family financial assistance.

Families with higher and expendable income can accumulate wealth and focus on meeting immediate needs while being able to consume and enjoy luxuries and weather crises.

Higher levels of education are associated with better economic and psychological outcomes (i.e.: more income, more control, and greater social support and networking).

Viewing students as individuals rather than associating them with a specific SES group may help mitigate potential biases and contribute to more equitable educational outcomes.

In sum, the majority of researchers agree that income, education and occupation together best represent SES, while some others feel that changes in family structure should also be considered.

There exists a racial wealth gap due in part to income disparities and differences in achievement resulting from institutional discrimination.

A third reason Shapiro offers for the racial wealth gap are the various discriminations African Americans must face, like redlining and higher interest rates in the housing market.

This correlation suggests that it is not only the poor who tend to be sick when everyone else is healthy, but that there is a continual gradient, from the top to the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, relating status to health.

Parents with a low socioeconomic status cannot afford many of the health care resources which is the reason that their children may have a more advanced illness because of the lack of treatment.

Furthermore, it has been noted that no amount of medical attention will help decrease the likelihood of someone getting type 2 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis—yet both are more common among populations with lower socioeconomic status.

[27] Socioeconomic status (usually measured using the three variables income or wealth, occupational level, and years of education) correlates negatively with criminality, except for self-reported illegal drug use.

Hence, in order to understand the patterns of violence that actually occur, it is imperative to study the social experiences of those who engage in it (Athens 1992).The environment of low SES children is characterized by less dialogue from parents, minimal amounts of book reading, and few instances of joint attention, the shared focus of the child and adult on the same object or event, when compared to the environment of high SES children.

[37] Language ability differs sharply as a function of SES, for example, the average vocabulary size of 3-year-old children from professional families was more than twice as large as for those on welfare.

[39] This eventually leads children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to be at a disadvantage when comparing them with their counterparts in terms of access to physical activities.

The linguistic environment of low and high SES children differs substantially, which affects many aspects of language and literacy development such as semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology.

Children of high SES have larger expressive vocabularies by the age of 24 months due to more efficient processing of familiar words.

[47] This lag in the sentence formation abilities of low SES children may be caused by less frequent exposure to complex syntax through parental speech.

[51] Since 2012, there has also been some research on the Shift-and-persist model, which attempts to account for the counterintuitive positive health outcomes that can occur in individuals who grow up in low SES families.

Parenting at home plays a role in shaping emotional, physical and mental health, all things that are extremely important to educational success in the classroom.

This is a crucial factor that must be acknowledged by educators because boundaries such as constant parenting stress and approach to learning, for example, have a major impact on the students' literacy development.

The US Department of Labor revealed that layoffs that occurred during the COVID 19 pandemic had the biggest impact on historically minorities groups, which include Black, Latino, low income workers, and women.

[60] Comparing this 2013 report to the occurrences existing in 2020 are not very different given that the demographic students still experience this "digital gap" and disproportionate lack in access to the internet and/or technological equipment necessary.

[59] Without access to the correct materials at home, including books and digital tools, students cannot perform as well in reading literacy as their more privileged classmates.

[62] When comparing different social statuses of families, the environment of a neighborhood turns out to be a major factor in contributing to the growth of a child.

The number of children reading below grade and the presence of low-income peers were consistently associated with initial achievement and growth rates.

This may lead to greater feelings of independence, making individuals of high SES less inclined to gain rapport with conversational partners because they are less likely to need their assistance in the future.

An 1880 painting by Jean-Eugène Buland showing a stark contrast in socioeconomic status