Class Socioeconomic Composition and Low-SES Children’s Academic Achievement - What is the Role of Personality?

Details

Supervisors

Catherine Guirkinger ; Trudie Schils

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences économiques, orientation générale, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Moving low socioeconomic status (SES) students from classrooms predominantly composed of low-SES peers to classrooms with a higher concentration of high-SES peers can enhance their academic achievement. However, this transition can also create adverse psychological effects that negatively impact these students. Moreover, students’ different personality traits introduce variations in their susceptibility to different socioeconomic environments. Moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach, this study grasps the complex relationship between class socioeconomic composition and academic achievement among low-SES students, considering the mediative role of personality traits. Using a sample of 1803 6th grade students with low-SES attending primary schools in the Dutch province of Limburg, a Propensity Score Matching is employed to compare low-SES students’ performance across four different class compositions: low-, middle-, high-, and mixed-SES classes. A non-linear relationship is identified between class socioeconomic composition and low-SES students’ academic achievement. Specifically, low-SES students in middle-SES classes exhibit better academic outcomes compared to what they would have exhibited in low-SES or high-SES classes. Additionally, within low-SES environments, the study suggests the creation of heterogeneous classes instead of homogeneous classes. Among the Big-Five Traits examined, only Openness to Experience and Neuroticism stand out as significant predictors of academic performance and as mediators of the main relationship here studied across the four different class types. The study also shows that, when low-SES children are surrounded by a majority of middle- and high-SES students, Conscientiousness is also found to be a negative predictor of their academic achievement, potentially explained by the Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect. However, once these kids are a minority, Conscientiousness is neither beneficial nor harmful for those in middle-SES classes instead of high-SES classes, and vice-versa.