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Socio-Economic Status and Education

Factors Influencing Education

Socio-economic status is an influential factor in a student’s educational experience and success. Factors which stem from one’s socio-economic background and influence educational experiences include economic capital, cultural capital, social capital, and individual traits and behaviors.

Economic Capital

Economic capital, or how much money, property, and assets one accumulates is directly correlated with educational benefits. Areas with a high concentration of economic capital will have more educational funding because the funding is coming from property taxes. Conversely, areas with low economic capital will have less funding for their schools. Economic capital can also provide access to a place in the home designated to study, resources that help promote learning, and a safety net to fall back on if family problems arise.

Cultural Capital

Cultural capital, as defined by Pierre Bourdieu, refers to one’s knowledge of the dominant culture, language use, and behavior styles. The amount of cultural capital one has is highly correlated with parental cultural capital. Middle class families who have more cultural capital have an advantage when obtaining educational credentials. Lower-class families parenting styles often aim at the “accomplishment of natural growth” where they provide their children with the means to thrive such as food, safety, and love, and are firmer when giving direction or discipline, which in turn produces a sense of constraint. Thus, middle class children are more likely to ask for help directly and promptly, which in turn leads to an advantage on assignments, more help from teachers, and less time spent waiting for the teacher.

Students with higher SES indeed tend to have higher GPAs, but whether or not this is due to cultural capital attainment is still controversial. Another possible explanation for the difference in educational success seen between socio-economic classes are the aspirations held for white collar jobs, which provides a positive and significant effect on education, or the lack thereof. While having high aspirations has been shown to produce an increase of .196 in GPA, the accumulation of cultural capital has shown a much less significant increase in GPA of .013 points.

Social Capital

Social capital is the ability to gain membership into a social network through social interactions. Inequality is reproduced through the differences in how much social capital exists among students. Social capital can manifest itself in different forms including what one is expected or obliged to do, one’s access to information, and social norms. The beneficial effects of existing relationships among adults and students outside of school were shown in a study which observed lower drop-out rates for those who attended a catholic school who frequented religious events compared to those who did not often attend religious events and those who attended a private school without access to the same interactions with adults outside of school. Similar effects were seen among denominations of other religions.