Young Children’s Prosocial Behavior Protects Against Academic Risk in Neighborhoods with Low Socio-Economic Status

• In Event: Investigating the effects of social context on individual differences in children’s educational outcomes

Abstract

Introduction: Children raised in neighborhoods with low socio-economic status (SES) face heightened risk for low academic achievement (Minh et al., 2017). Identifying factors during early childhood that protect against academic risk in low SES neighborhoods is crucial for informing interventions to reduce educational disparities (Masten & Barnes, 2018). Children’s prosocial behavior—i.e., the propensity to act generously towards others—has been directly associated with positive academic adjustment (Carlo et al., 2018). In addition, children’s prosocial behavior has been shown to protect against (i.e., moderate) risk for emotional problems in low SES neighborhoods (Flouri & Sarmadi, 2016). However, it is currently unknown whether prosocial behavior may similarly protect against risks for academic difficulties. We draw on a large, longitudinal, diverse sample of young children in the UK, to investigate whether prosocial behavior serves as a protective factor against academic risks in low SES neighborhoods.

Method: Our sample was drawn from Born in Bradford, a longitudinal multi-ethnic birth cohort in northern England (N = 1,175; 50% Female, 35% White, 51% South Asian, 9% other ethnicities; Wright et al., 2012). To index neighborhood SES, children’s home addresses at age 4 were linked to the socio-economic Index of Multiple Deprivation (McLennan et al., 2019), an official measure of neighborhood affluence in England based on income, employment, health, education, crime, and living environment (310 neighborhoods ranked 1-10). Children’s prosocial behavior was assessed via teacher report at age 4, using the 5-item subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman et al., 1998). We used three Academic Outcomes. Early learning goals represented children’s scores on a teacher-led observational assessment that includes six areas of learning (e.g., emotional development) at age 4. Phonics skills was teacher-led assessment at age 5. Academic performance, represented children’s scores on a standardized school-based exam that includes math, reading, and science subscales at age 7. We controlled for child gender and ethnicity and family SES (income and maternal education).

Results: Table 1 displays linear regression results. Neighborhood SES and prosocial behavior were positively associated with early learning goals, phonics skills, and academic performance. In addition, the interaction between neighborhood SES and prosocial behavior was significantly associated with phonics skills and academic performance, and marginally associated with early learning goals. Specifically, neighborhood SES was positively associated with academic achievement for children with lower levels of prosocial behavior, but not for children with higher levels of prosocial behavior. See Example Figure 1.

Conclusion: Neighborhood adversity was associated with concurrent and subsequent academic risk (i.e., lower performance) only among children who displayed low levels of prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior may be a protective factor for the academic achievement of children faced with limited contextual resources and educational opportunities. Consistent with an adaptive systems perspective of resilience (Masten & Barnes, 2018), prosocial behaviors may be a specific potential target for enhancing behavioral interventions aimed at supporting children in the face of academic risk (Gregory & Fergus, 2017). In addition, interventions targeting children on the neighborhood level may be beneficial as young as age 4.

Authors

• Emma Armstrong-Carter, Stanford University
  Presenting Author

• Jonas G. Miller, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Liam JB Hill, University of Leeds
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ben Domingue
  Non-Presenting Author