University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Br J Educ Psychol. 2019 Jun;89(2):343-358. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12242. Epub 2018 Sep 5.
Children growing up in poverty tend to perform worse in school than their more economically advantaged peers.
The current study integrates an educational theory of motivation and an evolutionary theory of life history strategies to examine how economic disadvantage predicts children's mathematics achievement through their academic beliefs and values.
Participants were 1,536 students (M = 12.88) in a large metropolitan city in the United States.
Economic disadvantage was assessed via school reports of the student being eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch during the 2014-2015 school year (i.e., at or below 185% of the federal poverty line). Students reported on their perceived interest, usefulness, and cost of learning mathematics during the first half of the 2015-2016 school year (August to December). Mathematics achievement for both school years was assessed via school reports of mathematics grades.
Children receiving free or reduced-price lunch showed higher perceived cost of learning mathematics, and this in turn predicted changes in mathematics achievement over time, indirect effect = -0.57, 95% CI (-0.97, -0.23). However, neither interest nor perceived usefulness or ability in mathematics mediated the association between economic disadvantage and changes in mathematics achievement.
Results underscore the potential for interventions to target students' perceived cost of learning as a way to increase school engagement, particularly among disadvantaged students.
在贫困中成长的儿童在学校的表现往往不如经济条件较好的同龄人。
本研究综合了动机的教育理论和生活史策略的进化理论，考察了经济劣势如何通过儿童的学业信念和价值观来预测他们的数学成绩。
参与者是美国一个大城市的 1536 名学生（M=12.88）。
经济劣势通过学校报告评估，报告中记录了学生在 2014-2015 学年是否有资格获得免费或降价午餐（即，在联邦贫困线的 185%以下）。学生在 2015-2016 学年上半年（8 月至 12 月）报告了他们对学习数学的感知兴趣、有用性和成本。两个学年的数学成绩都通过学校报告的数学成绩来评估。
享受免费或降价午餐的儿童表现出更高的学习数学成本感知，而这反过来又预测了数学成绩随时间的变化，间接效应=-0.57，95%CI（-0.97，-0.23）。然而，兴趣、感知有用性或数学能力都没有中介经济劣势与数学成绩变化之间的关联。
结果强调了针对学生学习成本感知的干预措施的潜力，作为提高学校参与度的一种方式，特别是针对处境不利的学生。
