School of Psychology, University of Sussex, UK.
Faculty of Behavioural, Management, and Social Science, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
Br J Educ Psychol. 2022 Sep;92(3):1178-1195. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12494. Epub 2022 Mar 1.
School students who are eligible for reduced or free school meals (FSM) - an indicator of economic disadvantage - have lower academic attainment than their peers.
We investigated whether identity compatibility - the perceived compatibility between one's social identities and the stereotype of a high-achieving student - contributes to this socioeconomic attainment gap, and whether the association between socioeconomic status and identity compatibility is moderated by school context.
Our sample was 4,629 students aged 15-16 years old across 29 schools in England.
We assessed students' perceptions of identity compatibility via self-report questionnaires 8 months prior to them taking national, standardized exams.
Multilevel regression analyses revealed a negative indirect effect from eligibility for FSM to exam results via identity compatibility. These effects existed even while accounting for students' gender and language status, other psychological variables known to predict academic attainment, and their previous exam results. Furthermore, school context moderated the relationship between FSM eligibility and identity compatibility. In line with the identities in context model of educational inequalities, there was a significant negative association between FSM and identity compatibility only for students attending schools in which there was previously a relatively large socioeconomic attainment gap.
Our results demonstrate the importance of social psychological variables in explaining educational inequalities, and of the local educational context in determining the educational experience of students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds.
有资格享受减免或免费学校膳食（FSM）的学校学生——这是经济劣势的一个指标——他们的学业成绩低于同龄人。
我们调查了身份兼容性（一个人自己的社会身份与高成就学生的刻板印象之间的感知兼容性）是否导致了这种社会经济成就差距，以及社会经济地位和身份兼容性之间的关联是否受到学校背景的调节。
我们的样本是英格兰 29 所学校的 4629 名 15-16 岁的学生。
我们通过自我报告问卷评估了学生对身份兼容性的看法，这些问卷是在他们参加全国标准化考试前 8 个月进行的。
多层次回归分析显示，从 FSM 的资格到通过身份兼容性到考试成绩存在负向间接效应。即使考虑到学生的性别和语言状况、已知预测学业成绩的其他心理变量以及他们之前的考试成绩，这些影响仍然存在。此外，学校背景调节了 FSM 资格和身份兼容性之间的关系。根据教育不平等的情境中的身份模型，只有在那些之前存在较大社会经济成就差距的学校中，FSM 与身份兼容性之间才存在显著的负相关。
我们的研究结果表明，社会心理变量在解释教育不平等方面很重要，而且当地教育背景在决定来自社会经济地位较低背景的学生的教育体验方面也很重要。
