Lower-class Children Research Articles

Emotional disturbance in unplanned versus planned children.

In 2 studies, 2 samples of planned and unplanned children (mean ages, 13.45 and 13.27), matched for education and divided into middle and lower class, were compared for emotional disturbances. Also, in the 2nd study, mothers were compared for neuroticism and attitudes to the child, and family size was determined. The comparisons were made on the basis of personality inventories completed by the children, questionnaires completed by their teachers, and personality and attitude surveys taken by their mothers. Hypotheses were: 1) unplanned children would be significantly more emotionally disturbed than planned ones (confirmed), 2) mothers of unplanned children would be significantly more neurotic and rejecting than mothers of planned ones (not confirmed), 3) unplanned children would belong to significantly larger families (confirmed). Unplanned children scored higher for emotional disturbance, particularly the lower class children; it is suggested that the greater the adversity of circumstance of the family, the more negative the effects of unplanned status will be on emotional adjustment.

The Relation of Serial Recall Performance to Verbal and Nonverbal Encoding Strategies in Middle- and Lower-Class Children

LACHER, MIRIAM R. The Relation of Serial Recall Performance to Verbal and Nonverbal Encoding Strategies in Middleand Lower-Class Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 445-451. On the assumption that verbal production deficiency reflects engagement of nonverbal mnemonics, it is hypothesized that young children's verbal or nonverbal mnemonic encoding varies with socialized preferences and susceptibility of recall arrays to each representational mode. Effects of action content and verbal codability of stimulus pictures, parental occupational status, and verbal intelligence upon nonverbal serial recall were investigated in white first graders. Overt and reported verbalization and recall were higher for pictured static objects than for action pictures, and higher for arrays higher in verbal codability than for arrays lower in codability. Recall mode and scores were unrelated to social class. Middle-class boys manifested less overt verbalization during recall and boys higher in intelligence manifested more agreement in labeling pictures than less intelligent lower-class boys.

Social Class, Development, and Differences in Reinforcer Effectiveness

The variety of stimuli that serve as reinforcers in our day-today lives is virtually endless. Yet, when it comes to instructing or experimenting with lower-class children, reinforcement frequently narrows to a class of material objects that are presumed to be most effective with this group. Candies, cookies, toys, tokens, trinkets, and money have been used in programs to improve the academic and social behavior of lower-class children (Chan, Chin, & Mueller, 1970; Hechinger, 1973; Risley, 1968; Risley & Hart, 1968; and Staats & Butterfield, 1965). Interest in tangible reinforcers for lower-class children may be due in part to the mounting evidence that, when used as directed, these incentives and reinforcers can result in significant

Comprehension and production of standard and Black English by lower-class Black children.

Comprehension and production of standard and Black English by lower-class Black children.

Resolving contradictory findings on sex and social class differences in children's responses to reinforcement

Contradictory results have been reported on the effectiveness of various reinforcers with children of different ages and socioeconomic classes. The present study considered the relative effectiveness of two types of verbal and one type of tangible reinforcement on a two-choice discrimination task (marble-in-the-hole) for preschool children. IQ and operant level were treated as covariates and accounted for the observed differences in performance between the 24 middle-class and 24 lower-class children and between the 24 males and 24 females. Disparate findings of previous studies regarding sex and social class differences might have been reconciled if baseline and IQ had been considered.

The effects of labeled and unlabeled praise upon lower and middle class children

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of two types of content of praise, labeled and unlabeled, with lower and middle class children. Following two brief observation periods designed to assess differences in the frequency with which lower and middle class mothers employed labeled and unlabeled praise, each mother played the marble-in-the-hole game with her child. Half of the mothers in each group were given labeled and half were given unlabeled praise statements to make contingent upon their child dropping marbles in a particuler hole. The results indicated that the children were more responsive to labeled than to unlabeled praise. The mothers from the two socioeconomic groups did not differ in the frequency with which they employed labeled and unlabeled praise in the initial observation periods.

Effects of Three Variables on the Performance of Middle- and Lower-Class Children in Discriminating Similar Letters in Words

Ninety 4-year-olds were given a matching-to-standard pretest to determine the degree to which they confused similar letters. All Ss except the control group were trained on matching trigrams in sessions that varied in three ways: (1) the letter distinguishing the two choices differed by one or many features; (2) the standard was present or absent when S tried to match it; and (3) the S did or did not have the overlay procedure, the opportunity to place his choice over the standard. The initial test was readministered to all Ss. The overlay procedure significantly improved posttest scores. Components of the error totals were differentially influenced by the variables. No overall differences in the effect of the variables were found by social class.

The significance of stimuli on conservation of number with educable mentally retarded children.

Summary. This investigation studied the differential effects of the significance of stimuli on educable mentally retarded (EMR) children in a conservation of number experiment. The sample consisted of 30 low and 30 middle SES children attending classes for the EMR. The effect of using candies or paper‐clips was investigated in Piaget's one‐to‐one correspondence task. A significant interaction between SES and the significance of stimuli was found. This was discussed in terms of the possible misdiagnosis of lower class children, multiple criteria diagnostic procedures, and the relevance of cues.

Black and White Children's Free Recall of Unorganized and Organized Lists: Jensen's Level I and Level II

Jensen1 has proposed two theories of mental ability-one to account for differences in performance between low and middle class children and the other to explain discrepancies between black and white populations. Postulations about educational procedures derivable from these hypotheses have serious implications that rote learning would be advocated for a large number of school children. In the theory of social class differences, mental abilities are aligned along a continuum from associative, rote learning (Level I) to conceptual learning (Level II). Level I ability is exhibited on tasks requiring verbatim reproduction of information. Tasks where spontaneous transformation or reorganization of information is needed prior to responding reflect Level II ability. Level I ability is distributed about equally within each social class. On the other hand, Level II ability is not distributed equally between the socioeconomic status groups; this ability is greater for the middle class. Apparently, this difference in capability results from differences in the genetic pools of the two populations, for Jensen has indicated that Level II development depends upon experience and certain neural structures.2 The neural (genetic) structures associated with Level II ability are seen as being different from the genetic structures underlying Level I ability. Following from the social class-difference hypothesis, middle class children would achieve higher performance on conceptual

Environment—A Factor in Conceptual Listening Skills of Elementary School Children

An attempt was made to determine the role of environment in elementary school children's identification of selected musical concepts through aural experience with orchestral literature. A listening test was developed for this purpose, as well as a pilot study that was conducted with two fourth grade populations from constrasting socioeconomic backgrounds. Results from the investigation showed that the middle-class fourth grade children scored significantly higher on the listening test than did the lower-class children. Among the variables tested, multiple regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between mental age and musical concept identification for the middle-class children. The test itself, while proving acceptable in terms of reliability for the middle-class children, did not prove so for the lower-class children because no significant relationships among any of the variables were found. The results of this study reaffirm the necessity to continue the development of appropriate materials and methods to teach music to lower-class children.

The reaction to frustration of middle- and lower-class children

Preschool age, white children from lower and middle socioeconomic backgrounds were exposed separately to the same operant analog of the Amsel “double alley” procedure. Two measures of responding, latency of press and pressing rate, were taken following frustration and reward of prior responding. The middle-class children responded slower, in both measures, on nonrewarded compared to rewarded trials, a reversal of the more frequently observed frustration effect (FE). The lower-class children, by contrast, showed the usual FE, shorter response latencies following frustrative nonreward. The FE was not observed with the rate measure. The obtained socioeconomic class difference in reaction to frustration was discussed in terms of the possible relationship to class differences in perceived locus of control of reinforcement. An alternative explanation relating the results to the maximizing vs response patterning behavior in three-choice probability learning tasks was also discussed.

Ses Differences in Effects of Brief Social Satiation

Summary Two previous studies which supported a cognitive interpretation of the social deprivation-satiation effect with middle class children were replicated with lower class Ss. In the first experiment 40 middle class and 40 lower class children were given a social deprivation or a satiation treatment, followed by a binary discrimination test, given either by the same or by another E. In the second experiment, 74 middle class and 74 lower class Ss were given information about their E's “reinforcing habits” prior to the treatment. In that experiment both treatment and test were given by the same E. The findings for the middle class samples were as follows: the deprivation-satiation effect was person-specific, not generalizable from one E to another; the informational input caused a deprivation-satiation like effect and modified the effect of actual treatments on subsequent performance. The lower class children reacted mostly to the most immediate, salient, and concrete aspects of the situation. The intang...

Responses of lower- and middle-class 5-yr-old children to achromatic and chromatic color and form stimuli.

Form and color sorting by 80 5-yr.-olds was unaffected by sex or race but middle-class children showed a significant preference for form, lower-class children for color, regardless of whether stimuli were chromatic or achromatic.

Race, Socioeconomic Status and Creativity

Torrance's Thinking Creatively With Pictures, Form A was administered to 52 black and 59 white eighth grade children of lower and middle socioeconomic status respectively. Black lower-class children performed significantly better on the measures of fluency and originality.

The Validity of the “Different Language Explanation” for Poor Scholastic Performance by Black Students

There have been many hypotheses concerning trie antecedents of poor school performance of lower-class black children. One of those most frequently mentioned concerns their language. There is controversy, however, as to the aspects of the language which cause the difficulty. When intervention projects were being initiated in the early 1960's, several psychologists suggested that the language of the lower-class child was inadequate for learning the skills necessary for school or even for thinking (for statements of this sort see Brottman, 1968). That is, the inference was made that the language used by the lower-class child was to that of the middle-class child. Linguists, psycholinguists, social linguists, and some psychologists, however, have taken issue with this position on several counts. First, linguists point out that the language of the lower-class child may be different, but there is no evidence that it is inferior. Indeed linguists have found that there are far more linguistic universals than differences. In fact, even the most primitive tribes have language systems as complicated as Standard English (SE). These linguists, for example, Chomsky, take the viewpoint that the ability to develop language is unique to the human being and that each child is endowed with a language acquisition device that makes it possible for him to acquire the rules that allow him to process and generate his language. Thus, there are no inferior languages. This position has received empirical support from a number of respected sources (Lenneberg, 1967; Chomsky, 1965, 1968; McNeill, 1970). Additional support of this position has been presented by sociolinguists who point out that many of the language samples gathered from lower-class subjects were recorded in school, not in situations where the lower-class children exhibit their most complex language behavior. When the lower-class black child is observed in a number of more natural settings, he exhibits a language that contains all of the complexities of the language spoken by middle-class white children (Houston, 1970; Labov, Cohen, Robins, & Lewis, 1968). Finally, there is some question as to the role that language itself plays in cognitive ability. More specifically, Piagetian theory and theorists have suggested that language may not be necessary for solving complex tasks.

The Effects of Sex, Socioeconomic Class, Experimenter Race, and Kind of Verbal Reinforcement on the Performance of Black Children

Evidence has been presented which indicates that verbal reinforcers classified as emphasizing praise have a differential effect from those which emphasize correctness (Zigler and Kanzer, 1962; Rosehan and Greenwald, 1965). The results of Zigler and Kanzer, and Rosehan and Greenwald are at variance in regard to how their reinforcers, praise and correctness are affected by the sex and socioeconomic class of the subject. Zigler and Kanzer's results indicated a significant interaction (p < .02) between kind of reinforcer and socioeconomic class with praise reinforcers more effective for lowerthan for middle-class children, and correctness reinforcers more effective for middlethan for lower-class children. Neither the main effect of socioeconomic class nor the main effect of class of verbal reinforcer was significant. Zigler and Kanzer suggest that: . . .the lower class seven-year-old child is developmentally lower than the seven-year-old middle-class child in that he has not made a transition in which reinforcers signifying correctness replace praise reinforcers in the reinforcer hierarchy. (p. 161) The results of Rosenhan and Greenwald do not support the Zigler-Kanzer findings of interaction between kind of reinforcer and socioeconomic class, nor did they find main effects with the variables of sex, socioeconomic class or kind of reinforcement. However, Rosenhan and Greenwald did obtain a significant interaction (p < .02) between sex of S and socioeconomic class with middle-class girls and lower-class boys being more responsive to both kinds of verbal reinforcers than were middle-class boys and

Socioeconomic Differences in Guessing Strategy on a Binary-Choice Task

Abstract Because they live in an environment affording fewer rewards for problemsolving behavior, it was hypothesized that lower-class children have come to expect a lower degree of success than their middle-class peers. A binary-choice, card task was used to test the hypothesis with lower- and middle-class kindergarten children. Two maintained and shifted card ratios were presented. Results were interpreted as supportive of the expectancy hypothesis, and suggested that expectancies can be quickly learned. Social-class similarities in problem-solving behavior were also discussed.

Effects of Social Class Status on Tests of Creative Behavior

AbstractThe writer (Ogletree) conducted a creativity study in England, Scotland, and Germany, which included 1,165 primary school children. Results showed that creativity scores (using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking) were a function of socioeconomic background. In all countries, children of upper class families obtained significantly higher creativity scores (verbal and nonverbal) than children of middle and lower class families. The same significant difference was evident in middle class children to lower class children. This was true when analyzed within countries, by age, grade, and sex. There was no evidence to support the contention that youngsters of lower class backgrounds performed better on nonverbal tasks than their higher class peers, although they did make a better showing on the nonverbal tasks than on the verbal tasks.

Factors contributing to the effectiveness of social and nonsocial reinforcers in the discrimination learning of children from two socioeconomic groups

Middle- and lower-class children who had been treated by E in a warm or aloof manner were given a discrimination learning task under one of six conditions forming a 3 × 2 design: three reinforcement types (Verbalintoned, Verbal-nonintoned, or Symbolic) and reinforcement for correct or incorrect responses. In accordance with Zigler's valence theory of social reinforcement, lower-class girls and middle-class children of both sexes tended to perform better when they had previously received warm treatment. No significant differences among the three types of reinforcers occurred in either SE group, thus failing to support the implications of several theories about the relative effectiveness of social and nonsocial reinforcers and tonality factors related to SES.

Examiner Effect on Sex-Role Preference among Black and White Lower-Class Female Children

The IT Scale for Children (ITSC) was administered to 240 white and black lower-class gills at 6-, 9-, and 12-yr.-old age levels. On the standard version, race and age of Ss had significant effects on sex-role preference scores, but the sex of the examiner did not. On the concealed version, the sex of the examiner had a significant main effect. In addition, there was significant interaction between sex of examiner and the age and race of Ss.