Seeing the Destination but Not the Path: Effects of Socioeconomic Disadvantage on School-focused Possible Self Content and Linked Behavioral Strategies

Abstract

Low-income children perform better in school when school-focused future identities are a salient aspect of their possible self for the coming year and these school-focused future identities are linked to behavioral strategies (Oyserman et al., 2006). Hierarchical linear modeling of data from a four-state low-income neighborhood sample of eighth-graders suggests two central consequences of family and neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation on children's school-focused possible identities and strategies. First, higher neighborhood disadvantage is associated with greater salience of school in children's possible self for the coming year. Second, disadvantage clouds the path to school-success; controlling for salience of school-focused possible identities, children living in lower socioeconomic status families and boys living in more economically disadvantaged neighborhoods were less likely to have strategies to attain their school-focused possible identities. The influence of family socioeconomic status was seen particularly with regard to strategies to attain academic success and teacher engagement aspects of school-focused identities.

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