TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceptions of socioeconomic mobility influence academic persistence among low socioeconomic status students
AU - Browman, Alexander S.
AU - Destin, Mesmin
AU - Carswell, Kathleen L.
AU - Svoboda, Ryan C.
N1 - Funding Information:
Portions of this research were submitted by Alexander S. Browman to Northwestern University in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and were presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in San Diego, California; at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, Illinois; and at the 2017 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Austin, Texas. This research was supported by grants awarded to Alexander S. Browman by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and The Graduate School at Northwestern University. Alexander S. Browman was supported by fellowships from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – société et culture and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Kathleen L. Carswell was supported by a fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Ryan C. Svoboda was supported by a fellowship from the Institute of Education Sciences. The authors thank Wendi Gardner, Eli Finkel, Daniel Molden, and Galen Bodenhausen for their helpful comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - Despite facing daunting odds of academic success compared with their more socioeconomically advantaged peers, many students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds maintain high levels of academic motivation and persist in the face of difficulty. We propose that for these students, academic persistence may hinge on their perceptions of socioeconomic mobility, or their general beliefs regarding whether or not socioeconomic mobility—a powerful academic motivator—can occur in their society. Specifically, low-SES students' desire to persist on a primary path to mobility (i.e., school) should remain strong if they believe that socioeconomic mobility can occur in their society. By contrast, those who believe that socioeconomic mobility generally does not occur should be less motivated to persist academically. One correlational and two experimental studies provide support for this hypothesis among low (but not high) SES high school and university students. Implications for future intervention efforts are discussed.
AB - Despite facing daunting odds of academic success compared with their more socioeconomically advantaged peers, many students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds maintain high levels of academic motivation and persist in the face of difficulty. We propose that for these students, academic persistence may hinge on their perceptions of socioeconomic mobility, or their general beliefs regarding whether or not socioeconomic mobility—a powerful academic motivator—can occur in their society. Specifically, low-SES students' desire to persist on a primary path to mobility (i.e., school) should remain strong if they believe that socioeconomic mobility can occur in their society. By contrast, those who believe that socioeconomic mobility generally does not occur should be less motivated to persist academically. One correlational and two experimental studies provide support for this hypothesis among low (but not high) SES high school and university students. Implications for future intervention efforts are discussed.
KW - Academic persistence
KW - Socioeconomic mobility
KW - Socioeconomic status
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2017.03.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2017.03.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018301521
SN - 0022-1031
VL - 72
SP - 45
EP - 52
JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
ER -