Socioeconomic Status Disparities in Children's Cognition—Differences in Degree or Kind?
The "socioeconomic achievement gap" refers to socioeconomic disparities in children's academic outcomes. Do these gaps invariably reflect cognitive processes that are similar in kind across the socioeconomic status (SES) spectrum but differ quantitatively in their efficacy? Or, in some cases, do the...
| Published in: | Perspectives on Psychological Science Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 292 - 309 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | research systematic review tables/charts Journal Article |
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Sage Publications Inc.
May2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=193124306&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 193124306 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 17456916 1WQQ jtl: Perspectives on Psychological Science issn: 17456916 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2026 vid: 21 iid: 3 pid: 20732 pub: Sage Publications Inc. place: Thousand Oaks, California artinfo: ui: 193124306 191466414 193124306 193124306 10.1177/17456916251409785 193124306 ppf: 292 ppct: 17 formats: tig: atl: Socioeconomic Status Disparities in Children's Cognition—Differences in Degree or Kind? aug: au: Hu, Lingyan Farah, Martha J. affil: Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania sug: subj: Socioeconomic Disparities in Health Evaluation Cognition Evaluation Brain Anatomy and Histology Brain Physiology Academic Performance Evaluation Task Performance and Analysis Evaluation Human Systematic Review Child Social Class Neurodevelopment Child Development PubMed Neuropsychological Tests Mathematics Language Thinking Selective Attention Memory White Matter Reading Language Processing Brain Cortical Thickness Vocabulary Default Mode Network Electrophysiology Child Behavior Adaptation, Physiological Child: 6-12 years ab: The "socioeconomic achievement gap" refers to socioeconomic disparities in children's academic outcomes. Do these gaps invariably reflect cognitive processes that are similar in kind across the socioeconomic status (SES) spectrum but differ quantitatively in their efficacy? Or, in some cases, do they reflect cognitive processes that differ, in kind, between higher and lower SES, that is, qualitatively? In this systematic review, we used the ways in which brain structure and function relate to cognitive performance to answer these questions, focusing on academically relevant cognitive abilities. Specifically, the brain correlates of performance served as a signal regarding the underlying cognitive processes used to perform cognitive tasks. The literature was searched for studies that reported whether SES moderated the brain–cognition relation. In 15 cases, significant moderation was found, suggesting that children from diverse SES backgrounds may use underlying brain systems differently to achieve cognitive task performance. Three general mechanisms are reviewed, as are the broader implications of qualitative differences for teaching and for the causal relations leading to socioeconomic disparities in cognition. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research systematic review tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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