A belief in socioeconomic mobility promotes the development of academically motivating identities among low-socioeconomic status youth

Abstract

Despite barriers to educational attainment, low-SES youth often maintain strong academic intentions and performance if they continue to view school as important for obtaining the desired futures they envision for themselves. We undertook three related studies to examine the importance of one aspiration central to the desired futures of many low-SES youth: attaining upward socioeconomic mobility. Cross-sectional, longitudinal (Study 1), and experimental data (Study 2) demonstrate that low-SES youth's beliefs about their likelihood of attaining mobility affects their likelihood of envisioning futures that hinge on educational attainment, which ultimately predict their academic intentions and performance. Study 3 then tests a novel intervention for promoting the adoption of education-dependent futures among low-SES youth: highlighting multiple viable school-based paths to future mobility.

Perception of economic inequality weakens Americans’ beliefs in both upward and downward socioeconomic mobility

“…In fact, because extreme inequality entails a lack of access to resources for all but the wealthiest, our findings suggest that such processes might also influence middle-class Americans. The present findings therefore help to link the separate literatures that have explored the effects of economic inequality (Day & Fiske, 2017;Newman et al, 2015;Shariff et al, 2016) and perceptions of mobility (Browman et al, 2017;Browman, Svoboda, et al, 2019;Kraus & Tan, 2015;Laurin et al, 2011) on important motivational and behavioural outcomes. Specifically, the present work provides support for the relation between the proposed contributing cause (perceived economic inequality) and the proposed mediator (people's beliefs about the attainability of mobility) of important life outcomes for nonrich individuals living in unequal societies.…”

“…From a practical perspective, the present and prior studies suggest that as Americans' baseline perceptions of inequality become more aware of the actual extreme levels of inequality in America (i.e., that the richest 20% hold 89.9% of America's wealth; Wolff, 2017), we should expect their baseline beliefs about all mobility to become weaker. As discussed, this may have important implications for Americans' motivational and behavioural tendencies (Day & Fiske, 2017;Shariff et al, 2016), especially for those from less advantaged backgrounds (Browman et al, 2017;Browman, Svoboda, et al, 2019;Kraus & Tan, 2015;Laurin et al, 2011). In addition, Americans' increasingly accurate baseline perceptions of inequality may help explain why perceived inequality was at best only weakly associated with participants' top-bound upward mobility beliefs in the present work.…”

“…Understanding the nature of this shift is critical, as Americans' perceptions of socioeconomic mobility shape the extent to which they trust and act in ways consistent with the prevailing social system, which includes both beneficial and harmful elements (see Browman, Svoboda, et al, 2019). For example, experimental research has found that among adolescents and young adults from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, holding weaker mobility beliefs (i.e., believing that their low SES is unlikely to change) reduces persistence and resilience in domains that are promoted as means to upward mobility (i.e., academics; Browman et al, 2017;Browman, Svoboda, et al, 2019;Laurin et al, 2011) and can contribute to poorer psychological well-being (Kraus & Tan, 2015). At the same time, American adults holding weaker perceptions of mobility view their society as being less meritocratic and just, thereby reducing their tendency to rationalise and defend unfair economic and social policies -normally a major barrier to societal change (Day & Fiske, 2017;Newman et al, 2015;Shariff et al, 2016).…”

When the Going Gets Tough, How Do We Perceive the Future?

“…In turn, they are more likely to interpret the difficulties experienced in those flow states as signals that what they are doing is important and to experience time during those tasks as passing more quickly and enjoyably. That experience and interpretation provide the motivation to persist in the face of difficulty (Browman, 2019;Browman et al, 2019;Lewis & Yates, 2019).…”

Identity Research That Engages Contextual Forces to Reduce Socioeconomic Disparities in Education

“…Some identity-based research that is particularly relevant to socioeconomic disparities in education draws attention to the ways that barriers and opportunities for economic advancement affect the future outlook and academic motivation of young people. For example, one area of research demonstrates that the more young people from lower-SES backgrounds believe that socioeconomic mobility is likely in society, the more likely they are to imagine futures for themselves that include a college education (Browman, Svoboda, & Destin, 2019). Further, these studies demonstrate a consistent connection between beliefs about socioeconomic mobility and students' academic persistence and outcomes.…”