From “haves” to “have nots”: Developmental declines in subjective social status reflect children's growing consideration of what they do not have

Being the Best, or With the Best: A Developmental Examination of Children's Choices in a Social Comparison Dilemma

In two studies, we examined the decisions of children (aged 6-12 years old) when faced with the choice between two options in a social-comparison dilemma: to affiliate with a group in which they outperform all others (i.e., being the best), or with an advanced group, at the cost of losing their primacy (i.e., being with the best). Study 1 (N = 179, MAge = 8.90, 56.4% female) examined children's choice when presented with a two-option scenario; Study 2 (N = 211, MAge = 9.42, 50.7% female) examined the same decision following children's experience of an actual task, while manipulating the children's relative position before the decision (by priming them to imagine that they were the best at the task, compared with a control condition, without manipulation). Results revealed a consistent developmental pattern, such that with age children preferred to join a group of leading performers, even if it meant they would not be the best. We examine the children's reasons for their decision, and their implicit theories of ability as possible mechanisms behind this pattern.

Lower subjective status is associated with reduced satiation and satiety among children and adolescents: A laboratory study

OBJECTIVE

Subjective status represents one's perceptions of their social/socioeconomic standing compared to others. Low subjective status is associated with higher energy intake and body mass, independent of objective status indicators. Low subjective status could be blunting sensations of satiation/satiety, which may spur energy intake. However, there is limited research directly examining the role of subjective status on satiation and satiety, especially in children. We cross-sectionally examined whether subjective socioeconomic status (SSES) and subjective social status (SSS) are independently associated with satiation and satiety. We hypothesized that children/adolescents reporting lower SSES or SSS would report reduced satiation and satiety after energy intake.

METHODS

While fasted, children/adolescents (N = 133, AgeMean = 13.7 ± 3.0 years) consumed a standardized breakfast shake. Participants reported their satiation (difference in pre- and post-shake appetite ratings divided by percentage of shake consumed) and satiety (ratings of hunger across a 90-min period following shake consumption).

RESULTS

Lower SSS was associated with reduced satiation (B = 0.04, 95%CI: 0.0003, 0.08) and both lower SSS and SSES were associated with greater hunger across 90-min (SSS: B = -8.06, 95%CI: 12.94, -4.32; SSES: B = -6.57, 95%CI: 12.35, -1.52). Higher SSES was also associated with lower odds of an unsatiated, yet slowly increasing (OR = 0.61, 95%CI: 0.42, 0.90) or decreasing (OR = 0.63, 95%CI: 0.41, 0.96) hunger trajectory.

CONCLUSIONS

Lower subjective status is associated with reduced satiation and satiety among children/adolescents. Blunting of these sensations in early life may help explain the broader relationships between low subjective status, excess energy intake, and higher body mass, as well as socioeconomic disparities in these outcomes.

The Role of SES in Preadolescence: Understandings and Group Evaluations based on Income, Education, and Occupation

Socioeconomic status (SES) predicts many facets of preadolescents' life opportunities, yet little is known about how children perceive SES and whether it plays a role in their group evaluations. This study examined preadolescents' socioeconomic understandings and biases (investigated presenting fictitious peers varying in SES), while separating the three SES-indicators income, education and occupation. Five classes (Grade 4-6) with 89 students (Mage = 10.44, SD = 0.93; 40% female) participated. Overall, preadolescents understood that the SES indicators income, education and occupation are related to each other. At the same time, they differentiated between the indicators in their group evaluations; they showed a positive bias for peers with high-educated parents, whereas for occupation and income there was no clear overall bias. This shows that differences between SES indicators are meaningful for children, which emphasizes the importance to distinguish between specific SES-indicators when studying the role of SES for preadolescents' social life.

The impact of sufferers' wealth status on pain perceptions: Its development and relation to allocation of healthcare resources

Wealth-based disparities in health care wherein the poor receive undertreatment in painful conditions are a prominent issue that requires immediate attention. Research with adults suggests that these disparities are partly rooted in stereotypes associating poor individuals with pain insensitivity. However, whether and how children consider a sufferer's wealth status in their pain perceptions remains unknown. The present work addressed this question by testing 4- to 9-year-olds from the US and China. In Study 1 (N = 108, 56 girls, 79% White), US participants saw rich and poor White children experiencing identical injuries and indicated who they thought felt more pain. Although 4- to 6-year-olds responded at chance, children aged seven and above attributed more pain to the poor than to the rich. Study 2 with a new sample of US children (N = 111, 56 girls, 69% White) extended this effect to judgments of White adults' pain. Pain judgments also informed children's prosocial behaviors, leading them to provide medical resources to the poor. Studies 3 (N = 118, 59 girls, 100% Asian) and 4 (N = 80, 40 girls, 100% Asian) found that, when evaluating White and Asian people's suffering, Chinese children began to attribute more pain to the poor than to the rich earlier than US children. Thus, unlike US adults, US children and Chinese children recognize the poor's pain from early on. These findings add to our knowledge of group-based beliefs about pain sensitivity and have broad implications on ways to promote equitable health care. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Four studies examined whether 4- to 9-year-old children's pain perceptions were influenced by sufferers' wealth status. US children attributed more pain to White individuals of low wealth status than those of high wealth status by age seven. Chinese children demonstrated an earlier tendency to attribute more pain to the poor (versus the rich) compared to US children. Children's wealth-based pain judgments underlied their tendency to provide healthcare resources to people of low wealth status.

Profiles and Transitions of Loneliness and Depressive Symptoms among Migrant Children: Predictive Role of Bullying Victimization

Although loneliness and depressive symptoms are particularly prominent among migrant children and often occur simultaneously, little is known about the co-occurring and transitional nature of loneliness and depressive symptoms among migrant children, and the role of bullying victimization on their profiles and transitions. This study examined the profiles and transitions of loneliness and depressive symptoms among migrant children using latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis, as well as how bullying victimization predicted their profile memberships and transitions. A total of 692 migrant children (55.3% males, Mage = 9.41, SD = 0.55, range = 8 to 12 years old at T1) participated in both two waves of the study over six months. The results indicated that low profile (59.2%), moderate profile (22.0%), moderately high profile (14.3%), and high profile (4.5%) were identified at Time 1; low profile (69.4%), predominantly loneliness profile (16.8%), predominantly depressive symptoms profile (6.5%), and high profile (7.3%) were identified at Time 2. Migrant children in at-risk profiles displayed varying degrees of transition. Migrant children experiencing more bullying victimization were more likely to belong or transition to at-risk profiles. The findings highlight the importance of subgroup differences considerations in understanding the co-occurring and transitional nature of loneliness and depressive symptoms, as well as the predictive role of bullying victimization, informing effective strategies for prevention and intervention.

"You did incredibly well!": teachers' inflated praise can make children from low-SES backgrounds seem less smart (but more hardworking)

Can teachers' inflated praise make children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds seem less smart? We conducted two preregistered experiments to address this question. We used hypothetical scenarios to ensure experimental control. An experiment with primary school teachers (N = 106, ages 21-63) showed that when a child from a low-SES (vs. high-SES) background succeeded in school, teachers attributed this success more to hard work and delivered more inflated praise (e.g., "You did incredibly well!") but less modest praise (e.g., "You did well!"). An experiment with primary school children (N = 63, ages 10-13) showed that when children learned that another child received inflated praise (while an equally performing classmate received modest praise or no praise), they perceived this child as less smart but more hardworking. These studies provide converging evidence that teachers' inflated praise, although well-intentioned, can make children from low-SES backgrounds seem less smart, thereby reinforcing negative stereotypes about these children's academic abilities.

Interpersonal early adversity demonstrates dissimilarity from early socioeconomic disadvantage in the course of human brain development: A meta-analysis

It has been established that early-life adversity impacts brain development, but the role of development itself has largely been ignored. We take a developmentally-sensitive approach to examine the neurodevelopmental sequelae of early adversity in a preregistered meta-analysis of 27,234 youth (birth to 18-years-old), providing the largest group of adversity-exposed youth to date. Findings demonstrate that early-life adversity does not have an ontogenetically uniform impact on brain volumes, but instead exhibits age-, experience-, and region-specific associations. Relative to non-exposed comparisons, interpersonal early adversity (e.g., family-based maltreatment) was associated with initially larger volumes in frontolimbic regions until ∼10-years-old, after which these exposures were linked to increasingly smaller volumes. By contrast, socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., poverty) was associated with smaller volumes in temporal-limbic regions in childhood, which were attenuated at older ages. These findings advance ongoing debates regarding why, when, and how early-life adversity shapes later neural outcomes.

Being from a highly resourced context predicts believing that others are highly resourced: An early developing worldview that stymies resource sharing

We tested whether children's and adults' resource levels predicted their beliefs about resources (Study 1) and whether those beliefs shaped their willingness to share their resources with others (Study 2). In Study 1, we found that among adults (n = 230, 59.1% female, 72.6% White) and young children (n = 109, 4-6 years old, 56% female, 33% White), increased resource level predicted increases in the belief that others have lots of resources. In Study 2, we found that adults (n = 495, 52.5% female, 69.1% White) and young children (n = 154, 4-5 years old, 52.6% female, 36.4% White) randomly assigned to believe that others have lots of resources were less likely to share their own resources with others. Implications for reducing economic inequality are discussed.

Thinking Structurally: A Cognitive Framework for Understanding How People Attribute Inequality to Structural Causes

To make accurate causal inferences about social-group inequalities, people must consider structural causes. Structural causes are a distinct type of extrinsic cause-they are stable, interconnected societal forces that systematically advantage some social groups and disadvantage others. We propose a new cognitive framework to specify how people attribute inequality to structural causes. This framework is rooted in counterfactual theories of causal judgment and suggests that people will recognize structural factors as causal when they are perceived as "difference-making" for inequality above and beyond any intrinsic causes. Building on this foundation, our framework makes the following contributions. First, we propose specific types of evidence that support difference-making inferences about structural factors: within-group change (i.e., observing that disadvantaged groups' outcomes improve under better societal conditions) and well-matched between-group comparisons (i.e., observing that advantaged group members, who have similar baseline traits to the disadvantaged group, experience more favorable societal conditions and life outcomes). Second, we consider contextual, cognitive, and motivational barriers that may complicate the availability and acceptance of this evidence. We conclude by exploring how the framework might be applied in future research examining people's causal inferences about inequality.

Developmental risk sensitivity theory: the effects of socio-economic status on children's risky gain and loss decisions

Evolutionary developmental theories propose that early environments shape human risk preferences. Developmental risk sensitivity theory (D-RST) focuses on the plasticity of risk preferences during childhood and makes predictions about the effect of reward size based on a child's social environment. By contrast, prospect theory predicts risk aversion for gains and risk seeking for losses regardless of environment or status. We presented 4 to 10-year-olds (n = 194) with a set of trials in which they chose between a certain amount and a chance to receive more or nothing. Two trials were equal expected value choices that differed by stake size and two were unequal expected value choices. Children either received gain trials or loss trials. Social environment was assessed using socio-economic status (SES) and subjective social status. Results confirmed the predictions of D-RST for gains based on SES. Children from lower-SES families differentiated between the high- and low-value trials and made more risky decisions for the high-value reward compared with higher-SES children. Children from higher-SES families were more risk averse for both trial types. Decisions for loss trials did not conform completely to either theory. We discuss the results in relation to evolutionary developmental theories.

Children's thinking about group-based social hierarchies

Wealth, power, and status are distributed unevenly across social groups. A surge of recent research reveals that people being recognizing, representing, and reasoning about group-based patterns of inequity during the first years of life. We first synthesize recent research on what children learn about group-based social hierarchies as well as how this learning occurs. We then discuss how children not only learn about societal structures but become active participants in them. Studying the origins and development of children's thoughts and behavior regarding group-based social hierarchies provides valuable insight into how systems of inequity are perpetuated across generations and how intergroup biases related to wealth, power, and status may be mitigated and reshaped early in development.