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.