Family's Subjective Economic Status and Children's Matrix Reasoning: Blacks' Diminished Returns.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Sociology

Background:

• Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs) show weaker effects of economic status on health and development for oppressed groups.
• MDRs are documented for school performance but less is known about their impact on children's intelligence.
• Historically, non-Hispanic Black Americans experience weaker links between economic status and health/development compared to non-Hispanic White Americans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of subjective economic status on children's cognitive performance across racial groups.
• To compare the relationship between economic status and matrix reasoning in non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black children.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 7898 children in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
• Subjective economic status was the predictor variable (continuous measure).
• Matrix reasoning (from Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-IV) was the primary outcome measure for cognitive performance.

Main Results:

• Higher subjective economic status was linked to higher matrix reasoning scores overall.
• A significant interaction between race and subjective economic status was observed.
• The positive effect of economic status on matrix reasoning was smaller for non-Hispanic Black children compared to non-Hispanic White children.

Conclusions:

• The correlation between economic status and matrix reasoning is influenced by race and racialization.
• Non-Hispanic Black children may benefit less from their economic status in terms of matrix reasoning gains compared to non-Hispanic White children.
• Policies should aim to equalize economic status and increase its marginal returns for racial minorities to reduce cognitive performance gaps, addressing structural barriers.