Socioeconomic Status and Academic Outcomes in Developing Countries: A Meta-Analysis

2019/09/25 by Sung won Kim, Sung Won Kim, Hyunsun Cho +1 · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Early Childhood Education and Development #Parental Involvement in Education #School Choice and Performance

paper · doi:10.3102/0034654319877155

openalex publication_date 2019/09/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26

Abstract

Despite the multiple meta-analyses documenting the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and achievement, none have examined this question outside of English-speaking industrialized countries. This study is the first meta-analytic effort, to the best of our knowledge, to focus on developing countries. Based on 49 empirical studies representing 38 countries, and a sample of 2,828,216 school-age students (grades K–12) published between 1990 and 2017, we found an overall weak relation between SES and academic outcomes. Results for attainment outcomes were stronger than achievement outcomes, and the effect size was stronger in more economically developed countries. The SES-academic outcome relation was further moderated by grade level and gender. There were no differences in the strength of the relation by specific SES measures of income/consumption, education, and wealth/home resources. Our results provide evidence that educational inequalities are wider in higher income countries, creating a serious challenge for developing countries as they expand school access.

Citations

• Quantifying heterogeneity in a meta‐analysis
• Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research
• Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap
• The Effect of Primary-School Quality on Academic Achievement Across Twenty-nine High- and Low-Income Countries
• The Surprisingly Modest Relationship Between SES and Educational Achievement
• Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital

Cited by

• Recent Graduates in the Labor Market: The Efficiency Frontier of Higher Education Institutions
• The interplay between poverty and the human brain connectome across the lifespan: A systematic review

Related

• Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research
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• The Surprisingly Modest Relationship Between SES and Educational Achievement
• The Effect of Primary-School Quality on Academic Achievement Across Twenty-nine High- and Low-Income Countries
• An Investigation of the Different Levels of Poverty and the Corresponding Variance in Student Academic Prosperity