Class inequality: the evidence

Overview

Social gradient in health, how material deprivation affects a child's schooling and how cultural capital affects a child's schooling.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Give one piece of evidence that social class affects health.

   Model answer

   Life expectancy is consistently lower in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived.

2. 2

   What is the social gradient in health?

   Model answer

   The pattern by which health outcomes improve steadily at each step up the social scale rather than only at the extremes.

3. 3

   Give one piece of evidence that social class affects educational attainment.

   Model answer

   Pupils eligible for free school meals achieve lower average results than their peers at every stage of schooling.

4. 4

   How does class shape participation in higher education?

   Model answer

   Young people from professional backgrounds are far more likely to enter university, and more likely to enter the most selective institutions.

5. 5

   Explain how material deprivation affects a child's schooling.

   Model answer

   Poor housing, lack of study space, inadequate diet and the need to work part-time all reduce the time and capacity available for study.

6. 6

   Explain how cultural capital affects a child's schooling.

   Model answer

   Children whose home language, tastes and knowledge match those of the school find its expectations familiar and are read as able.

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