Artículos de revistas
Socioeconomic environment effect on inferential reasoning of Latin American students
Fecha
2017-02Registro en:
Flores Mendoza, Carmen; Saraiva, Renan Benigno; Câmara, Gislene Clemente Vilela; Lopes, Wilma M. Guimarães; Passos, Ana P. Carvalho Pereira; et al.; Socioeconomic environment effect on inferential reasoning of Latin American students; Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñíz; Salud Mental; 40; 5; 2-2017; 183-190
0185-3325
0186-761X
CONICET Digital
CONICET
Autor
Flores Mendoza, Carmen
Saraiva, Renan Benigno
Câmara, Gislene Clemente Vilela
Lopes, Wilma M. Guimarães
Passos, Ana P. Carvalho Pereira
Gama, Ana Maria Valladão Pires
Baumgartl, Viviane de Oliveira
Rodrigues, Larissa Assunção
Ardila, Ruben
Rosas, Ricardo
Gallegos de San Vicente, Miguel Omar
Reategui, Norma
Resumen
Introduction: Inferential reasoning (IR) is a major component of intelligence, which comprises many different cognitive processes such as perception, memory, and logic. Many studies have proposed that socioeconomic status (SES) has a negligible association with IR, but more recent findings suggest that they may have a higher association when evaluating group instead of individual SES.
Objective: The aim of this study is to test the effects of both individual (students) and group (schools) socioeconomic status on IR, comparing different countries of Latin America.
Method. The sample was composed of 2 358 students aged 14 and 15 years from 52 different schools (44% public) of five Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru). Participants took part in an inferential reasoning test and answered a socioeconomic questionnaire.
Results: SES student showed a small positive correlation with IR (r = .10, p < .001), while SES school had a more pronounced effect on IR (F [2, 1944] = 74.68, p < .001, ηp2 = .07), with higher IR at schools with higher SES. A significant difference of IR between countries (F [4, 1976] = 20.68, p < .001, ηp2 = .04), was also found with Peru showing the highest mean. Peru was the country with the higher percentage of private schools in the present study. A multilevel model was fitted using individual and group SES as predictors.
Discussion and conclusion: Our findings showed that group SES have a higher predictive value of IR when compared to individual SES. This result suggests that individuals with low SES can benefit from studying on higher SES schools. Future research and the importance of public policies are discussed.