Question

Suppose you read a report claiming that children raised in families with low socioeconomic status are less likely to go to college compared to children raised in families with middle and upper income levels. The news story cites college participation rates of 20%, 35%, and 60% among low, middle, and upper socioeconomic statuses, respectively, and explains these differences as meaning that children raised in poor families are less intelligent or less ambitious than those from better-off families. Do you trust this conclusion? Why or why not? If you do not , what more do you need to know about these data before you can make a decision about the findings, and what they mean for the relationship between family income and children's college attendance?

Answer 1

We cannot trust this conclusion because intelligence or ambitiousness is not directly related to participation in college. We can find ambitiousness in anyone because it depends more on the attitude rather than college participation. So, we should collect data on the performance of children, but this performance will be correlated with the family income and children’s college attendance because college performance tests are based on the participation and low family income children’s participation is low.