Academic achievement and socioeconomic disadvantages in children who attend the municipals school in the city of Córdoba-Argentina

DEGOY E; RAJMIL L; BERRA S

Ithaca - New York

Workshop; 9th INRICH Workshop; 2017

International Network for Research on Inequalities in Child Health

Objective: To examine disparities in academic achievement by socioeconomic characteristics in children who attend municipal public schools in the city of Córdoba-Argentina. Methods: Cross-sectional study in a sample of 494 children of 9-10 years old. Children self-reported socioeconomic status (SES) through the Family Affluence Scale. Mothers reported their level of schooling. The academic achievement (AA) was established by final grades in the core subjects of Language and Mathematics obtained from school records. Grades were used based on an 5-ordinalscale and grouped into Unsatisfactory (UAA), Satisfactory-Good, and Very Good-Excellent. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) for UAA and its 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using logistic regression analysis adjusted by sex. Results: There were equal proportion of boys and girls. Fourteen percent reported low SES and 35% high. Mothers of 65% of the children report incomplete high school or less. Schoolchildren in low SES were more likely to have UAA in Language (OR=1.86; CI=0.86-4.05) and Mathematics (OR=2.65; CI=1.16-6.01). UAA in both subjects was more frequently among children whose mothers were in the lower level of education, although this difference was not statistically significant (Language?s OR= 1.89; IC95%=0.88-3.93; Maths?s OR=1.54; IC95%=0.72-3.29).Conclusion: A higher frequency of UAA in children from disadvantaged social groups seems to confirm social inequalities. To reduce inequities could have an impact on children´s AA. The use of school record scores to determine children´s ability in Language and Maths can introduce information bias that lead to underestimate the association between the studied variables.