Social background shapes how hard children work

Which children work harder at school, and what does their effort have to do with their social background? Until now, educational research has been unable to provide empirically based answers to these questions. A WZB study just published in the scientific journal American Sociological Review now shows, based on an innovative experiment, that children from families with higher social status do try harder than children from less privileged families—especially when there are no rewards. However, with tangible incentives for completing tasks, this difference becomes significantly smaller.

Jonas Radl, Visiting Research Professor at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, has been working at the WZB with a team of international researchers since 2018 to investigate how social background affects schoolchildren's willingness to provide effort. His interdisciplinary project “Effort and Social Inequality,” which was advised by WZB Director Heike Solga, adds a crucial aspect to our knowledge of educational careers: While there is a wealth of information about the extent to which social background influences young people's abilities, little research has been done to date on the extent to which social background influences willingness to exert effort. Do privileged children work harder—and if so, is this because they receive more support? And how can students coming from disadvantaged families be motivated?

The study design

In this experimental study, 1,360 fifth-graders from Madrid and Berlin solved simple cognitive tasks that measured concentration, attention, and self-control. Sixty classes from 32 schools participated. The simple but demanding tasks were performed in different situations: first without rewards for correct answers, then with small gifts, and finally in a tournament competition with additional symbolic recognition.

The results

Schoolchildren from privileged backgrounds show more cognitive effort than those from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially when no reward is offered and only intrinsic motivation affects performance. However, the gap between the two groups is not very large and can be compensated for by incentives. As soon as there are small rewards such as toys or social recognition for solving a task, children from socially disadvantaged families work almost as hard as privileged children.

Personality traits or the intelligence of the children cannot explain the difference in effort. Rather, the findings show that effortful behavior is significantly influenced by the social environment. Living conditions play an important role, such as what resources are available in families and how much security children experience. When children grow up with scarcity, e.g. a lack of financial resources or because their parents have little time for them in everyday life, they find it more difficult to concentrate on a specific task.

Rewarding individual progress

The results also have political implications. Educational opportunities could be made more equitable if not only performance but also individual progress was rewarded in the classroom, according to Jonas Radl. “School rewards, playful learning, and social recognition can help reduce differences in effort levels between children from different social classes,” says the researcher. Heike Solga, co-author of the article and Director of the WZB’s Research Department Skill Formation and Labor Market, says, “The study provides important insights into how the influence of social background can be mitigated in schools. This is important for a fairer education system and equal opportunities.”

The study was published in February in the journal American Sociological Review: Jonas Radl, William Foley, Lea Katharina Kröger, Patricia Lorente, Alberto Palacios-Abad, Heike Solga, Jan Stuhler, Madeline Swarr (2026): “The Social Origins of Effort: How Incentives Reduce Socioeconomic Disparities among Children.” In: American Sociological Review, 91(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224251401933.

Figure: Differences in the intensity of effort among students

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The figure shows the differences in effort intensity, measured in standard deviations. The reference (zero baseline) is children of parents with low education in the “Unincentivized” category.

Jonas Radl is Visiting Research Professor “Effort and Social Inequality” at the WZB and Associate Professor of Sociology at Carlos III University of Madrid.

More about the EFFORT-Projekt: www.effort-project.eu