IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0241483.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The governmental ranking of class and the academic performance of Indian adolescents

Author

Listed:
  • Roshin Kunnel John
  • Boby Xavier
  • Anja Waldmeier
  • Andrea Hans Meyer
  • Jens Gaab

Abstract

Social and economic factors are commonly examined as contextual variables that predict academic achievement, apart from the educational environment. In India, a major segment of the socioeconomic status of students comprises the governmental stratification of population into three broad classes, viz., scheduled castes/tribes (SC-ST), other backward classes (OBC) and general class (GC). In this study, we examined the association of these governmental classes with the academic performance of Indian adolescents who enjoy the same school environment. Psychological measures of self-esteem and life satisfaction as well as demographic variables such as gender, age and family income were also examined as covariates. The study was conducted on a convenient sample of 858 students of X and XI grades. Based on multilevel regression models, the relationship between governmental classes and academic performance was significantly positive, wherein higher level of class predicted better academic performance. The study highlighted that students from the same school environment performed differently based on their social status and that this difference was not a function of their family income, thus pointing to potential role of non-economic aspects of the governmental stratification including caste affiliation. The findings indicate the need for further examining as well as planning to improve the aspects of students’ social status that impact academic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Roshin Kunnel John & Boby Xavier & Anja Waldmeier & Andrea Hans Meyer & Jens Gaab, 2020. "The governmental ranking of class and the academic performance of Indian adolescents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-12, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0241483
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241483
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241483
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241483&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0241483?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonalde Desai & Veena Kulkarni, 2008. "Changing educational inequalities in india in the context of affirmative action," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(2), pages 245-270, May.
    2. Desai, Sonalde & Dubey, Amaresh & Joshi, Brij Lal & Sen, Mitali & Sharif, Abusaleh & Vanneman, Reeve, 2010. "Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198065128, Decembrie.
    3. Xiaowei Huang, 2019. "Understanding Bourdieu - Cultural Capital and Habitus," Review of European Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(3), pages 1-45, December.
    4. Mina Daraei & Artmiz Mohajery, 2013. "The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(1), pages 69-81, May.
    5. Surendrakumar Bagde & Dennis Epple & Lowell Taylor, 2016. "Does Affirmative Action Work? Caste, Gender, College Quality, and Academic Success in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(6), pages 1495-1521, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kriti, Vikram & Feinian, Chen & Desai, Sonalde, 2018. "Mothers' work patterns and Children's cognitive achievement: Evidence from the India Human Development survey," MPRA Paper 111169, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Gaurav Khanna, 2020. "Does Affirmative Action Incentivize Schooling? Evidence from India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 219-233, May.
    3. Zhiyong Lin & Sonalde Desai & Feinian Chen, 2020. "The Emergence of Educational Hypogamy in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(4), pages 1215-1240, August.
    4. Hortaçsu, Ali & Hwang, Sam Il Myoung & Mathur, Divya, 2019. "Monetary incentives on inter-caste marriages in India: Theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    6. Chi Trieu, 2023. "Who’s who: how uncertainty about the favored group affects outcomes of affirmative action," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 9(2), pages 252-292, December.
    7. Barik, Debasis & Desai, Sonalde & Vanneman, Reeve, 2018. "Economic Status and Adult Mortality in India: Is the Relationship Sensitive to Choice of Indicators?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 176-187.
    8. Soumya Kapoor Mehta & Maitreyi Bordia Das, 2012. "Poverty and Social Exclusion in India," World Bank Publications - Reports 26338, The World Bank Group.
    9. Pieter Serneels & Stefan Dercon, 2021. "Aspirations, Poverty, and Education. Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 163-183, January.
    10. Yasser Razak Hussain & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2023. "How Much do Education, Experience, and Social Networks Impact Earnings in India? A Panel Data Analysis Disaggregated by Class, Gender, Caste and Religion," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    11. Cassan, Guilhem, 2019. "Affirmative action, education and gender: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 51-70.
    12. Tannistha Samanta, 2020. "Women’s empowerment as self-compassion?: Empirical observations from India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, May.
    13. Soledad Giardili, 2018. "University Quotas and Peers’ Achievement," Working Papers 854, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    14. Bianchi, Nicola & Lu, Yi & Song, Hong, 2022. "The effect of computer-assisted learning on students’ long-term development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    15. Smith, Lisa C., 2015. "The great Indian calorie debate: Explaining rising undernourishment during India’s rapid economic growth," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 53-67.
    16. Priya, Pragati & Sharma, Chandan & Jha, Chandan Kumar, 2025. "Asymmetry in the inequality of opportunity in energy consumption across gender, caste, and religion in India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    17. Barik, Debasis & Thorat, Amit, 2015. "Issues of unequal access to public health in India," MPRA Paper 77224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Sripad Motiram & Ashish Singh, 2012. "How close does the apple fall to the tree? Some evidence on intergenerational occupational mobility from India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2012-017, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    19. Saroj Kumar & Abhishek Kumar & Rakesh Kumar & William Joe, 2021. "Social Demographics and Health Achievements An Ecological Analysis of Institutional Delivery and Immunization Coverage in India," IEG Working Papers 427, Institute of Economic Growth.
    20. Subedi, Mukti Nath & Rafiq, Shuddhasattwa & Ulker, Aydogan, 2022. "Effects of Affirmative Action on Educational and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Nepal's Reservation Policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 443-463.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0241483. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.