COVID-19 within families amplifies the prosociality gap between adolescents of high and low socioeconomic status

Résumé

COVID-19 has had worse health, education, and labor market effects on groups with low socioeconomic status (SES) than on those with high SES. Little is known, however, about whether COVID-19 has also had differential effects on noncognitive skills that are important for life outcomes. Using panel data from before and during the pandemic, we show that COVID-19 affects one key noncognitive skill, that is, prosociality. While prosociality is already lower for low-SES students prior to the pandemic, we show that COVID-19 infections within families amplify the prosociality gap between French high school students of high and low SES by almost tripling its size in comparison to pre–COVID-19 levels.

Référence

Camille Terrier, Daniel L. Chen et Matthias Sutter, « COVID-19 within families amplifies the prosociality gap between adolescents of high and low socioeconomic status », Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 118, n° 46 (e2110891118), 2021.