Differences in behaviors across socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds have been well documented across disciplines. Indeed, psychologists have witnessed higher incidences of mental health problems in individuals from low-SES backgrounds (Barrett & Turner Reference Barrett and Turner2005; Williams et al. Reference Williams, Yu, Jackson and Anderson1997), educators have noted significant achievement gaps between children from low-SES and mid-SES backgrounds from early ages (Wagner Reference Wagner2014), and neuroscientists have found differences in neural processing across SES groups (Hackman & Farah Reference Hackman and Farah2009; Shonkoff Reference Shonkoff2011).The full set of underlying mechanisms associated with such differences remains unclear.

In their behavioral constellation of deprivation (BCD), Pepper & Nettle (P&N) propose a contextualized model for the behaviors surrounding deprivation. Such behaviors appear to be deeply rooted in the notion that individuals from low-SES backgrounds are more present-oriented due to the lack of control associated with lower SES. Given the “uncontrollable” faced by individuals from low-SES backgrounds, we argue that an important factor that influences the BCD is the early learning experiences of all individuals, including those from low-SES backgrounds.

Early learning experiences largely shape later behaviors. A virtuous cycle of learning occurs for children who have access to the type of numerous, rich, and varied experiences that support acquisition of knowledge about the world – evidence suggests that access to knowledge through such experiences contributes substantially to later reading achievement and school success (Storch & Whitehurst Reference Storch and Whitehurst2001). Yet not all children have the opportunity to engage in the types of activities that lend themselves to new knowledge; variability in such access is associated with large and early gaps in conceptual knowledge (Neuman & Celano Reference Neuman and Celano2006), vocabulary (Fernald et al. Reference Fernald, Marchman and Weisleder2013), and information-seeking behaviors (Chouinard et al. Reference Chouinard, Harris and Maratsos2007; Kurkul & Corriveau Reference Kurkul and Corriveau2017).

Children learn about the world in a variety of ways – through solitary exploration, through firsthand experiences, and by seeking information from others. We argue that variability in information seeking may account for part of the variability observed in differences by socioeconomic background. Before children are 12 months old, all children can seek information from others by engaging in social referencing (Walden Reference Walden, Kaiser and Gray1993); attending to head direction, body posture, and eye gaze to understand the focus of adults' attentional focus (Brooks & Meltzoff Reference Brooks and Meltzoff2005; Reference Brooks, Meltzoff, Mikulincer and Shaver2014); and using pointing as a means of soliciting parental attention to an object of interest (Butterworth Reference Butterworth and Kita2003; Camaioni et al. Reference Camaioni, Perucchini, Bellagamba and Colonnesi2004). Yet the extent to which the parent feels it is culturally appropriate or is willing to engage in one-on-one direct-instruction learning experiences remains out of the child's control. For example, when a child is born into circumstances of deprivation, the parent might not be emotionally or physically available, and so the child might not turn as readily to the parent for guidance. This pattern often continues until children reach formal schooling, at which point children's communication patterns are already well established. Indeed, not only are children from low-SES backgrounds exposed to fewer words than their middle-class peers during their preschool years (Blum-Kulka Reference Blum-Kulka1997; Hart & Risley Reference Hart and Risley1992; Reference Hart and Risley1995; Heath Reference Heath1983), but also; their parents use more directive speech and less sophisticated vocabulary (Rowe Reference Rowe2012; Rowe et al. Reference Rowe, Pan and Ayoub2005) and explanations (Kurkul & Corriveau Reference Kurkul and Corriveau2017). Early exposure to these communication patterns not only influences children's language acquisition, but also is likely to influence how children acquire new knowledge and make judgments about the credibility informants (Corriveau et al. Reference Corriveau, Kurkul and Arunachalam2016).

In two recent studies, we found that children from low-SES backgrounds assess explanations differently than their mid-SES peers. In one study, we explored the question-explanation follow-up pattern of interaction that is often used by children to acquire new information (Kurkul & Corriveau Reference Kurkul and Corriveau2017). As was consistent with previous findings, children from mid- and low-SES families asked a similar proportion of fact-based (e.g., “who,” “what,” “where”) and causal (e.g., “how,” “why”) information-seeking questions. Regardless of SES groups, parents generally provided satisfactory responses to children's fact-based questions. However, differences were found in the types of responses children from low-SES families received to their causal questions when compared to their mid-SES peers. Parents from low-SES backgrounds provided significantly less explanatory responses to causal questions than mid-SES parents. Moreover, children from mid-SES families were more willing to reengage the parents through offering their own explanations when they received unsatisfactory responses.

In a second study, we looked at differences in preschoolers' inferences about the credibility of informants based on the type of syntactic structure they used. One informant consistently used the passive voice when stating an argument, whereas the other informant consistently used the active voice. We asked who the child was willing to turn to when learning novel information (Corriveau et al. Reference Corriveau, Kurkul and Arunachalam2016). Although active voice is used most typically in daily conversations across all SES backgrounds, children from mid-SES families preferred to learn from an informant who had previously used the passive voice, whereas children from low-SES families preferred to learn from an informant who had previously used the active voice. We interpret these findings to indicate that in mid-SES families, young children view more complex syntactic structure is a marker of competence. By contrast, children from low-SES backgrounds view competence as the language they are more familiar with. Given that passive voice is a marker of academic language – the language of school (Snow & Uccelli Reference Snow, Uccelli, Olson and Torrance2009) – such differences in the inferences young children make about credibility may influence the types of individuals they turn to in learning situations.

When considering the BCD, it is important to consider how early learning experiences shape behaviors. Indeed, P&N note that early disparities can lead to larger eventual inequalities. Here, we argue that the larger inequalities are present from early in development. Specifically, the differences in the patterns of speech children are exposed to and how they use language to make decisions may be important factors to consider when thinking about the causes of the BCD.