Children perpetuate competence-based inequality when they help peers

Educational inequality rooted in socioeconomic and immigrant backgrounds emerges early and widens over time. While research focuses on schools, teachers, and parents, this study investigates the role of peer-to-peer helping in perpetuating this inequality. Peer helping, both structured (collaborative learning) and unstructured, is common and assumed to be beneficial. However, not all help is equally beneficial; empowerment help (hints, strategies) fosters skill development, unlike non-empowerment help (correct answers), which hinders skill improvement. Adults often differentiate help based on perceived competence, providing more empowerment help to competent individuals. This study explores whether children, who readily infer competence from various sources (observations, stereotypes), also differentiate help based on perceived competence, potentially perpetuating inequality by providing less skill-building help to incompetent peers. Understanding this aspect of peer interaction is crucial for designing effective collaborative learning strategies that benefit all children, regardless of their background.

Existing research shows adults differentiate help based on perceived competence, offering empowerment help to competent individuals and non-empowerment help to those perceived as incompetent. While well-intentioned, this can perpetuate inequality. Studies on children's helping behavior show mixed results: some indicate more help for incompetent peers, while others suggest influence by ethnic stereotypes. However, no prior research has examined whether children differentiate between empowerment and non-empowerment help when aiding competent versus incompetent peers. This gap is significant because children's perceptions of competence are influenced by various factors and have lasting effects on their social cognition and behavior. Children readily infer competence from various sources and these inferences influence their attitudes and actions toward others.

Three preregistered studies investigated children's understanding and practice of helping behavior. Study 1 (N=253, 6–9 years) used animated videos to assess children's understanding of the differential benefits of empowerment and non-empowerment help. Children watched videos depicting groups receiving different types of help and then judged which group was smarter or would learn more. Studies 2 and 3 (N=80 and N=41, 7–9 years) were experimental lab studies assessing children's actual helping behavior. Participants were introduced to two same-age peers (described as either competent or incompetent at a task) and then given opportunities to provide empowerment or non-empowerment help. Study 2 used a puzzle quiz, while Study 3 used a math quiz (emphasizing practice and learning). Both studies included measures of children's mindsets (beliefs about the malleability of competence), perceptions of the targets' niceness, and their evaluations of the different types of help. Statistical analyses included t-tests and logistic linear mixed-effects models to determine the influence of target competency on the type of help provided, and the moderating roles of children's age, gender, and mindsets.

Study 1 found that children aged 6–9 years understand that empowerment help leads to greater learning, with older children also perceiving it as indicative of higher intelligence. Studies 2 and 3 showed that children (7–9 years) provided more empowerment help to competent peers and more non-empowerment help to incompetent peers, regardless of whether the task was a puzzle quiz or a math quiz (where learning and practice were emphasized). This pattern suggests that children perpetuate competence-based inequality through their helping behavior. Exploratory analyses revealed that children's mindsets about the malleability of competence did not significantly influence their helping behavior, except for a marginally significant finding in Study 3 indicating that children with growth mindsets might actually perpetuate the inequality more. Children perceived both competent and incompetent peers as equally nice. Children expected others would be happier receiving correct answers but acknowledged that hints fostered better learning.

The findings indicate that even young children (as young as 7 years old) understand the difference between empowerment and non-empowerment help and its impact on learning. Yet, they consistently provide less opportunity for skill development to those they perceive as incompetent, thereby maintaining competence-based inequality. This is not driven by perceptions of niceness, but other factors may be at play, such as feelings of pity or sympathy for incompetent peers (paternalistic stereotype). The lack of significant influence of mindsets on helping behavior warrants further investigation, considering potential limitations such as the age range studied and the power of the statistical analyses. The study highlights the potential for peer-to-peer interactions to exacerbate existing educational inequalities.

This research demonstrates that young children's helping behavior can reinforce existing competence-based inequalities. While they understand the benefits of empowerment help, they disproportionately provide non-empowerment help to incompetent peers. This underscores the importance of considering the potential negative consequences of peer-to-peer helping and the need for interventions that promote equitable learning opportunities for all children. Future research should explore the role of emotions like pity, refine mindset measures, and investigate helping dynamics in more naturalistic classroom settings to better understand and address this issue.

The study used forced-choice measures and a within-subjects design, which might have made the contrasts between peers and help types more salient. Future research should use different methods (Likert scales, between-subjects designs) to determine the robustness of the findings. The experimental setting, while controlled, limits generalizability to more ecologically valid classroom settings. The limited range of help types (hints and answers) also limits the scope of the findings.