Abstract
Teacher help is crucial for learning and boosts children’s development. Receiving help may also have unintended negative consequences as it may signal that recipients are not competent enough to solve tasks independently. Teachers often provide more help to children from lower-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, and lab-based studies show that when help is distributed unequally it can reinforce negative ability stereotypes. In this preregistered study, we examined whether children (7-13 years) perceive differences in who receives help in their own classrooms and whether perceived SES-based differences in help lead to stronger SES stereotypes over time. At three time points across one school year Dutch children (N= 565, 65 classrooms, 49.5% boys, 49.5% girls, 1.1% other/prefer not to say; 65.2% native Dutch; mixed SES backgrounds) identified which classmates most often received help from their teacher and how much they endorsed ability stereotypes about SES groups. Across all time points, children perceived that teachers helped lower-SES classmates more than higher-SES classmates. This pattern emerged for two types of help, and was more pronounced among children from lower-SES backgrounds and older children. Moreover, perceived SES-based differences in teacher help at the start of the school year predicted stronger SES-based ability stereotypes halfway through the year, although this association was limited to one type of help. These findings suggest that everyday classroom practices intended to support children who need additional help may inadvertently shape which children and societal groups are seen as less capable. This has important implications for how SES-based stereotypes take root.