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The purpose of this paper is to highlight factors that facilitate or hinder the entry and academic achievement of students from low socioeconomic status into higher education, and facilitate understanding about how such students can be supported in their learning at university.

The authors draw on the literature on social inclusion, social exclusion, social identity and education, and link key aspects to the access, participation and learning success of students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds in higher education.

The paper identifies socioeconomic factors that impact on student learning and provides a comprehensive framework for understanding, supporting and addressing the needs of students from the target group.

The findings and discussion will contribute to the knowledge and teaching resource base required for institutions, academic and support staff to formulate and implement effective strategies for increased participation in higher education by students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds.

Most discussion and research on social inclusion and exclusion tends to relate to factors that lead to social disadvantage in general, but there is a growing need to consider the disadvantage in terms of access to higher education and the creation of learning opportunities that lead to success and educational advancement.

This paper aims to analyse the effect of financial learning quality (FLQ) and parental socioeconomic status (SES) on the financial self-efficacy (FSE) of undergraduate Accounting students in Bali with students’ financial literacy (FL) serving a mediator.

This research used a quantitative design with ex post facto approach and path analysis technique. Research data were collected by administering a financial literacy test on, and questionnaires distributed to, the sample selected using a purposive random sampling technique. The research sample consisted of undergraduate Accounting students in Bali who were in their fourth or sixth semesters, numbering 518.

The research results show that financial learning quality and parental socioeconomic status directly influenced financial literacy. Financial learning quality and socioeconomic status did not have any direct influence on financial self-efficacy, but financial literacy directly affected financial self-efficacy. Additionally, the results also show that financial literacy was able to mediate learning quality’s and socioeconomic status’ relationships with financial self-efficacy.

The research results indicate that financial learning quality had a significant effect on financial literacy but lacked any direct influence on financial self-efficacy. This suggests that it is important to improve financial learning quality in not only cognitive aspect (knowledge) but also practical aspect, which will contribute to the improvement in students’ financial self-efficacy. In the future, research can be continued by finding other variables that are more dominant in influencing financial self efficacy. In addition, research and development approach can be done to find a learning model that can improve financial self-efficacy among accounting students.

Previous studies predominantly investigated the factors that affect financial literacy in students. There has been a small body of research that addresses financial self-efficacy, especially in Accounting students. Therefore, this research makes a contribution to the knowledge on factors that influence, either directly or indirectly, FSE in students with financial literacy serving as a mediator.

A continuous mixed opinion on the relevance of caste-based reservations and caste as a factor of socioeconomic disparity in the recent period demands update of evidence on socioeconomic inequalities among caste groups for effective policy making. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the caste inequalities in terms of socioeconomic opportunities and poverty are still persisting in rural Uttar Pradesh based on village census surveys?

This study used data primarily collected from four village census surveys under the project rural transformation in Uttar Pradesh, 2013. Bivariate analyses, human opportunity index (HOI), multidimensional poverty index (MPI) and inequality decomposition analyses used as methods of analyses.

The authors findings suggest that in spite of more than six decades of welfare policies and major political mobilization movements among lower castes in the state, the huge inequalities in terms of critical socioeconomic indicators such as landholding, higher education and wealth distribution and multi-dimensional poverty across the castes are still persisting in the state. Decomposition results suggest that between group inequalities contribute more to the total inequality in landholding whereas within group inequalities contribute maximum to total inequality in education and wealth status of different castes in rural Uttar Pradesh. However, within inequalities much less in general castes compared to SCs/OBCs.

Based on its latest empirical evidence, this study strengthens the argument that caste still matters in socioeconomic achievements of the population in India even after decades of planning and financing of social welfare schemes to uplift the lower castes in India. Thus, provides critical inputs to current debates on the relevance of caste as a determinant of socioeconomic status in India.

The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the large differences between poor and rich Brazilian households regarding children's outcomes; that is, understanding inequality in health outcomes in the childhood in Brazil, examining the link between the health of Brazilian children and a variety of socioeconomic factors.

Logit models for some measures of child health (poor health, chronic diseases, hospitalization and visits to doctors and dentists). Individuals are grouped according to their income decile. Independent variables comprise indicators of socioeconomic status and demographic variables, primarily related to the family structure.

Results suggest that the true effect of family structure is more complex than the biological relationship of parents to children. There are large effects of family income distribution on child health indicators. When control variables are included, the magnitude of these effects changes. The addition of mothers' educational attainment to the set of controls reduces the estimated income effects. Also, the gradient in the health‐income relationship is a little steeper for older children.

Although there are numerous studies investigating the impact of family resources on health outcomes, whether income and family structure truly matters is still a debated issue. Brazil presents a huge level of income and until recently there has been little data with which to assess the nature and magnitude of the role, which socioeconomic factors play in the incidence and severity of health problems. The authors originally attempt to understand what it means to talk about inequality in health, and whether health inequality in Brazil is linked to income inequality.

A woman's nutritional status significantly determines her overall well-being. The authors critically examine the trends — including socioeconomic disparities — in undernutrition among Muslim women in India, a notably socio-economically disadvantaged group. The authors also investigate trends and variations across the dimensions of caste, place of residence (rural/urban), education, economic status and geographic regions.

The analysis leverages the nationally representative National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) of India conducted between 1998 and 2021. The authors examined poor–rich ratios, concentration indices, disparity ratios and predicted probabilities of being underweight (captured using Body Mass Index).

From 1998 to 2021, there has been a decline in undernutrition prevalence among Muslim women. However, stark socioeconomic variations persist. While the prevalence has decreased over time across all socioeconomic groups, disparities — both within and between groups — remain significant and, in many cases, have expanded. For certain socioeconomic subgroups (e.g. Muslim women with no formal education or those in the Central and Northeast regions), the disparity doubled between 1998 and 2021. In regions like the South, where undernutrition prevalence is low or has reduced, disparities remain significant and generally have increased.

To the authors’ knowledge, the study is the first to provide a comprehensive examination of the prevalence, trends and socioeconomic disparities in undernutrition among Muslim women in India over the past two decades.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2023-0320

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of taking out government‐funded student loans for university study in Australia.

The paper uses an ordered probit model to quantify the influence of the various factors which affect students' decisions on funding their tertiary study using student loans or through other means.

The study finds that the probability of taking out student loans for the full cost of university is largely influenced by students' socioeconomic status. Other major influences on this decision include students' demographic and university enrolment characteristics.

A limitation of the work is that only a neighbourhood (rather than an individual‐level) measure of socioeconomic status was available, and future research should seek to address this.

The research shows that the parameters of loan schemes do not seem to be able to over‐ride the influence that family background has on loan taking behaviour. That is, poor students use loans regardless of the parameters of the loans scheme in order to overcome short‐term credit constraints. In other words, these student loan schemes channel funds to those without other means of funding their higher education.

By showing the impact that income contingent provisions have on loan taking behaviour, the paper informs policy makers of potential impacts from modifying loans schemes to reflect this characteristic.

This study aims to investigate the food choice motivations and some healthy food intake among Ardabil adults with different socioeconomic status.

The analysis is based on a focus group study conducted in September 2018. Self-assessed other food choice motivations, healthy food intake and socioeconomic status were reported in questionnaires. The study data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA test and χ² test in groups of study.

Price was a primary motivation of food choice for low-level socioeconomic status persons. The wealthiest people total vegetable consumption was 3.59Â ± 0.004 serving/day, whereas the total vegetable consumption of poorest participants was significantly less than them (p = 0.012). Of the socioeconomics category 1 (SEC1) group participants, 82 per cent said that they consider food price when they were purchasing for their households, while only 28 per cent of SEC4 group said that they consider food prices when food choosing. Only 1 per cent of this group participants pay attention to food label when they choose foods.

This is the first study that investigated the food choice motivations in Ardabil adults. The results indicated that food price is the most critical food choice motivation. Based on this study results, the food policymaker can change people food security and food choices with some programs like as healthy food subsidies and unhealthy food taxes.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the trends of socioeconomic-related inequalities in maternal healthcare utilization in Ghana between 2003 and 2014 and examine the causes of inequalities in maternal healthcare utilization in Ghana.

Data are drawn from three rounds of the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey collected in 2003, 2008 and 2014, respectively. The authors employ two alternative measures of socioeconomic inequalities in health – the Wagstaff and Erreygers indices – to examine the trends of socioeconomic inequalities in maternal healthcare utilization. The authors proceed to decompose the causes of inequalities in maternal healthcare by applying a recently developed generalized decomposition technique based on recentered influence function regressions.

The study finds substantial pro-rich inequalities in maternal healthcare utilization in Ghana. The degree of inequalities has been decreasing since 2003. The elimination of user fees for maternal healthcare has contributed to achieving equity and inclusion in utilization. The decomposition analysis reveals significant contributions of individual, household and locational characteristics to inequalities in maternal healthcare. The authors find that educational attainment, urban residence and challenges with physical access to healthcare facilities increase the socioeconomic gap in maternal healthcare utilization.

There is a need to target vulnerable women who are unlikely to utilize maternal healthcare services. In addition to the elimination of user fees, there is a need to reduce inequalities in the distribution and quality of maternal health services to achieve universal coverage in Ghana.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of citizens’ future use of mobile applications provided by government. Research on citizen-initiated contacts with government has focused on both non-technology and technology related contacts. Existing research, however, has not examined the impact of mobile applications or “apps” on citizen-initiated contacts with government. Furthermore, existing research has not examined satisfaction with mobile government and whether this impacts future use.

The authors examine future use of mobile apps through an empirical analysis of a public opinion survey of citizen users in four of the largest cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen).

Using ordered logistic regression analysis, this study found that the strongest predictors of future use were demand and satisfaction with mobile apps. However, there was no wide-scale evidence of socioeconomic status and age impacting mobile apps future use.

The findings in this study contribute to both theory and practice of the determinants of mobile government adoption.

The results challenge the citizen-initiated contact theory, as socioeconomic status was not a major predictor of mobile apps future use in China. The results further indicate that satisfaction was a good predictor of mobile apps future use.

This study investigated the trends of repetition and dropout rates in Myanmar's lower secondary education before and after the introduction of the “Continuous Assessment and Progression System (CAPS)” and probed the dependence of these tendencies on high-, middle- and low- socioeconomic status (SES). The obtained results were then examined to extract effective policy implications for the achievement of universal secondary education as specified in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Before and after the CAPS introduction at four government secondary schools, grade repetition and dropout rate trends were examined with respect to differences in students' SES. The analysis utilised a sample of 7,272 students from target secondary schools in urban Yangon Region, Myanmar.

It was found that since the introduction of CAPS, the grade repetition rates had fallen significantly in all SES groups, so was effective regardless of students' SES. The results also demonstrated the influence of unequal CAPS on dropout rates: in the middle-SES group, significant falls to nearly zero post-CAPS implementation. The high-SES group was at ceiling pre- and post-CAPS, so was unaffected. However, in the low-SES group, high dropout rates persisted, indicating that the poor socioeconomic backgrounds of these students significantly reduced the benefits of CAPS.

Rather than using cross-sectional data such as education statistics, this study used longitudinal data based on academic enrollment registries that included information on individual enrollment statuses, which allowed for the relationships between grade repetition, school dropout, education policies and socioeconomic circumstances to be elucidated.