While I was unable to find a printed research article in the Armacost Library regarding the relationship between mental illness and socioeconomic status, which is my research topic, I did find a few research articles on education strategies that can increase the future success rate of children from low income families to match that of children from other economic backgrounds. I felt that this was related to my topic in that the articles focused on pinpointing a specific factor that contributes to socioeconomic stratification, quality of available education, and offered realistic solutions. I found these articles in the Journal of Education Psychology and have decided to focus on the article “Low-Income Immigrant Pupils Learning Vocabulary Through Digital Picture Storybooks” by Marian J. A. J. Verhallen and Adriana G. Bus. The study was done in the Netherlands and the main questions the researchers wanted to answer were “does presentation format effect the development of vocabulary for preliterate, immigrant children?” and “are receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary differentially affected by presentation format?”. Demographic data and shallow reports of acts were needed to answer these questions. Participants were acquired by contacting teachers and school administrations for information regarding their students’ backgrounds in order to determine which students fit into their demographic requirements (5 years old, used Moroccan-Berber or Turkish at home, were of a low-income family, etc.). Students that met demographic requirements were then tested academically in their Dutch language abilities and non-verbal intelligence. The remaining students that met the criteria were exposed to different story-telling presentations through CD-ROM. One story was told with static illustration, while the other was a video. Their results, analyzed through covariance (ANCOVAs), found that while both types of story-telling were effective, the video version of the story was more effective in teaching new vocabulary to the students. There was no difference between receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary between the two formats, although it was determined that receptive vocabulary is acquired more easily than expressive vocabulary regardless of exposure format. I personally felt that the study was thorough and well-done, as it even mentioned ways in which to expose this demographic of students to video story-telling in order to increase their vocabulary which translates into better understanding of their school material. This would hypothetically increase their chances of success later in their education if they were exposed to video story-telling. Although I think that whether or not the results of the study would be taken seriously by schools with a large minority population and give children access to those resources is critical to the research findings having any effect. It is possible that lack of willingness to accommodate minority children is a factor in their stunted vocabulary development that could have been tested for or taken into consideration

Verhallen, M., Bus, A. (2010). Low-Income Immigrant Pupils Learning Vocabulary Through Digital Picture Storybooks. Journal of Educational Psychology. (Vol. 102, No. 1, pp. 54-61).