The notion of Lewis's culture of poverty (COP) was applied to analysis of some behavioral characteristics of Australian rural White and Aboriginal children. Aboriginal children scored higher than nearby White children on a COP Scale, were more often absent from school, and scored lower on teacher-estimated school-ability ratings and on language and classification tests. The negative relationship between COP level and language performance also applied to the White children in a somewhat similar environment. The COP hypothesis was shown to be a useful device for extending understanding of certain school-related behaviors of some low-socioeconomic minority culture children.
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