In school settings, there are often not enough opportunities to develop children's social competencies besides developing their cognitive abilities. But there is a need for this kind of support, especially in disadvantaged areas and for minority children. Study-hall programs function to compensate for this deficiency. We compared matched groups of primary school pupils in two municipalities in the Northern part of Hungary. One group participated in a study hall program, while the other did not. We measured social competencies. Impulsivity and aggression were measured with questionnaires, while communication and future vision were approached qualitatively. Children attending Study-hall programs like to go there, and most of them listed playing activities among the best programs. Our results show that children from the study hall program have better communication skills and a more realistic vision of the future, and based on their self-report, they feel more like they belong to the majority society than their peers from the school without a study hall program. We conclude that study halls can mitigate disadvantages coming from low socio-economic status.