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Abstract Children and adolescents (N = 153, ages 8–14 years, Mage = 11.46 years) predicted and evaluated peer exclusion in interwealth (high-wealth and low-wealth) and interracial (African American and European American) contexts. With age, participants increasingly expected high-wealth groups to be more exclusive than low-wealth groups, regardless of their depicted race. Furthermore, children evaluated interwealth exclusion less negatively than interracial exclusion, and children who identified as higher in wealth evaluated interwealth exclusion less negatively than did children who identified as lower in wealth. Children cited explicit negative stereotypes about high-wealth groups in their justifications, while rarely citing stereotypes about low-wealth groups or racial groups. Results revealed that both race and wealth are important factors that children consider when evaluating peer exclusion.
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Children's Perceptions of Economic Groups in a Context of Limited Access to Opportunities
Abstract Children (N = 267, ages 8–14 years, M = 11.61 years, middle to upper-middle income) made predictions regarding groups of same-aged peers from high-wealth and low-wealth backgrounds. The context involved granting access to a special opportunity. From middle childhood to early adolescence children increasingly expected both high- and low-wealth groups to want access to opportunities for their own group. However, children viewed high-wealth groups as motivated in part by selfishness and low-wealth groups as concerned in part with broader economic inequality. Finally, the higher children's family income, the more they expected group-serving tendencies. These findings revealed children's perceptions of exclusive preferences between economic groups, negative stereotypes about high-wealth children, and awareness of some of the constraints faced by low-wealth children.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1728918
- PAR ID:
- 10658672
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Child Development
- Volume:
- 90
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0009-3920
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 1632-1649
- Size(s):
- p. 1632-1649
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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