ERIC Number: EJ1389577
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Sep
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: EISSN-1939-0599
Available Date: N/A
Adolescents View Social Exclusion Based on Social Class as More Wrong than Do Children
Gönül, Buse; Sahin-Acar, Basak; Killen, Melanie
Developmental Psychology, v59 n9 p1703-1715 Sep 2023
Psychological attitudes about social status hierarchies and social mobility often reflect stereotypic expectations about competencies and entitlements based on inequalities. Children who experience exclusion based on social class are at risk of experiencing a lack of opportunities, contributing to societal disparities. Recently, developmental science has examined the origins of attitudes that contribute to social exclusion, reflecting moral judgments about fairness as well as societal and group-based concerns about norms and intergroup dynamics. This study investigated children's reasoning about intergroup exclusion by focusing on social class as a potential exclusion criterion for children and adolescents in peer contexts in Türkiye, an understudied context for research. Participants living in a metropolitan area of Türkiye (N = 270) between the ages of 8-10 (M[subscript age] = 9.80; SD = 0.77; 53.5% girls) and 14-16 (M[subscript age] = 15.51; SD = 0.93, 61.7% girls) from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds were asked for their exclusion evaluations, emotion attributions, related justifications, and individual solutions. While participants overall viewed social class-based social exclusion as wrong, adolescents typically viewed it as more wrong than did children. Adolescents focused on unfair treatment and discrimination, whereas children focused on interpersonal aspects of social exclusion more frequently. Older participants from lower socioeconomic status (SES) viewed the excluders' intentions as discriminatory more often than did older participants from higher SES who desired to protect the status quo. These findings shed new light on how children and adolescents evaluate societal-based biases contributing to peer social exclusion.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Adolescents, Adolescent Attitudes, Social Isolation, Barriers, Group Membership, Childrens Attitudes, Social Class, Low Income Students, Socioeconomic Influences, Intention, Peer Acceptance, Peer Relationship, Thinking Skills, Children
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF); National Institutes of Health (NIH) (DHHS)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Turkey
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1728918; R01HD09368
Author Affiliations: N/A