Young Children's Awareness and Understanding of Social Class Differences

Ramsey, Patricia G.

doi:10.1080/00221325.1991.9914679

Cited by 79 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In her study of poor and middle-class children in a small New England town, Ramsey (1991) found that 3-4-, and 5-yearold children rarely commented spontaneously about social class. They were able accurately to distinguish "rich" from "poor" when sorting photographs of the two groups.…”

Section: Awareness Of Social and Economic Statusmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In a follow-up study, Leahy (1983a) appraised the explanations and justifications that children offered for economic inequality, and their ideas about social mobility and change. Finally, Ramsey (1991) investigated young children's understanding of social class cues and the nature and causes of class differences and their relationship to money.…”

Section: Research Problems Investigatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children's Views of Social Inequality: A Review of Research and Implications for Teaching

Chafel¹

1997

The Educational Forum

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Section: Awareness Of Social and Economic Statusmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Research Problems Investigatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's Views of Social Inequality: A Review of Research and Implications for Teaching

Chafel¹

1997

The Educational Forum

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“…Previous research indicates children as young as preschool age are able to distinguish between people who are ''rich'' and ''poor'' and to associate concrete items such as types of homes, clothing, and possessions with each group (e.g., Chafel 1997;Ramsey 1991). Chafel and Neitzel (2005) showed that children as young as age 8 express poverty as being unfair and suggest ways to alleviate poverty reflecting a charitable ethos.…”

Section: Youths' Ideas About Poverty and Government Responsibility Tomentioning

confidence: 98%

Increasing the Complexity of Young Adolescents’ Beliefs About Poverty and Inequality: Results of an 8th Grade Social Studies Curriculum Intervention

Mistry

Brown

Chow

et al. 2011

J Youth Adolescence

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Poverty and economic hardship remain a reality for many of America's children. Although the causes of poverty are varied, Americans strongly endorse individual responsibility as a primary cause. Because beliefs about poverty originate in childhood and adolescence, intervention efforts targeting young people may be particularly effective in shifting attitudes about the poor and policies designed to help the disadvantaged. To test this proposition, the current study evaluated the efficacy of a 1-week 8th grade social studies curriculum focusing on poverty and inequality. Study participants were upper middle-class youth enrolled in multiple sections of a Social Studies course taught by a single teacher. Participants had little direct contact with marginalized groups such as poor and homeless individuals in their communities. Students (N=66) completed a survey assessing their attitudes and beliefs about poverty and poor people prior to, and 1 week and 6 months post-instruction. Results indicated that the curriculum was partially effective in increasing the complexity of students' beliefs about poverty. Students were more likely to emphasize fatalistic causes and less likely to list individualistic causes for poverty following instruction than before, but rarely emphasized structural causes for poverty and rated individual effort as the most influential factor in determining one's success. Implications of the study findings for curriculum efforts targeting young adolescents' reasoning about economic inequality and inequity and directions for future studies are discussed.

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“…Children seem to be able to categorize social identities that are perceptually salient, such as gender and race, earlier than social identities that are based on more complex markers like ethnicity (Bernal, Knight, Garza, Ocampo, & Cota, 1990). In terms of social class, Ramsey (1991) finds that although four-and-half-year-old children can make dichotomous judgments between "rich" and "poor" people portrayed in photographs, they are "unable to explain where money comes from" (p. 80). In fact, when asked what "rich" means, "some of the children used words such as 'gold' and 'kings,' which reflect the fairy tale images of wealth that appear in many books and movies for children" (p. 79).…”

Section: The Creation Of Social Identitiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Creating new social identities in children through critical multicultural media: The case ofLittle Bill

Hurtado¹,

Silva²

2008

New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development

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Multicultural education emerged from the political struggles of the 1960s and 1970s and advocated the inclusion of women and ethnic and racial groups in school curricula and children's media. Recently multiculturalism has evolved to include a critical perspective by focusing on stigmatized social identities such as race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and disability. Little Bill, a children's animated television series, is an example of applied critical multiculturalism. In this chapter, we present a case study of one episode, "A Ramp for Monty," to illustrate the merits of this approach, which may increase the number of social identities children relate to and increase the degree of understanding they may bring to the differences inherent in social identities.

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Young Children's Awareness and Understanding of Social Class Differences

Cited by 79 publications

References 18 publications

Children's Views of Social Inequality: A Review of Research and Implications for Teaching

Children's Views of Social Inequality: A Review of Research and Implications for Teaching

Increasing the Complexity of Young Adolescents’ Beliefs About Poverty and Inequality: Results of an 8th Grade Social Studies Curriculum Intervention

Creating new social identities in children through critical multicultural media: The case ofLittle Bill

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