Psychological Development and Education ›› 2022, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 466-474.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2022.04.02

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8~15 Year Olds’ Understanding of Wealth and Poverty including a Developmental Comparison between Children and Adults

JIANG Yingying1,2, AN Jing1,2, MA Li1,2, ZHU Liqi1,2   

  1. 1. CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101;
    2. Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049
  • Published:2022-07-13

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Abstract: The understanding of economic inequality plays an important role in children's evaluations of individuals and societies as well as their opinions on governmental policy issues including taxation and welfare. Based on cognitive-developmental theory, this study recruited 186 Chinese participants (8~9 year olds; 11~12 year olds; 14~15 year olds; adults, mainly undergraduates, age:20.7±1.32) and had them fill out a self-reported questionnaire about the nature, justification, causes and alleviation of poverty, including open-ended questions and structural items. Our findings were as follows:After controlling for SES, (1) 8~9-year-old children were more likely than adults to describe the rich/poor with peripheral features; 11~12-year-old children placed more emphasis on the psychological features than other age groups; Adults' descriptions focused more on systemic features than 8~9-year-old children; (2) 8~9-year-old children were more likely to claim it is unfair that some people are poor while some are rich than other age groups; (3) Both children and adults mentioned personal factors in the causes of poverty and ways to alleviate poverty, while adults were more likely to focus on external factors such as national policy and societal factors and suggest it is impossible to eliminate poverty. In conclusion, some similarities have been observed between children in this study and their Western counterparts regarding the development of understanding of wealth and poverty, such as the description of the rich/poor. However, differences were also detected, particularly in children's ideas about the causes, justification, and alleviation of poverty. Chinese children placed more emphasis on personal factors and were more likely to believe that poverty was fair, compared to children in previous Western studies. The cultural implication of the results is discussed. Our findings provided a theoretical and empirical basis for other future studies to investigate this complicated development.

Key words: children, the development of the understanding of wealth and poverty, cognitive-developmental theory, Chinese sociocultural environment

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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