Developmental Perspectives on Social Inequalities and Human Rights

Abstract

Social inequalities and human rights are inevitably linked to children’s and adolescents’ healthy development. Children who experience structural and interpersonal inequalities in access to resources and opportunities based on their gender, race, ethnicity, or other group categories are denied the right to fair treatment. We assert that investigating the psychological perspectives that children hold regarding inequalities and human rights is necessary for creating fair and just societies. We take a constructivist approach to this topic which seeks to understand how individuals interpret and evaluate observed and experienced inequalities. Even young children think about these issues. Yet, throughout development, individuals must often weigh multiple, potentially conflicting considerations when interpreting, evaluating, and responding to social inequalities and rights violations. In these complex contexts, children and adolescents are neither fully “moral” nor fully “prejudiced.” Rather, critical questions for research in this area concern when, why, and for whom young people reject inequalities and support rights, and, by contrast, when, why, and for whom they accept that inequalities and rights violations should be allowed to persist. This paper provides a brief overview of how different conceptions of social inequalities and rights are intrinsically linked together.

Children's developing understanding of economic inequality and their place within it

“…For instance, a recent analysis of International Social Survey Program data by Mijs (2021) found that members of more unequal countries were more likely to believe in a meritocratic basis for success and less likely to think that structural reasons are relevant, and experimental work by McCoy and Major (2007) found that priming meritocratic beliefs led to an increase in system justifying perceptions. Killen et al (2022) have pointed out that explanations for inequality have political implications. Individualistic explanations can be used to argue that structural barriers are not a problem for upward mobility, thereby discouraging policy initiatives to reduce structural factors.…”

“…The present paper does not concern itself with describing the deleterious direct effects of poverty and economic inequality on children's development, which are numerous and well‐documented (for a summary see, for instance, Ministry of Social Development, 2018). Rather, the focus is on what children themselves understand about inequality – the gap between the richest and poorest in a society – their emerging understanding of the self as an individual within an unequal society, the relevant social and psychological processes these understandings can ignite and how these understandings connect with a developing understanding of social justice and moral issues (for a fuller review see Killen et al, 2022).…”

Children's and adolescents’ evaluations of wealth‐related STEM inequality

“…and has been applied to understanding youth's perceptions of wealth inequality (Killen et al, 2022). The SRD model also proposes that thinking about group processes leads to children considering the status of groups when making social decisions (Rutland & Killen, 2017).…”

Conceptual Commitments of Constructivism in an Age when Truth Matters

“…Using a number of diverse examples, she demonstrates how sense-making occurs through semiotic mediation -from the construction of gender in kindergarten children to how adolescents engage with literary and philosophy school texts and come to use them as symbolic resources in their everyday lives. Central to the approach of Killen et al (2022) (this issue) is the Piagetian idea that children construct moral norms, and they discuss how this construction is influenced by the confluence of a variety of factors. Furthermore, they argue that understanding children's psychological perspectives on inequalities is essential for designing social policy approaches that facilitate social change; developmental research thus informs normative practices.…”

“…The value of the process perspective is emphasized by Rodríguez (2022) (this issue) by outlining that it is important to incorporate children's goals from a developmentally sensitive perspective into the assessment of their skills related to EF. Killen et al (2022) (this issue) argue that children's early conceptions of social inequalities and rights impact their adult conceptions. Furthermore, even though they do not discuss this issue explicitly, an open question is how changing societal values influence children's and adolescents' conceptions of social inequalities and rights.…”