Justice for me and for all: Longitudinal analysis of justice perceptions across demographic indicators

Abstract

Most research on justice perceptions stems from high‐income contexts, even though most youth grow up in contexts of inequality and injustice. This study examines the development of justice perceptions in 659 Brazilian adolescents (51.3% male; 45.2% White) in São Paulo across 3 years, ages 12, 13, and 14. Perceptions of justice of the world declined with age and perceived justice in one's personal life differed across ethnic, economic, and educational groups. Privileged groups differentiated more between their evaluations of the world and their personal lives. K‐means clustering revealed five trajectories of justice beliefs, which significantly differed across school type, race/ethnicity, and income levels. Evidence suggests that personal belief in a just world reflects known social group inequalities.

Towards a decolonial developmental science: Adolescent development in the Majority World taking center stage

“…Studies reported in the articles examine aspects of emotional (Shi et al, 2024), cognitive (Lichand et al, 2024;Thomas et al, 2024), and moral development (Pandya & Bhangaokar, 2024;Nwafor et al, 2024), prosocial behavior (Mesurado & Resett, 2024), adolescents' use of time (Kerai et al, 2024), their perceptions of work (Santana & Ristum, 2024), social identity processes (Appachu & F I G U R E 1 Timeline and decision-making process for the Special Issue. Singh, 2024), health (e.g., body image, Mahama et al, 2024), and well-being (Zambrano et al, 2024).…”

“…Studies also investigate family processes including family obligation (Yang et al, 2024), role of family in adolescents' occupational choices (Pease Dreibelbis et al, 2024), grandparenting (Tan et al, 2024), and parental socialization of adolescent emotions (Shi et al, 2024). Methodologically, studies utilize a variety of qualitative approaches (Appachu & Singh, 2024;Kerai et al, 2024;Pandya & Bhangaokar, 2024;Pease Dreibelbis et al, 2024;Santana & Ristum, 2024;Zambrano et al, 2024), mixed-methods approaches (Tan et al, 2024;Mahama et al, 2024;Shaikh & Sarin, 2024), prospective longitudinal designs (Pandya & Bhangaokar, 2024;Shi et al, 2024;Thomas et al, 2024), quantitative studies with variablecentered approaches to data analysis (Shi et al, 2024;Nwafor et al, 2024) as well as person-centered approaches (Thomas et al, 2024;Zhao et al, 2024). This methodological pluralism highlights the relevance of different approaches with various adolescent communities in the Majority World.…”

“…For example, Shaikh and Sarin (2024) discuss the lack of research attention to inhalant use within the literature on substance use as epistemic neglect such that the study of substances that are commonly used in the Minority World is privileged while neglecting those that are used in the Majority World. Thomas et al (2024) discuss the need to decolonize justice belief research by examining beliefs about the just world in different contexts and by recognizing that justice perceptions are shaped by one's everyday realities. These researchers examine adolescents' beliefs about the just world in the context of high inequality in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with its colonial history.…”