A Look into Children’s Understanding of Racial Disparities in Social Mobility

Presenter

Oluchi Ukairo

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Tara Marissa Mandalaywala, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A97, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 5 (A81-A100) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Children reason about social mobility in nuanced and realistic ways; by 5-12 years old, children in the United States expect families of low socioeconomic status to be less likely to experience upward mobility than those with a high socioeconomic status (Tian et al., 2023). Race also shapes opportunities for upward mobility; however, little research has examined whether children are aware of racial disparities in social mobility. American children use racial group membership to infer social status by 6 years of age such that children expect Black people to hold lower-status occupations than White people (Bigler et al, 2003). Racial disparities in social mobility are present in current society as Black and Indigenous children show significantly lower rates of upward mobility and higher rates of downward mobility than white children (Chetty et al., 2019). Here, we ask whether 4 to 9-year-old (N=65) children are also aware of racial inequities in upward mobility. Children are introduced to 4 racially diverse families (Black American, White American, Asian American, and Latin American) who experience upward social mobility on a 9-rung ladder and are asked to predict the likelihood of each family experiencing that upward mobility event, from 1 (none of the time) to 5 (all of the time). We predict that children will show an awareness of racial disparities in upward mobility such that results will indicate an increased belief in upward social mobility for individuals in the White American and Asian American categories.

Keywords

Developmental Psychology , Equity , Economic Disparities

Research Area

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

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