How youth think about structural, individual, and random sources of wealth inequality

This study investigated how youth evaluate wealth inequalities, and whether youth differentiate structural, individual, and random explanations for why such inequalities exist. Understanding these distinctions is necessary for addressing exclusionary attitudes, biases, and discriminatory behaviors that emerge in childhood which have deleterious outcomes for youth. The present study included 262 youth (56.1% female; 27% Black, 49% White, 6.5% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 6% Latine, 6% multiracial, 6% other) who were 9 to 14-years-old, living in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., and from primarily middle to high-middle income backgrounds. Participants evaluated wealth inequalities of different causes, reasoned about their judgments, and decided whether to rectify the inequalities. They also responded to causal explanations for why some are wealthy and others are poor. The wealth inequalities were represented with target groups from Black and White racial backgrounds. Youth viewed structural sources of inequality as less acceptable than individual or random inequalities. While youth expected poverty to be caused through structural barriers, only by early adolescence did they recognize that being wealthy was a result of structural advantages, particularly for White individuals. Further, youth who perceived themselves as lower in wealth status than their peers were more likely than their higher wealth status peers to endorse redistribution of wealth when no reason for the inequality was given. Given that structural explanations of wealth disparities help to understand wealth differences and thus provide a means for addressing prejudice and bias, these findings have implications for reducing prejudicial attitudes about wealth in childhood.