The Development of Socioeconomic Cognition in Childhood

Socioeconomic inequality is a growing social issue with myriad implications for children’s development. Children are not simply passive recipients of their family’s socioeconomic circumstances; rather, children begin developing a conceptual map of socioeconomic inequality early in life. Across three empirical chapters, this dissertation examines the development of socioeconomic cognition over early to middle childhood. Chapter 1 examines children’s emerging concepts of people experiencing wealth versus poverty across urban-rural divides. Chapter 2 measures children’s beliefs about inequality and the possibility of upward or downward social mobility. Chapter 3 examines adults’ and children’s reasoning about whether, and from whom, children should learn about basic financial literacy, personal finances, and socioeconomic inequality. This dissertation provides a multifaceted examination of children’s early socioeconomic cognition and the mechanisms affecting children’s patterns of socioeconomic cognition over developmental time.