Children can Represent Complex Social Status Hierarchies: Evidence From Indonesia

• In Event: Experiences of and Awareness of Social Inequalities and Status Hierarchies in Childhood

Abstract

Introduction: Children’s ethnicity-status associations have typically been studied in societies in in which one group (e.g., White Americans in the U.S.) possesses high status across multiple dimensions, such as political influence and wealth. However, there are less well-studied contexts such as Indonesia where one group is high status on one dimension (Native Indonesians have greater political influence), and a different group is high status on another (Chinese Indonesians have greater wealth). These complex dynamics raise questions regarding (1) whether children can associate ethnic groups with distinct forms of status, and (2) whether a specific form of status undergirds biased ethnic group preferences. The present research addressed these questions by examining the development of ethnicity-status associations and group preferences in Indonesia. For comparison, we also examined gender-status associations.

Hypotheses: Informed by past work (Olson et al., 2012; Bigler et al., 2008), we predicted that the youngest children in our sample (6 years) could associate ethnic groups with distinct status dimensions. We also hypothesized that children would prefer Chinese Indonesians, and that preferences would be predicted by wealth judgments. For gender-status associations, we expected children to associate males with political influence and wealth.

Sample: Participants were 236 Indonesian children (6 to 12 years; 44% Native; 18% Chinese; 56% female, 44% male) and 105 Indonesian adults (26% Native; 66% Chinese; 52% female, 20% male) living in the Jakarta metropolitan area.

Method: To assess status associations, participants were presented with four arrays of four photos varied in ethnicity and gender: two Native Indonesian, two Chinese Indonesian (two male, two female). Participants were asked three questions per array: (1) a political influence judgment (all pertaining to political influence in Indonesia: e.g., “Which child will grow up to have a very important position and work with the Indonesian president?”), (2) a wealth status judgment (e.g., “Which child has lots of new and fancy toys?”), and (3) a control item that should not be associated with any group (e.g., “Which child sleeps on their right side instead of their left side?”). For ethnicity-status associations, we calculated the proportion of trials that participants selected Chinese Indonesians (1 = all Chinese, 0 = all Native), and for gender-status associations, we calculated the proportion of trials that participants selected males (1 = all male, 0 = all female). To assess group preferences, we presented two of the arrays and asked who participants wanted to be friends with, and calculated the proportion of trials that participants selected Chinese Indonesians (1 = all Chinese, 0 = all Native).

Results: By 6.5 years old, children showed the predicted associations of Native Indonesians with political influence and Chinese Indonesians with wealth (Figure 1). Also as predicted, children associated males with political influence and wealth (Figure 2). For ethnic group preferences, we found that children of all ethnicities preferred Chinese Indonesians, and that these preferences were predicted specifically by wealth judgments. Together, these results indicate that children can represent complex status hierarchies, and suggest that wealth can be a particularly desirable form of status.

Authors

• Jamie Amemiya, University of California - San Diego
  Presenting Author

• Kiara Widjanarko, University of California, San Diego

• Irene Chung, University of California, San Diego

• Lin Bian, University of Chicago

• Gail D Heyman, University of California - San Diego