Selected Children's Representations of People in Five Countries

Abstract

Twenty-four 10- and 13-year-old children of low socioeconomic level and of Hispanic, Asian, African American, and white ethnic heritage were shown photos of people in five different countries and were asked open-ended questions to elicit certain data, interview procedures were first piloted, then revised questions were used to generate representations from the participants. Data were aggregated and compared across photos, age, and linguistic/cultural subgroups to answer the following research questions: (a) How can children's representations of countries and people be described? (b) What cultural information is included in their representations? (c) What qualities of representation are associated with age? (d) What qualities of representation are associated with variety in children's own linguistic/cultural experience? Overall, representations were characterized by emphasis upon austere conditions and hardships in life and the human need for security. Ten-year-olds elaborated primarily upon the thoughts and feelings of people, while 13-year-olds included more knowledge abstracted to country level. A minor substantive difference was noted among groups differentiated by linguistic/cultural background.