La comprensión de la organización social en el niño y el adolescente

Abstract

This paper is devoted to describe several studies concerned with children’s and adolescents’ understanding about work and occupations as elements of knowledge of social structure. Methods and techniques as well as results of several experimental studies are briefly described. The review includes the following type of studies: 1. Children’s and adolescents’ knowledge about their parents work when compared to other people’s work and the sources of money to pay for work. 2. Children’s and adolescents’ knowledge about occupations through television. 3. Mexican school books contents related to occupations. 4. Children’s and adolescents’ understanding of individual and social causes of unemployment. 5. Children’s and adolescents’ understanding of occupational hierarchy related to consumption and saving. Overall results allow an analysis related to developmental trends as well as social and cultural variables effects on children’s and adolescents’ understanding of work and unemployment as elements of their increasing knowledge about social structure.