Adolescents' Judgments of Economic Arrangements

Abstract

Adolescents in Grade 8 (aged 12-13 years) and Grade 12 (aged 16-18 years) were asked to allocate rewards between a male and female worker in four separate cases. In one case, a male with no children was contrasted with a female with three children. In the second, a male with three children was contrasted with a female with none. In the third case, both workers had no children; in the fourth, both had three. The results indicated that concern for need significantly decreased with age with subjects preferring to allocate rewards according to the norm of equal work for equal pay. Boys' concern for need was correlated with a self-report measure of mother identification.