Abstract
Many psychological studies have shown how adults behave when faced with unemployment but few studies have undertaken research concerning children's and adolescents' understanding of the problem. The research presented here addresses this issue. Written questionnaires were completed by 227 subjects, from 12 to 17 years of age, sampled from public and private schools in the city and rural areas of the state of Queretaro in Mexico. Ninety of these subjects were also individually interviewed. Both experimental devices included aspects on the individual and social causes that allow people to get a job, the individual and social causes that are involved in people loosing their jobs, and the consequences and actions that individuals may display under these circumstances. The data shows that the comprehension of individual and social causes for employment and unemployment are related to the age, the cognitive level and the social origin of the subjects. Older subjects were able to understand individual and social causes better than younger subjects, who mainly understood individual and concrete causes. In certain cases differences were found among subjects of city and urban origins because of social variables. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive development related to economic socialization.