South African children's views of wealth, poverty, inequality and unemployment

The aim of this study is to investigate the understanding of wealth, povert y, inequality and unemployment in South African Black (African) children ag ed 7, 9, 11 and 14 drawn from a rural, an urban and a semi-urban setting. T wo hundred and twenty-five children (80 rural, 60 urban and 85 semi-urban) were interviewed individually in Setswana, their mother tongue. The urban c hildren were living in a township in Pretoria, the semi-urban and the rural in the North West Province. The results show that the particulars of the c hildren's knowledge about wealth, poverty, inequality and unemployment were influenced by their social environment. However, in line with previous stu dies, the results show that the children's capacity to make inferences and integrate information about these concepts is more influenced by age than b y their social milieu. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PsycINFO classification. 2800; 2840. JEL classification. J13; E40; G21.