Children's Perceptions of Socio-economic Inequality in South Korea and the United Kingdom

A plethora of reports by governmental agencies, think tanks, international organizations, and newspapers have charted the development and stubborn persistence of socio-economic inequality in the UK. Epidemiological research indicated that societies with greater income inequality score lower than more equal societies in common public health indicators (e.g., morbidity, infant mortality), but also well-being, mental health, and children's developmental outcomes. Thus, socio-economic inequality has adverse effects for individuals and societies.
Research across the social sciences has attempted to understand the psychological impact of socio-economic inequality on young people. The key contributions of this literature include a recognition of the importance of social inclusion and social identity in the context of social class groups and children's agency in responding to and coping with inequality. Indeed, these social-cognitive mechanisms seem to be key in mediating the effects of inequality on children's developmental outcomes and functioning. Thus, to understand how inequality affects children and developmental outcomes, it is imperative to examine the development of children's understanding of socio-economic inequality as well as socio-cognitive mechanisms underlying this development. Developmental psychological research on how children from different socio-economic backgrounds experience and respond to inequality is therefore vital in understanding the effects of socio-economic inequality on children and how socio-economic inequality is perpetuated in societies.

The vast majority of recent research on children's understanding of socio-economic inequality has been conducted in North America or Western Europe. Where cultural comparisons do exist, they point to differential influences of cultural conceptualizations of socio-economic inequality, social class identities and stereotypes, and children's experience with personal and structural inequalities on developmental outcomes. It is thus pertinent to understand how cultural factors shape and change the relative influence of developing socio-cognitive mechanisms on children's perceptions of socio-economic inequality as well as developmental functioning and outcomes. Addressing these questions in the UK and South Korea is particularly apt, as the two countries share similarities in terms of economic indicators of socio-economic inequality, but differ in terms of cultural beliefs more generally and reactions to inequality more specifically. Consequently, establishing a network of researchers that focuses children's perceptions of inequality in the UK and South Korea is extremely valuable in understanding the relative effects of broad economic indicators (which are similar for both societies) and socio-cognitive mechanisms and orientations (which seem to differ for both countries) on developmental outcomes.
Our team consist of established researchers, as well as PhD students and early-career researchers, from the UK and South Korea spanning disciplines across the social sciences, such as cultural and social psychology, developmental psychology, education, and organizational psychology. The proposed networking activities will allow us to examine the determinants and moderators of children's understanding of inequality and their effects on developmental outcomes in South Korea and United Kingdom from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective. Specifically, we will
(a) Establish new partnerships and networks between UK and South Korean researchers on inequality in childhood through joint workshops and conferences, both conducted online and face-to-face.
(b) Promote overseas institutional visits for UK and South Korean early-career researchers.
(c) Pay consumables for activities that promote sharing of best practices, knowledge exchange, and that enable network members to generate new research agendas and funding proposals.