Russian preschoolers’ ideas of richness and poverty (1992–2010)

Abstract

Preschoolers’ worldview was researched, in particular the range of children’s ideas of richness and poverty. The data obtained in the course of the structured interview was compared. Six-year-old children, who went to Moscow kindergartens in 1992–1998 (189 children; the first stage of the research) and in 2009–2010 (150 children; the second stage), were interviewed. The results of the third stage of the research (2015–2016) were not included into this paper and will be reviewed separately later. The first stage of the research took place at the time of radical changes in the country. People tried to adjust to rapid, catastrophic changes in practically all areas of life. The second stage of the research took place in the period of relatively smooth social transformations; people adapted to the new life, resigned themselves to irreversibility of radical changes. How did the children take the changing world? How did they describe a rich man and a poor man, what were the preschoolers’ ideas of money, sources of wealth? It is possible to come to the following conclusion as a result of the two research stages (in the periods with various transformations’ intensity and different situation in the society). As a rule, preschoolers are shielded from social problems in the grown-up world, which don’t considerably affect children’s minds and are not reflected in children’s perception and stories. Notwithstanding the tension in the society, associated with abnormally strong (compared to the preceding Soviet period) social stratification based on income, children don’t feel themselves deprived. The family, parents, people close to children create a kind of barrier, which acute social contradictions don’t pass through. Children stay happy notwithstanding any social and economic crises.