Occupational hierarchy as a device to study Mexican children’s and adolescents’ ideas about consumption and saving in adults

There have been a number of studies of children’s and adolescents’ conceptions about occupations and the social hierarchy and class levels they imply. Nevertheless, little is known about children’s comprehension about occupational hierarchy related to what adults in distinct occupations are able to consume and save. The aim of this study was to analyze this comprehension in order to understand the development of concepts that interweave in children’s and adolescents’ societal and economic knowledge. Two hundred and ten children between 6 and 16 years of age were sampled from urban and rural social backgrounds. The children were individually interviewed about what four persons with distinct occupations consume and save. The results show that, across all occupations, children are more likely to identify saving as a likely response to obtaining extra income from a raffle as they get older. In terms of identifying motives for saving, mentions of saving for future purchases decrease with age, whilst precautionary saving and saving for investment are mentioned more often by older children.