"They Have Been in Both Positions": Narrative Exploration of Adolescents' Sense-Making About Injustice From the Positions of the Object and Subject of Injustice

• Published in: Qualitative psychology (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2020-10, Vol.7 (3), p.285-305
• Main Author: Jović, Svetlana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjustment; Audiences; Cognitive Flexibility; Deception; Fairness; Female; Human; Justice; Male; Narratives; Role Taking; Social Cognition; Socioeconomic Status; Urban Environments
• ISSN: 2326-3601; 2326-3598; 2326-3598; 2326-3601
• DOI: 10.1037/qup0000142

This article explores how different socioeconomic circumstances shape adolescents' sense-making about fairness and their capacity to relate to different actors in a social situation, including injustice. The study involved 40 adolescents (M = 17.2), recruited from contrasting socioeconomic backgrounds of New York City. Narrative as a sense-making tool was used as the data collection/production and analysis approach. Youth's narratives (n = 160) were elicited as responses to a vignette they read, depicting an ambiguous social situation in which occurrences of deception and exclusion have occurred. Participants were invited to retell the story from three perspectives, that of the self, object, and subject of injustice and for three different audiences, the implicit audience, a friend, and a school official. Youth from less privileged backgrounds showed greater flexibility in adjusting their experience, knowledge, and communicative styles to different others they addressed. They were better at enacting the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of both the culprit and the victim of exclusion. In addition, these young people narrated more directly about injustice, addressing deception and exclusion more explicitly. Acknowledging the detrimental effects of the socioeconomic (and political) challenges that many adolescents experience-especially the underrepresented-this work emphasizes the sociocognitive advantages that youth growing up in adversity may acquire. This skill of adjusting one's ways of knowing and being to different others is an important asset. However, the study is framed and interpreted in ways that do not romanticize the reality of the material and psychological challenges that may bestow this epistemic advantage on underserved youth.