NCJ Number
215490
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 655-669
Date Published
August 2006
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether the maintenance of “beliefs in a just world” (a belief that the world is orderly and just) across age was observed with Dutch adolescents and young adults.
Abstract
After being presented with the Just World Beliefs Scale and the Individualism-Collectivism Scale, findings revealed that general beliefs in a just world began to loose their importance around the age of 12, followed by personal beliefs around the age of 16. The transition from secondary to higher education prompts adolescents to reconsider their ideas about the way society treats them. Additionally, the experience of social inequality was shown to play an important role in the maintenance of such beliefs. Beliefs in a just world (BJW) are beliefs that enable individuals to confront their physical and social environment as though stable and orderly. BJW has come to be accepted as a healthy coping mechanism and a personal resource or coping strategy which buffers against stress and enhances achievement behavior. In this study, BJW were perceived as either primitive beliefs that created order in a chaotic environment and by doing so, promoted development or as a coping mechanism that served personal needs. In the study, it was expected that more mature and sophisticated levels of understanding of the world and events would replace BJW if they were primitive beliefs only. Primitive beliefs are seen as losing their importance across age as they become replaced by more sophisticated forms of reasoning enabling individuals to handle a world that is neither orderly nor just. A cross-sectional study was conducted with Dutch adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12 and 26 in order to examine changes across age in personal and general BJW. Figures, tables, and references