Children's ideas of marginalisation - A case study from Hungary

Abstract

Social exclusion and disadvantage are psychologically harmful conditions. Marginalisation has a great impact on the identity development of children coming from (ethnic, racial) minority or immigrant background, or living in economic deprivation. In these situations children can be affected by loss of control, learned helplessness, stereotyping, prejudices, and consequently low self-esteem, negative identity, assimilation, value conflicts, isolation from an early age on. While extensive research data are available on the psychological problems connected to social exclusion, little attention has been paid to the mechanisms of dealing with or overcoming marginalisation by children so far.

Our aim was to understand how social exclusion influence children’s concepts of their own situation and development.  We looked for patterns of identity strategies. By asking children, living in (extreme) poverty and/or belonging to the Roma ethnic minority group in Hungary, to make three drawings, our question was whether and how the prospect of social mobility is expressed. We asked children of 8 to 10 years to make three drawings following these questions:

1. Where do you live now?
2. Where will you live when you grow up?
3. What is the house of your dreams like?

After the completion of the three drawings, group interviews were conducted with the participating children to give them a chance to do their own analysis of the drawings.

436 children participated, all of them living in deprived neighbourhoods of Hungary, both in urban and rural settings. We carried out a qualitative analysis of the drawings.

Wishful depiction of the present and the future, a recognizable, but schematic portrayal of upward mobility, an awareness of its limits, and the need for security appeared central in the drawings and in the interviews. Although the limits of social mobility were well identifiable, verbal descriptions were never outright negative or depressive. Verbal expression was hindered by the communication taboos surrounding poverty and discrimination. However the visual expression provided the subtlety and indirectness which seemed necessary to tackle the psychologically threatening position of the marginalized. The research also pointed out that ideas of social marginalisation do not hinder the positive potentials in the identity development of children belonging to marginalised groups.

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For more information please contact Annet van Geen or Roy Huijsmans