Adolescents' beliefs about caste-essentialism and their social location in Nepal

Abstract

Social essentialism plays a significant role in legitimizing power imbalances within hierarchical societies, such as the caste system. We investigated whether adolescents endorsed caste essentialist beliefs and whether these beliefs about the stability of caste correlate with their perceived social mobility and social location (caste, SES). We interviewed 590 students between the ages of 10 and 18 years (Mage = 14 years; SDage = 1 year 7 months) of grades 6–10 from 25 school classes in Nepal to assess their caste essentialist beliefs with a switched-at-birth task and measured their perceived social mobility in terms of perceived feasibility regarding marriage to a higher caste. In line with our assumptions, adolescents of the highest caste group showed stronger essentialist beliefs regarding both higher and lower caste when compared to adolescents from the other caste groups and believed that an individual’s caste would not change even when switched at birth. Adolescents of the highest caste and from higher-SES backgrounds expressed stronger essentialist beliefs than their peers. Caste essentialist beliefs and perceived feasibility regarding marriage to a higher caste were significantly correlated. However, adolescents’ social location did not play a significant role in their perceived feasibility of marriage to a higher caste. Overall, they expected low social mobility concerning marriage. We discuss the complex associations between caste essentialism, social mobility beliefs and social location during adolescence.