Perceiving social cleavages and inequalities: The case of Israeli adolescents

Analyses of perceptions of social cleavages and inequality among junior high school students indicated the ability of young adolescents to accurately apprehend a multifaceted social structure. A perception of a fairly conflictual social map of a considerable level of inequality was revealed, but within a conception of a well-differentiated social structure. Ethnic cleavage and inequality appeared least prominent among the cleavages and inequalities that were studied. Likewise, students' personal and social traits explained only a minor part of the variance in perceptions. Among these traits, cognitive ability exerted the strongest effect on perceptions whereas the effects of socioeconomic background and ethnic extraction were minuscule. Considering the centrality of discourse on ethnic disparities in Israeli media and politics, these findings suggest that among the younger generation, a construction of social reality is evolving in which ethnicity plays a lesser role.