Adolescents' and Young Adults' Naïve Understandings of the Economic Crisis.
Over the last decade, Financial Literacy (FL) and interventions aimed at improving it, that is Financial Education (FE), have been the focus of increased attention from economists, governments, and international organizations such as the world Bank and OECD, but much less by scholars in the fields of Learning and Instruction. We examined open-ended written answers on the causes of the economic crisis that started in 2007-2008, as given by 381 Italian secondary school and university students, and 268 Swiss Italian-speaking secondary school students. Most Italian students mentioned internal political causes (i.e., corrupt politicians or inefficiency of the government), whereas Swiss students mentioned banks more often. International factors were rarely mentioned by either group, and explanations were generally very poor, listing a few causes without making connections between them. These findings indicate the need for economics education aimed at making people more knowledgeable of the workings of the economic system and the effects of financial systems on the real economy.
Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy, and Applied Psychology, Università di Padova , Padova , Italy.
Anna Emilia
AE
Berti
Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza Università di Roma , Rome , Italy.
Anna Maria
AM
Ajello
Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena , Jena , Germany.
Carmela
C
Aprea
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Bergamo , Bergamo , Italy.
Ilaria
I
Castelli
Research Unit on Theory of Mind, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Milan , Italy.
Elisabetta
E
Lombardi
Research Unit on Theory of Mind, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Milan , Italy.
Antonella
A
Marchetti
Research Unit on Theory of Mind, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Milan , Italy.
Davide
D
Massaro
Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET) , Lugano , Switzerland.
Viviana
V
Sappa
Research Unit on Theory of Mind, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Milan , Italy.
Annalisa
A
Valle
Financial Education; Financial Literacy; economic crisis; lay explanations; secondary school; student's conceptions; university students