The Development of Just World Beliefs for Self and Others from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

this study aimed to investigate the development of just world beliefs for self and others from adolescence to emerging adulthood in Isfahan. The sample consisted of 395 participants in four age groups: 12 year-olds (n=105), 14 year-olds (n=100), 16 year-olds (n=96), and 18-25 year-olds (n=94), selected by cluster and convenience sampling method and answered to Self-Other Belief in a Just World scale (Sutton and Douglas, 2005). Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance, Tukey post hoc test and independent t-test. The results of MANOVA showed that there were significant group effects on BJW scores. The pair-wise comparisons indicated that the scores of just world beliefs for self and others in the 16 year-olds group is significantly lower than the 12 year-olds and the scores of just world beliefs for self in the 18-25 year-olds were higher than 16 year-olds. But the scores of just world beliefs for others did not change significantly. The finding of this study showed gender differences in the scores of just world beliefs for others in the 12 year-olds in which boys were stronger than girls in this belief. In general, according to the results just world beliefs decrease during adolescence.