Explaining the causes of poverty in the West Indies: A cross-cultural comparison

Research into attitudes towards the poor and lay explanations for poverty have heen primarily concerned with the structure and determinants of these attitudes and explanations. Whereas a number of variables — education, religion, ethnic group — have been shown to relate to explanations for poverty, there have only been a few cross-cultural studies. This study set out to compare the explanations adolescents gave for poverty in two West Indian islands — the relatively wealthy island of Barbados and the relatively poor island of Dominica. The overall economic development/prosperity of the two islands, and the extent and visibility of economic inequality between the two islands appeared to account for the numerous national differences. These results are discussed in terms of the social, political and historical differences between the two islands.