Children's dreams viewed through the prism of Maslow's hierarchy of needs

During a regular free writing time in class, children in Kindergarten through sixth grade in various areas of the city were given the writing prompt, 'My dreams for the world'. Writing samples were collected from an elementary school in an affluent area of the city, an elementary and a middle school in a low socio-economic area, and an elementary school located on an Air Force base. Writings were analysed using an expanded version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and rated on a scale according to the content. This was done individually by two of the researchers and then discussed for final agreement on rating. The samples were coded for age/grade level, gender, and school. A 'Maslow Average' was calculated for each writing sample, along with a 'Maslow Highest'. The hypotheses tested were that Maslow score and Maslow highest were influenced by gender, income, ethnicity, and grade.