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U.S. Children's Stereotypes and Prejudicial Attitudes toward Arab Muslims: Us Children's Stereotypes of Muslims
Abstract
The current study examined whether children in elementary school in the United States held stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes about Arab Muslims relative to other groups. Children (n = 136), ages 6–11 (55 boys, 81 girls), were read three counterbalanced vignettes about different immigrant families who moved to the United States: one family from the Middle East with clothing markers indicating they are Muslim (e.g., hijab), one family from the Middle East without clothing markers indicating religion, and one White family from Ireland. Children's responses indicated stereotypes associating the Arab Muslim male target as more anti-American and hostile and the Arab Muslim female target as more oppressed than others, both consistent with prevalent media stereotypes. Children's positive and negative affective intergroup attitudes were also measured, along with their attitudes about who can be an “American,” with children showing both a positivity and negativity bias against Arab Muslims. Children who had some contact with Muslims or were familiar with Islam felt more positively toward Arab Muslims than less informed children. In addition, if children perceived Arab Muslims to be prototypical “Americans,” and identified as very American themselves, they also held positive attitudes toward Arab Muslims. Implications for prejudice reduction interventions are discussed.
... From a young age, children demonstrate the nationality stereotype equating being American with being White (Brown et al., 2017), which limits the possibility of developing nationality-based common identities that are beneficial for intergroup relations (Gaertner et al., 2016). Paralleling work on the development of ethnic-, racial-and nationality-based prejudice (Degner & Dalege, 2013), one potential route through which children may acquire nationality stereotypes, is through beliefs held by their parents. ...
... To our knowledge, there is no research on nationality stereotypes among children outside the United States, although children clearly develop ethnic-racial biases in other countries too (de Bruijn, Amoureus, et al., 2020) and thus common national identities might also be helpful (Gaertner et al., 2016). Additionally, knowledge of nationality stereotypes among children of colour is limited, given that previous studies included White American children only (Brown, 2011;Sierksma et al., 2022) or did not examine ethnic-racial differences (Brown et al., 2017). As children of colour can have similar levels of prejudice towards children from an underrepresented ethnic-racial outgroup as White children (Pektas et al., 2023), a common national identity might benefit all. ...
... The current research investigates (1) the endorsement of the nationality stereotype Dutch = White among children of different ethnic-racial backgrounds in the Netherlands, (2) the endorsement of ethnic and civic citizenship representations among their mothers and (3) associations between maternal citizenship representations and children's nationality stereotypes (Study 1). Based on work with American children and adults, it is expected that children of all ethnic-racial backgrounds display the Dutch = White national stereotype (H1a) (Brown, 2011;Brown et al., 2017), but that White Dutch children do so to a larger extent (H1b) . The extent to which other ethnic-racial groups are perceived as Dutch (Exploration 1) and ...
This research examines the endorsement of the nationality stereotype Dutch = White among children and associations with citizenship representations of their mothers (Study 1). Additionally, Study 2 explores how mothers include the concept of Dutch citizenship in the upbringing of their children. Study 1 shows that children (n = 197, 57% girls, 7-13 years old) from different ethnic-racial backgrounds (White Dutch, Turkish-Dutch, Black Dutch, Chinese-Dutch) all endorsed the nationality stereotype and did so to a similar extent. Most mothers rated civic citizenship as more important than ethnic citizenship, but maternal citizenship representations were unrelated to child nationality stereotype. Study 2 shows that mothers often do not actively and consciously include the topic of Dutch citizenship in their upbringing, but might confirm the nationality stereotype in more implicit ways. Future studies are needed to examine how to work towards a more inclusive view of nationality among children in the Dutch context.
... of immigrants is becoming more common with the rise of anti-immigrant attitudes among youth around the world (Gönültaş & Mulvey, 2019). Developmental research suggests that children and adolescents evaluate immigrants differently based upon their perceived 'legality' (Verkuyten & Steenhuis, 2005), language skills (Beißert et al., 2020) and religion (Brown et al., 2017). Yet we know little about how children and adolescents distinguish between immigrants from different national groups when deciding how to react as a witness or "bystander" to social exclusion (Palmer et al., 2022). ...
... For example, studies show that adolescents become more attuned to information about intergroup relations and social status differences compared to those in late childhood; adolescents report more bystander challenging responses and inclusivity (e.g., Yüksel et al., 2021), particularly when the excluded peers are from minority-status groups (e.g., immigrants). Furthermore, research shows a developmental increase in awareness of discrimination between middle to late childhood and adolescence (Brown et al., 2017;Thijs, 2017) and an increasing motivation to be supportive of disadvantaged groups and against condoning prejudice (McGuire et al., 2019;Rutland et al., 2010). ...
... Other research has also shown that intergroup social exclusion of a low-status person by a high-status perpetrator is a more prototypical excluded-excluder relationship and is, therefore, more likely to be perceived as discrimination among adults (O'Brien et al., 2008), adolescents (Yüksel et al., 2021) and preadolescents (Verkuyten et al., 1997). Previous developmental research has also shown a developmental increase in knowledge of discrimination between middle to late childhood and adolescence (Brown et al., 2017). ...
The present study examined age-related differences in bystander reactions within the context of peer exclusion of national ingroup (British) and immigrant outgroup (Australian or Turkish) peers. The immigrant peers were from nations that varied in terms of their perceived intergroup status in Britain. Participants were British children ( n = 110, 8–11 years) and adolescents ( n = 193, 13–16 years) who were presented with one of three scenarios in which a British national, Australian immigrant, or Turkish immigrant peer was excluded by a British peer group. Participants indicated their bystander responses. Perceived similarity and bystander self-efficacy were examined as possible correlates of bystander reactions. Findings revealed that children were more likely to directly challenge the social exclusion when the excluded peer was British or Australian compared with when they were Turkish. In contrast, adolescents did not differentiate in their response—they were equally likely to directly challenge the exclusion regardless of the excluded peer’s nationality. Importantly, when the excluded peer was Turkish, moderated mediation analysis showed that, with age, there was higher bystander self-efficacy for challenging the exclusions. In turn, higher bystander self-efficacy was related to higher direct challenging. These novel findings demonstrate the importance of intergroup relations, perceived similarity, and bystander self-efficacy in the emergence of age-related differences in bystander reactions to the exclusion of immigrant peers.
... In general, there is consistent and robust evidence that explicit racial in-group favoritism emerges around the age of 4 to 5 years, at least among children from high-status groups (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011). Because stereotypes are more complex, requiring multifaceted representations of groups, it seems likely that they would emerge later in development compared to racial attitudes (Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;Mackie, Hamilton, Susskind, & Rosselli, 1996). This might mean that at first, young children would not engage with the content of specific cultural stereotypes in an adult-like manner but instead would apply traits for racial groups in line with their racial attitudes (reflecting "halo" or "pitchfork effects"; Koenig & Jaswal, 2011). ...
... Moreover, research on intelligence suggests that in the U.S. 5 and 6-yearold children of diverse backgrounds evaluate White men as smarter than Black men (Jaxon, Lei, Shachnai, Chestnut, & Cimpian, 2019), but that 5-to-13-year-old Asian children do not explicitly endorse the stereotype that Asian people are good at math (Ambady, Shih, Kim, & Pittinsky, 2001). In addition, research that focused on one particular group suggests that 6-year-old children are familiar with stereotypes about Arab Muslims in the U.S (Brown et al., 2017; a majority of the participants were White). ...
... Moreover, the scarce literature on children's application of stereotypes predominantly focuses on White children and we aim to shed more light on these findings. Because White children start to express in-group favoritism at age 4 (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011) and previous research suggests that White children show consistent application of cultural racial stereotypes by 8-9 years (e.g., Brown et al., 2017;Cvencek et al., 2011;DeJesus et al., 2018;Rowley et al., 2007), we focused on 4-to-8-year-old children to study the emergence and development of racial stereotyping in this group. ...
Young children’s racial stereotyping is poorly understood even though stereotyping can influence individuals’ attitudes and behavior toward others. Here we present two preregistered studies (Total N = 257) examining White American children’s (4–8 years) application of six stereotypes (about being American, smart, wealthy, sporty, honest, and nice) when considering Asian, Black, and White children. We observed clear and consistent evidence for one cultural stereotype across the two studies: participants indicated that Asian and Black children were less American than White children. In a measure of racial attitudes, participants also preferred White children over Black and Asian children. Taken together, this research suggests that, in contrast to findings from previous work, White American children only consistently applied stereotypes about being American. Moreover, this research suggests that children’s cultural stereotypes might diverge from children’s attitudes early in development. These studies raise new questions about the emergence of racial stereotype application early in childhood – including how best to study it.
... One child hesitated at first to cast actors and actresses, explaining that she would need to talk to them before making a choice: "Well, I guess I would need the people to talk with me first, to have some communication with them" (girl, 11 years). The remaining participants made their casting choices based solely on the actors/actresses' visual portraits, which is in agreement with Brown et al.'s (2017) literature review suggesting that "children in early elementary school are particularly likely to focus on concrete, observable qualities rather than abstract attributes" (p. 66). ...
... This finding is in agreement with Ahmed's and Matthes's (2017) metaanalysis of the negative portrayal of Muslims in media mentioned earlier. It is also aligned with Brown et al.'s (2017) analysis of US children's prejudice towards Arab Muslims and Shaheen's (2003) argument that the perception, however, differs between Muslim men and women. In fact, the actor the children chose was a Sikh; this is in line with studies suggesting that Islamophobia can also affect non-Muslims, for example, Arabs, Sikhs, and South Asians (Zaal, 2012). ...
... For instance, the Sikh actor (the Middle Eastern/North African/South Asian male actor with long black beard wearing black turban) was occasionally chosen for the role of Sage, because "he has a long beard, so he looks clever," or the role of Jester, because "he has this kind of smile." Brown et al. (2017) equally discovered that "skin color typifying someone from the Middle East was not enough to elicit negative stereotypes for elementary school-aged children" (p. 77). ...
The article argues that, although digital and social media provide space and means for children's cosmopolitan citizenship, the tendency to reproduce cultural and ethnic stereotypes and prejudice prevalent in mainstream media can limit their capability and willingness to act and think as such. Drawing upon qualitative participatory research conducted with more than seventy children living in the Czech Republic, the article explores how children's media practice had a tendency to reproduce cultural hegemony. The paper ultimately argues that multicultural education and media education can together support children in reflecting on and challenging cultural hegemony, while at the same time potentially contribute to their transnational participation and cooperation with the use of digital and social media.
... In general, there is consistent and robust evidence that explicit in-group favoritism emerges around the age of 4 to 5 years and is especially pronounced and consistent in children from high-status groups (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011). Because stereotypes are more complex, requiring multifaceted representations of groups, it seems likely that they would emerge later in development compared to racial attitudes (Brown et al., 2017;Mackie et al., 1996). This might mean that at first, young children would not engage with the content of specific cultural stereotypes in an adult-like manner but instead would apply traits for racial groups on the basis of a general affective dimension in line with their racial attitudes (reflecting "halo" or "pitchfork effects"; Koenig & Jaswal, 2011). ...
... Moreover, the scarce literature on children's application of stereotypes predominantly focuses on White children and we aim to shed more light on these findings. Because White children start to express in-group favoritism at age 4 (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011) and previous research suggests that White children show consistent application of cultural racial stereotypes by 8-9 years (e.g., Brown et al, 2017;8 Cvencek et al., 2011;DeJesus et al., 2018;Rowley et al., 2007), we focused on 4-to-8-yearold children to study the emergence and development of racial stereotyping. ...
... Specifically, children of all ages indicated that Black targets were less American than White children and, with age, children also reported that Asian targets were less American than White targets. These results are consistent with adult stereotypes (Devos & Banaji, 2005) as well as responses of older children in studies of stereotyping (Brown, 2011;Brown et al., 2017;DeJesus et al., 2018 (Copping et al., 2013;Cuddy et al., 2007;Cvencek et al., 2011;Nasir et al., 2017;Rowley et al., 2007;Zou & Cheryan, 2017). We are therefore hesitant to draw strong conclusions here and more research is needed to further solidify our understanding about the extent to which young children apply racial stereotypes about intelligence. ...
Young children’s racial stereotyping is poorly understood even though stereotyping can influence individuals’ attitudes and behavior toward others. Here we present two preregistered studies (Total N = 257) examining White American children’s (4–8 years) application of six stereotypes (about being American, smart, wealthy, athletic, trustworthy, and nice) when considering Asian, Black, and White children. We observed clear and consistent evidence for only one cultural stereotype across the two studies: participants indicated that Asian and Black children were less American than White children. In a measure of racial attitudes, participants also preferred White children over Black and Asian children. Taken together, this research suggests that, in contrast to findings from previous work, only stereotypes about being American emerge in early childhood. Moreover, this research indicates that children’s cultural stereotypes diverge from children’s attitudes early in development. These studies raise new questions about the emergence of racial stereotype application early in childhood.
... Moreover, Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell (2017) found that American children between the ages of 6 and 11 report more prejudice and fear towards Arab Muslim immigrants compared to other groups including Asian and Latino immigrants. The authors suggested that negative assumptions were invoked even with a rudimentary knowledge of the subject as only a small number of participants (only 29 of 136) were familiar with the term Muslim. ...
... The authors suggested that negative assumptions were invoked even with a rudimentary knowledge of the subject as only a small number of participants (only 29 of 136) were familiar with the term Muslim. Further, Brown et al. (2017) showed how children may absorb culturally biased attitudes via the media, even without a clear understanding of the specific targeted group as children's bias towards Arab Muslims was consistent with the common media portrayals of Arab Muslims immigrants, even though children reported little understanding of Arab Muslims. According to Brown et al. (2017), media might be one of the important tools which influences children's and adolescents' cognition about different out-groups including immigrants and refugees. ...
... Further, Brown et al. (2017) showed how children may absorb culturally biased attitudes via the media, even without a clear understanding of the specific targeted group as children's bias towards Arab Muslims was consistent with the common media portrayals of Arab Muslims immigrants, even though children reported little understanding of Arab Muslims. According to Brown et al. (2017), media might be one of the important tools which influences children's and adolescents' cognition about different out-groups including immigrants and refugees. Similarly, in one experimental study conducted in Australia, adolescents' (aged from 16 to 19) exposure to symbolic and economic threat advertisements led to a significant increase in negative attitudes towards immigrants (Schmuck & Matthes, 2015). ...
The unprecedented rates of migration throughout the world have raised concerns about the social integration of immigrants and refugees due to possible experiences of prejudice, discrimination, and hostility from members of the host society. In this article, we review developmental and social theories and related research outlining children’s and adolescents’ intergroup attitudes towards immigrants and refugees. The discussion then moves to social agents that help shape children’s and adolescents’ attitudes regarding these relations. Theory-driven, empirically tested intervention studies that could potentially promote children’s and adolescents’ attitudes towards immigrants and refugees are discussed. We also address the limitations of current interventions, which were the starting points for this paper. Finally, we highlight important avenues for future research and make specific recommendations for practitioners and policy makers striving to promote harmonious intergroup relations across childhood and adolescence in social settings.
... The study of Saudi international student families' experiences must be contextualized and located within the increasingly pervasive anti-Arab racism in the U.S. society, political and media discourse as well as schools (Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;James, 2018). Reductionist understandings of Arabs and Muslims often lead to the conflation of these two categories, which have become synonymous with each other, and lump together people from various backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities based on perception, rather than on reality (Beck, Charania, & Al-issa, 2017;Brown et al., 2017;Chan-Malik, Alsultany, Khabeer, & Kashani, 2014;Kagema, 2018;Naber, 2012;Raza, 2018;Nguyen, 2018). ...
... The study of Saudi international student families' experiences must be contextualized and located within the increasingly pervasive anti-Arab racism in the U.S. society, political and media discourse as well as schools (Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;James, 2018). Reductionist understandings of Arabs and Muslims often lead to the conflation of these two categories, which have become synonymous with each other, and lump together people from various backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities based on perception, rather than on reality (Beck, Charania, & Al-issa, 2017;Brown et al., 2017;Chan-Malik, Alsultany, Khabeer, & Kashani, 2014;Kagema, 2018;Naber, 2012;Raza, 2018;Nguyen, 2018). Within such conflations, anti-Arab racism and Islamo-racism are compounded and work to further gender and racialize Arabs in particular essentialized ways, regardless of their background or religious affiliation (Beck et al., 2017). ...
... Indeed, they have a wide range of implications and coincide with findings of similar studies on the racialization of Arabs in educational settings. A recent study examining if elementary school children held prejudicial attitudes towards Arabs and Muslims reported that children in the U.S. regardless of their race or ethnicity have rated Arab Muslims as the least favored marginalized group in the United States (Brown et al., 2017). The study reported that children associated the categories of Arab Muslim males as anti-American and hostile and that Arab women and girls were viewed as more oppressed than other women and girls. ...
In order to understand the schooling experiences of Saudi students and their families across gender and age in the U.S., this article draws on a multi-sited, multi-age ethnographic study with an Arab family from Saudi Arabia living in the Midwestern region of the United States. Through this study, I empirically illustrate the impact of gendered racialization of Arab femininities and masculinities in educational settings through the stories of Sarah, a 40-year-old undergraduate student, and her 14-year-old son, Ayman. The results of this study highlight the ways these gendered racialized experiences differ based on age and gender and how the participants respond to them. The discussion and implications sections focus on the importance of exposing the hierarchies of violence of complicit anti-Arab racisms as well as areas for improvement for school administrators, policymakers, and teacher education programs.
... In the United States, hate crimes against Muslims have gone underreported, and Muslim women and men experience anti-Muslim racism differently. Muslim women carry the symbol of their faith through the hijab, 6 making them more visible targets of discrimination and abuse (Brown et al., 2017;Tabahi & Khayr, 2021). As an overt expression of faith, the hijab explicitly identifies females as adherents to Islam. ...
... As an overt expression of faith, the hijab explicitly identifies females as adherents to Islam. Muslim women are more likely than Muslim men to report feeling unsafe in public spaces (Beydoun, 2018;Brown et al., 2017), while Muslim men are twice as likely as women to report physical abuse or be the targets of physical violence (Abdelkader, 2016). Responses to incidents of hate have been problematic, mostly centered around victim blaming rather than addressing the systemic and structural racism embedded in such incidents. ...
The Arab American community has faced a history of racialization dating back to the late 19th century. The events of 9/11 and the heightened rhetoric of hate during the Trump presidency encouraged anti-Muslim sentiment and increased racial profiling and harassment. This community-based participatory research (CBPR) project uses Photovoice as a methodology to better understand the lived experiences and narratives of Arab Americans in the post-Trump1 era and as a tool for advocacy. The findings from the photo sharing sessions underscore the continued challenge of identity and representation, (in)visibility, and pushing back against anti-Arab/Muslim racism. The findings also highlight religion as a protective factor against structural and systemic racism. Overall, the participants in this study demonstrated their community resilience and navigational capital as they survived and thrived amid racializing experiences and microaggressions. Implications of this work include the need for increased consciousness raising about the lived experiences of the Arab American community and opportunities for allyship and advocacy.
... These are again common stereotypes about Muslim men popularized by films such as Not Without My Daughter, mentioned previously. Notes taken by a CFS worker showed that the mother's claims of being controlled by Omar were treated as a fact due to the bias to believe that Muslim women are victims and Muslim men are abusers [63]. This led to ignoring mounting evidence of abuse presented by the child, the father, and numerous professionals in the family's life. ...
... And because of gender biases, it is harder for people to believe that mothers abuse as they are stereotyped as nurturing. Layering in beliefs and stereotypes that South Asian men are manipulative, controlling, and not to be trusted, and that women from these cultures are victims, it further perpetuates notions that these men do not deserve access to their children [63,64]. ...
Custody cases characterized by conflict may involve allegations of abuse or parental alienation, necessitating a thorough examination of the situation for the child’s wellbeing. This case series describes stereotypes and biases faced by three racialized fathers, resulting in problems in the processes and outcomes of the family court system. Occurring at the intersection of race, culture, religion, and gender, social myths about these fathers of South Asian and MENA (Middle Eastern, North African, Arab) descent led to inequities in parental rights and harm to their children. Biases experienced by fathers included racism, sexism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia, which manifested as presumptions that such fathers espoused outdated gender roles, exerted excessive authority in the home, and were unwilling to adapt to mainstream culture—which can bias the decision-making of custody evaluators, child advocates, lawyers, and judges. This paper presents the relevant facts of each case, critical errors made by the court—such as ignoring the voices of the fathers, delayed verdict delivery, inadequate assessment of abuse, and failure to prioritize the children's welfare. This article discusses stigma, abuse, interracial dynamic, and the mental health toll of this process on fathers, despite having respected professions and financial resources. Also addressed is the challenge of differentiating parental alienation from estrangement due to child abuse when children reject a parent. It is hoped that by recognizing and addressing these biases outcomes in parental disputes can be greatly improved.
... fabricated and embellished (Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;Douglas, 2018). Research has suggested that fake news has the intent of validating and encouraging discriminatory and racist opinions toward minority groups, particularly immigrants and refugees (Cerase & Santoro, 2018). ...
... The current study is unique in that it examined the portrayals of immigrants and refugees in media and viewer's attitudes regarding immigrants, immigration policy, and Islamophobia using an experimental design. We focused on immigrants and refugees considering the current political climate, the increase in exposure to and effects of fake news, and current trends regarding media portrayals of immigrants and refugees in the United States ( Brown et al., 2017;de Zuniga et al., 2012;Douglas, 2018;KhosraviNik, 2010;Schemer, 2012). We wanted to determine if exposure to negative portrayals of immigrants and refugees was associated with negative attitudes regarding immigrants and immigration policy, as well as increased levels of Islamophobia among consumers. ...
The current study examined media portrayals of immigrants and refugees and participants attitudes regarding immigrants, immigration policy, and Islamophobia using an experimental design. Participants included 284 male and female college students who were primed with negative, positive, or no media portrayals of immigrants and refugees prior to completing questionnaires related to their views regarding immigrants, immigration policy, and Islamophobia. It was hypothesized that there would be differences in participants attitudes based on experimental condition, with participants exposed to negative portrayals reporting more negative attitudes compared to the other experimental conditions. Factors related to participant susceptibility to media portrayals were also examined and were hypothesized to include participant age, race, biological sex, social class, and political and religious affiliation. Significant differences were found based on experimental condition for viewing immigration as an economic, physical, social cohesion, and modernity threat as well as physical benefits of immigration, intolerant attitudes toward immigrants, and affective-behavioral and cognitive Islamophobia. Participants who were primed with negative media portrayals reported more negative attitudes. In addition, biological sex, race, social class, and political and religious affiliation were found to relate to participant susceptibility to media portrayals of immigration and refugees. Implications for future research are discussed.
... Several scholars have demonstrated the importance of accounting for the content (or subjective representations) of national identity when accounting for hostility toward minorities and foreigners (Esses, Wagner, Wolf, Preiser, & Wilbur, 2006;Pehrson, Brown, & Zagefka, 2009;Pehrson & Green, 2010). For instance, a recent study of young children in the U.S. showed that children reported more positive attitudes toward Arab Muslims if they perceived them to be prototypical Americans (Brown, Ali, Stone, and Jewell, 2017). In another example that is particularly relevant for the present investigation, Pehrson and colleagues (Pehrson, González, & Brown, 2011) found that among non-indigenous Chilean students, definitions of the national group that included indigenous people positively predicted support for indigenous rights, controlling for political affiliation. ...
... In other words, more inclusive representations of the American identity may help foster a more open and less prejudiced society through its potential downstream effects on tolerance toward outgroups. Ensuring that the American identity is represented in an inclusive, rather than exclusive way, in educational settings and materials may be a good place to start, given that associations between American identity representation and prejudice toward Arab Muslims can already be observed among children (Brown et al., 2017). ...
Americans’ support for policies targeting Muslims was hotly debated during the 2016 presidential campaign. This study of U.S.‐born White Americans seeks to move beyond explanations of this political polarization as a matter of liberal versus conservative, Democrat versus Republicans by focusing on the content of the superordinate American identity, in terms of how inclusive versus exclusive it is. In line with the ingroup projection model, we expected that a more inclusive representation of the American identity would be related to support for more welcoming (rather than hostile) policies about Muslim people. White Americans (N = 237) were recruited online during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign (June 2016). Results supported our hypothesis and showed the independent associations of identity inclusiveness and exclusiveness with policy support. This study makes three important contributions to a growing literature on the relation between national identity representations and hostility toward immigrants and minorities: (1) directly and independently measuring inclusive and exclusive representations of the superordinate identity, alongside national identity, party affiliation, and political ideology; (2) focusing on Muslims, an understudied group targeted by a great deal of divisive political rhetoric in the 2016 campaign; and (3) considering policy support rather than general attitudes.
... The current research involves a large field study designed to evaluate the impact of the AFT educational programme, and more specifically its use of biographical contact with the Jewish teenager Anne Frank, on children's and adolescents' willingness for contact with Jewish people (generalisation). Traditional measures of prejudice include social distance measures (e.g., Turner and West 2012), feeling thermometers (e.g., Newheiser and Olson 2012;Spears Brown et al. 2017) and resource allocation tasks (e.g., Dunham, Baron, and Carey 2011;Pagotto et al. 2013;Sparks, Schinkel, and Moore 2017). More recently, however, willingness for contact has been used, particularly with child and adolescent samples (e.g., Cameron and Rutland 2006;Cameron et al. 2011b;Husnu, Mertan, and Cicek 2018;Hutchison et al. 2010), and akin to social distance measures, it appears to be a good (albeit slightly indirect) indicative measure of prejudice. ...
An impact evaluation of a large‐scale field study tested the effects of biographical intergroup contact on children and adolescents' willingness to have intergroup contact with individuals from 12 social categories. Biographical contact was implemented through the anti‐prejudice programme led by the educational charity the Anne Frank Trust UK, based on the life of the Jewish teenager Anne Frank. Before and after participating in the programme, young people between the ages of 9 and 17 years ( N = 1413 from 69 participating schools) completed a ‘Contact Star' measure of their willingness for close social contact with individuals from each of the social categories. Biographical contact substantially improved willingness for contact with Jewish people (the initial target group) as well as with all 11 other groups, as measured by the Contact Star. Additionally, increased willingness for contact with Jewish people was strongly predictive of increased willingness for contact with the other groups, thereby demonstrating a secondary transfer of improved intergroup attitudes. The effect was similarly large in the case of outgroups that were less similar or familiar to participants, contrary to the idea that secondary transfer weakens as the outgroups become less similar (a generalisation gradient). Theoretical and practical implications of this potentially powerful new form of contact are discussed.
... Pelajar yang mempunyai pengetahuan tentang budaya Muslim Arab akan lebih bersikap positif manakala pelajar yang tidak mempunyai pengetahuan akan lebih cenderung mempunyai stereotaip dan sikap prejudis. (Brown et al., 2017). ...
Pengintegrasian pengajaran budaya dalam pengajaran bahasa sangat penting bagi membantu meningkatkan pemahaman pelajar terhadap konteks sosial dan budaya yang terdapat dalam bahasa Arab itu sendiri. Akan tetapi, guru bahasa Arab menghadapi cabaran dalam merancang dan melaksanakan pengajaran bahasa Arab yang memfokuskan kepada elemen budaya Arab seperti halangan bahasa, silibus dan latar belakang ekonomi pelajar yang terdiri daripada kepelbagaian latar belakang budaya, etnik dan jantina yang berbeza. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk memperincikan cabaran-cabaran yang dihadapi oleh guru dalam mengintegrasikan pengetahuan budaya Arab dalam pengajaran bahasa Arab dan menghuraikan beberapa cadangan yang boleh dilakukan oleh guru bahasa Arab bagi menangani masalah dan cabaran tersebut. Metodologi kajian ini menggunakan protokol temu bual separa berstruktur bersama 5 orang pakar bahasa Arab iaitu Pensyarah Institut Pendidikan Guru dan Guru Cemerlang Bahasa Arab (GCBA) di zon tengah Malaysia. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan antara cabaran yang dihadapi oleh guru bahasa Arab dalam mengintegrasikan pengetahuan budaya Arab dalam pengajaran bahasa Arab ialah keterbatasan guru dalam mengajarkan aspek budaya, kekurangan bahan pengajaran budaya dan penerimaan pelajar terhadap pengajaran budaya. Bagi menangani cabaran ini, beberapa cadangan telah dicadangkan antaranya penghasilan bahan pengajaran yang memfokuskan kepada budaya Arab, latihan pengajaran budaya dalam kalangan guru bahasa Arab dan penganjuran aktiviti dan program berunsurkan budaya Arab di sekolah. Diharapkan kajian ini dapat memberikan panduan kepada pihak sekolah, pihak kementerian dan guru bahasa Arab untuk menambah baik kualiti dan amalan pengajaran bahasa Arab melalui pemahaman budaya yang lebih mendalam.
... Indeed the effectiveness of Western anti-discrimination law in protecting religious minorities such as Muslim identities has been called into question [15]. Negative stereotypes of Muslims have been documented in different regions of the world [17,88,103]. While fairness research has been able to study Muslim bias in language models [2,32,72], so far it has neglected allocative harms against Muslim people. ...
... gender or age). For instance, C. Brown et al. (2017) showed that US schoolchildren have already been socialised into holding stereotypes of 'Arab Muslim men' as angry and un-American and of 'Arab Muslim women' as oppressed. Though largely socially learned and motivated, stereotypes are also informed by intergroup contact experiences. ...
Since at least 2014, cross-national surveys have measured the most negative attitudes towards ‘Muslims’ in the EU among Czech respondents. These attitudes have often been attributed to few contact opportunities with actual Muslims in the country and, thus, public overreliance on the highly negative representations of ‘Muslims’ in public discourse. However, empirical qualitative assessments of the stereotypes which guide many Czechs’ anti-Muslim prejudice and the effects of intergroup contact have been neglected. In an epistemological shortcoming, the survey category ‘Muslim’ has often been treated as one of analysis rather than of practice. Contrarily, I argue that Czech participants’ contingent understandings and racialisation of the category need to be reclaimed as the ontological basis of prejudice. In this study, I relied on the results of a larger constructionist thematic analysis of 31 semi-structured interviews with non-Muslim Czechs and, regardless of citizenship or ethnicity, Muslims living in Czechia conducted in 2020 and 2021. The results show that, in line with public discourse dynamics, ‘Muslims’ in Czechia are commonly understood as immigrants racialised through their perceived Arabness, Middle Easternness and non-Whiteness. Furthermore, perceptions of Western European ‘Muslims’ as highly conflictual are juxtaposed with the fragility of Czechia in the face of immigration. Against this backdrop, I examine the mechanisms through which intergroup contact enriches participants’ social cognitions of ‘Muslims’ – namely, subgrouping, positive stereotyping, reduced perceived intergroup threat and anxiety, and (re-)humanisation.
... Reches and Feddes (2019) found that higher perceived similarity in personality between majority Dutch children aged 9-12 and minority refugee children was associated with more positive attitudes towards minority children. In the study by Brown et al. (2017), it was found that American children aged 6-11 presented more positive attitudes towards Muslims, when they perceived the Muslim person as having American citizenship. Also, the attitudes towards the similar American Muslims improved, along with a decrease in the stereotypical attitudes and prejudices. ...
Children notice similarities and dissimilarities between people very early in life and are capable of categorizing people into in-groups and out-groups based on these perceptions. Previous research presented contradictory evidence concerning the effects of intergroup (dis)similarity perceptions on intergroup attitudes — or whether similarity-attraction or similarity-differentiation occurs. However, scant research has examined how this plays out in children. The present study aimed to
assess how inducing (dis)similarities between in- and out-group members affects children’s intergroup attitudes and concepts (positive behavioral intentions, resource distribution, distance, perceived (dis)similarity, and essentialism). We investigated 100 5- and 8-year-old Jewish-Israeli children (48% girls), in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, regarding their in-group and a “conflict” out-group (Arabs). A pre- and post-test assessed three condition intervention effects on intergroup attitudes: Full, Partial, or No Similarity between the participant and a
member of the out-group. The intervention was based on provision of fully similar, partial similar or no similar information about an out-group member according to eight details the participants provided about themselves at T0, referring to their preferences, interests, family composition, and personal appearance. The findings revealed that, generally, Full and Partial Similarity improved attitudes towards the out-group to the same extent, and No Similarity worsened them. Developmental
differences were found regarding the effect of the intervention on essentialism. The
findings have implications for early intervention programs that include acquaintance with similarities between groups and between their members.
... Given that stereotypes are often complex, multifaceted representations of groups, some have argued that they emerge later in development compared to group attitudes (Brown et al., 2017;Mackie et al., 1996), although this likely depends on the type of social group and the type of stereotype. Research suggests that gender stereotypes emerge during early childhood: ...
Prosociality is a multifaceted concept referring to the many ways in which individuals care about and benefit others. Human prosociality is foundational to social harmony, happiness, and peace; it is therefore essential to understand its underpinnings, development, and cultivation. This handbook provides a state-of-the-art, in-depth account of scientific, theoretical, and practical knowledge regarding prosociality and its development. Its thirty chapters, written by international researchers in the field, elucidate key issues, including: the development of prosociality across infancy, childhood, adolescence, and beyond; the biological, cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms that underlie and influence prosociality; how different socialization agents and social contexts can affect children's prosociality; and intervention approaches aimed at cultivating prosociality in children and adolescents. This knowledge can benefit researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers seeking to nurture socially responsible, caring youth.
... A few examples of this heightened discrimination and xenophobia is what came to be widely known as the "Muslim ban" or the "travel ban" which was recently upheld by the supreme court targeting immigrants from countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and was later expanded to include North Korea and Venezuela. In a recent study published on U.S. Children's Stereotypes and Prejudicial Attitudes towards Arab Muslims, Brown, Ali, Stone, and Jewell (2017) highlighted that Arabs and Muslims are the least favorite marginalized populations in the United States among children of color and white children. Furthermore, they pointed out that many Americans view Arab Muslim women as submissive to Arab men. ...
... On the broader views on Arabs, portrayal in the Western media, Brown et al., (2017) explore whether children in elementary school in the US endorsed stereotypes about Arab Muslims relative to other groups. Children's responses show that Arab Muslim females are more oppressed than others, whereas Arab Muslim males are more anti-American and hostile, as consistent with prevalent media stereotypes. ...
This study examines the stereotype on Arabs by the Bruneians' points of view. It investigates Arabic terms related to race and faith. The data used in this study were drawn from an online questionnaire. About 185 Bruneians participated in the survey. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents associate the "Arab" term with Islamic perspectives. About half of the respondent were aware of the fact that being an Arab is not necessarily means being a Muslim. The researchers argued that there is a conflict between the term "Arab" and the faith "Islam". The majority of the respondents also believed that the use of Islamic greeting "Salam" and the use of Islamic phrases such as "InshaAllah" and "Alhamdulillah", are only confined to Muslims.
... Ekehammar & Akrami, 2003;Ekehammar, Akrami, Gylje, & Zakrisson, 2004;McFarland, 2010;Sibley & Duckitt, 2008) and to certain ethnic groups (see Brown, 1995;Hilton & Hippel, 1996;Lee & Fiske, 2006;Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). In Western countries, for example, previous research has shown that Arabs (Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;French, Franz, Phelan & Blaine, 2013;Saleem & Anderson, 2013) and people of a Middle ...
Although intergroup distortions have been widely explored in regard to groups openly expressing prejudices, it is still unclear how individuals of an outgroup, e.g. refugees, perceive an in-group. Research on the First-Impression of Germans by refugees is socially relevant and promising for gaining a better understanding of perceptual distortions on an individual level. In the present study of facial stimuli (N = 50), First-Impressions of refugees against both eastern and western targets (photograph assessment) were collected and explored distortions in the perception of trustworthiness. Eastern and western targets were portrayed as being either refugees or Germans. Further, the religious affiliation, Muslim or Christian, was varied across the stimuli. With the help of cross-classified mixed models, it could be shown that the targets’ religion, the perceivers’ religiosity and their perceived threat had no significant effect on the assessment of the facial stimuli.
... Usually devoid of facts and based on media misrepresentation (Allen, journalofmuslimmentalhealth.org 2012; Ahmed & Matthes, 2017;Sian et al., 2012b), these presentations have fostered the stigma surrounding Muslims (Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;Everett et al., 2015;Khan, 2014;Wilkins-Laflamme, 2018). Nearly half our sample strongly agreed with the statement "I think most people in the UK have a misinterpretation of Islam", and 231 provided examples: "The surprise on people's faces when I tell them that 'Islam' literally stems from the Arabic word for peace" (Male,18,Indian) "I shocked someone when I told them that we believe in Jesus. ...
Perceived discrimination, a subjective appraisal of disadvantageous treatment on the grounds of identity, is negatively associated with wellbeing. We explored this association among British Muslim students, sampled online, by questions about perceived and experienced discrimination, visibility as a Muslim, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and positivity. Results from 457 respondents showed greater discrimination was experienced by those with more visible signs of Muslim faith, with a small but statistically significant positive correlation between perceived discrimination and psychological distress. Many participants also gave examples of of discrimination experienced. Implications for educational institutes, policy makers, clinicians, and the wider Muslim community are discussed.
... Given that stereotypes are often complex, multifaceted representations of groups, some have argued that they emerge later in development compared to group attitudes (Brown et al., 2017;Mackie et al., 1996), although this likely depends on the type of social group and the type of stereotype. Research suggests that gender stereotypes emerge during early childhood: ...
Children are prosocial from a young age onward but their prosocial actions are not necessarily egalitarian – especially with regard to others’ group membership. From around four years of age children tend to help and share more with in-group members compared to out-group members. However, a growing body of findings also suggest that sometimes children act more prosocially toward out-group members. How can we reconcile such seemingly contradicting behaviors? In this chapter, I describe how the salience of group stereotypes might shed light on these inconsistent findings. Specifically, different helping contexts can activate different group stereotypes. These different stereotypes could lead children to sometimes act more prosocially toward in-group peers, but sometimes show out-group bias in their helping or sharing behavior. For example, contexts that involve reciprocity could increase salience of a stereotype that out-groups are less trustworthy and thus children might be less inclined to share their resources with the out-group (i.e., in-group bias). Whereas an academic helping context might make a stereotype salient that entails out-groups are less competent and thus needing more help (i.e., out-group bias). Taking into account group stereotypes in children’s prosocial behavior will provide us with a deeper understanding of the underlying motivations that lead to selective prosociality in children. In the long run, such insights can contribute to combating discrimination and prejudice early in life.
... Results indicate that when considering a direct approach (stereotype → positive affect and stereotype → negative affect), an increased tendency for cultural stereotypes (which are supposed to be mostly negative) leads to negative affect; alternatively, a lack of stereotypes leads to positive affect. These findings are consistent with the majority of studies that show cultural stereotypes directly impact individuals' attitudes [95][96][97][98][99]. ...
Two decades have passed since the September 11 attacks by Islamist militants that shocked the world. Despite this, Islamophobia remains a common phenomenon. In Taiwan, the 2014 12-year Basic Education Curriculum amendments emphasize cultural and global understanding as core competencies. With more than 6 years of implementation, it would be therefore interesting to learn what elementary school students think of Islam. Anchoring on the concepts of intercultural competency development, stereotypes are said to be related to cognitive knowledge, intercultural behavioral abilities, and attitudes. A survey instrument was developed and validated to collect information on stereotypes, skills in intercultural interaction, and attitudes toward Islam. Additionally , cognitive knowledge of Islam was also tested. A total of 712 students participated in the study. Structural equation modelling was used to test the mediating role of cognitive knowledge and in-tercultural behavioral skills within the relationship between cultural stereotypes and intercultural affects. Findings show that behavioral skills alone are not enough to diminish the negative aspects of stereotypes. Importantly, it is only with the help of cognitive knowledge that the relationship between stereotypes and intercultural affects are improved. It is hoped that by understanding the importance of proper curriculum content, more sustainable coexistence can be established.
... While all bullying can be distressing, race-and religion-based bullying is particularly disturbing. Prejudice among children against Arab Muslims has been identified by other studies as well (Brown et al., 2017). Children in our study recounted incidents of ethnic-religious discrimination when they were beaten up and told to go back to their "own" country when they attempted to pray outside the school building: ...
This paper explores the initial integration experiences of Syrian refugee children in schools in Canada. We conducted two focus groups with twelve Syrian refugee parents and three focus groups with eighteen children. Our research shows that Syrian refugee children experienced emotional barriers while struggling with their identity as Syrian “refugees.” Their low English proficiency, English only practice in classrooms and teachers’ low expectations further exacerbated the barriers to children's school integration. Syrian refugee children not only found it difficult to make friends with local students but were also subjected to constant bullying and racism that affected their sense of belonging and connection. Our research has both local and global implications, given a global increase in refugee student population. This paper makes an important contribution to the student voice theory by integrating the voices and concerns of Syrian refugee children trying to integrate into the Canadian school system.
... Normas sociais e expressões do preconceito racial em crianças. No estágio atual de investigação, a expressão do preconceito nas crianças é compreendida tanto pela influência do desenvolvimento de estruturas cognitivas como pelas dinâmicas que regem as relações intergrupais (Brown et al., 2017;Flamion et al., 2017;França & Monteiro, 2013;Monteiro et al., 2008). A manifestação de atitudes raciais é influenciada pela percepção por parte da criança de que seu grupo possui normas específicas quanto à expressão do preconceito (Hughes et al., 2015;Rodrigues et al., 2016). ...
A investigação sobre o preconceito racial na infância recebeu influência das teorias do desenvolvimento sócio-cognitivo e do desenvolvimento da identidade social, as quais destacaram o papel das habilidades cognitivas e da pertença grupal sobre as manifestações de atitudes raciais nas crianças. O estudo das atitudes preconceituosas na infância, a partir de uma abordagem sócio-normativa, foi impulsionado por pesquisas mais recentes, as quais verificaram que as crianças, tal como os adultos, inibem expressões flagrantes de preconceito. Neste trabalho, as contribuições da abordagem sócio-normativa para o estudo do preconceito racial na infância são discutidas a partir de pesquisas que analisam as manifestações de atitudes raciais em crianças como resultado da interação entre uma série de fatores, tais como a percepção da norma da igualdade, a Teoria da Mente e o julgamento moral.
... Prejudice remains prevalent in the United States, including the endorsement of stereotypes about racial groups (e.g., Black, Asian, and Latino Americans; Zou & Cheryan, 2017), women (Ellemers, 2018), and various religious groups (Brown et al., 2017). Social psychologically informed prejudice reduction strategies frequently examine interventions that reduce the use of stereotypes directed toward one stigmatized group (e.g., Lai et al., 2016). ...
Past research on prejudice confrontations as a prejudice reduction tool has only examined bias that was implicated in the confrontation, such as the use of negative Black stereotypes after being confronted for using negative Black stereotypes. Examining the breadth of prejudice confrontations, we hypothesize that confronted individuals should subsequently use fewer negative and positive stereotypes about other racial minority groups, and fewer stereotypes about groups stigmatized along other identity dimensions (e.g., gender). In two studies, White participants confronted for the use of negative Black stereotypes used fewer negative Latino stereotypes (Study 1), positive Black, but not Asian, stereotypes and fewer gender role stereotypes (Study 2). Additionally, participants confronted for female gender role stereotypes subsequently used fewer negative Black and Latino stereotypes 24–72 hr later due to greater racial egalitarian motivation (Study 3). Thus, prejudice confrontations have a broad effect on reducing bias toward multiple stigmatized groups across identity dimensions.
... Many children reported acquiring these ideas from media representations. In a recent study by Brown et al. (2017), these negative attitudes towards Muslims have not changed much. The U.S. children in the study did not consider Muslim children as Americans, based on their knowledge from media, unless they have prior contacts with Muslim children. ...
Strong anti-Islamic sentiments increased dramatically after the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States, leading to an uptick in prejudice and the perpetration of hate crimes targeting Muslims. Sikh men and boys, often mistaken for Muslims, suffered as collateral damage. The overall health of both communities has been adversely affected by these experiences. Faced with such realities, communities and parents often adopt adaptive behaviors to foster healthy development in their children. In this paper, drawing on interviews with 23 Sikh parents from 12 families, we examine Sikh parents’ ethno-religious socialization of their children. The confluence of media stereotyping and mistaken identities has shaped Sikh parents’ beliefs regarding their children’s retention/relinquishment of outward identity markers. Sikh parents, in general, are concerned about the safety of their boys, due to the distinctive appearance of their religious markers, such as the turban. They are engaged in a constant struggle to ensure that their children are not identified as Muslims and to protect them from potential harm. In most of the families in our study, boys were raised to give up wearing the indicators of their ethno-religious group. In addition, many parents took responsibility for educating the wider community about their ethno-religious practices through direct communication, participation in cultural events, and support of other ethno-religious minorities. Policy implications are discussed.
... In addition to our primary interest in developmental processes, we highlight the role of social-justice issues in the realm of political thought and participation. Collectively, our past research has focused on the formation, function, and revision of youths' attitudes about social groups, including those based on gender or sex (e.g., Bigler & Liben, 1990Bigler, Hayes, & Liben, 2014;Hayes, Bigler, & Weisgram, 2018;Hayes, Pahlke, & Bigler, 2011;Leaper & Brown, 2018;Pahlke, Bigler, & Green, 2010;Pahlke, Bigler, & Martin, 2014;Pahlke, Hyde, & Allison, 2014;Patterson, 2012;Patterson & Pahlke, 2011), race or ethnicity (Bigler & Liben, 1993;Brown, 2006;Brown, Mistry, & Bigler, 2007;Hughes, Bigler, & Levy, 2007;Pahlke, Bigler, & Suizzo, 2012;Zucker & Patterson, 2018), and immigrant status (Brown, 2011;Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;Brown & Lee, 2015). We sought to bring insights from our past work on these topics to understanding how factors rooted in childhood might relate to the political knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of individuals from diverse social groups. ...
In this monograph, we argue for the establishment of a developmental science of politics that describes, explains, and predicts the formation and change of individuals’ political knowledge, attitudes, and behavior beginning in childhood and continuing across the life course. Reflecting our goal of contributing both theoretical conceptualizations and empirical data, we have organized the monograph into two broad sections. In the first section, we outline theoretical contributions that the study of politics may make to developmental science and provide practical reasons that empirical research in the domain of politics is important (e.g., for identifying ways to improve civics education and for encouraging higher voting rates among young adults). We also review major historical approaches to the study of political development and provide an integrative theoretical framework to ground future work. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model as an organizing scheme and emphasizing social justice issues, we describe how factors rooted in cultural contexts, families, and children themselves are likely to shape political development.
In the second section of the monograph, we argue for the importance and utility of studying major political events, such as presidential elections, and introduce the major themes, rationales, and hypotheses for a study of U.S. children's views of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In addition, we apply a social‐justice lens to political thought and participation, addressing the role of gender/sex and race/ethnicity in children's political development broadly, and in their knowledge and views of the 2016 U.S. presidential election specifically. In interviews conducted within the month before and after the election, we examined two overarching categories of children's political attitudes: (a) knowledge, preferences, and expectations about the 2016 election, and (b) knowledge and attitudes concerning gender/sex and politics, particularly relevant for the 2016 election given Hillary Clinton's role as the first female major‐party candidate for the presidency.
Participants were 187 children (101 girls) between 5 and 11 years of age ( M = 8.42 years, SD = 1.45 years). They were recruited from schools and youth organizations in five counties in four U.S. states (Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, and Washington) with varying voting patterns (e.g., Trump voters ranged from 27% to 71% of county voters). The sample was not a nationally representative one, but was racially diverse (35 African American, 50 Latinx, 81 White, and 21 multiracial, Asian American, Middle Eastern, or Native American children). In addition to several child characteristics (e.g., age, social dominance orientation [SDO]), we assessed several family and community characteristics (e.g., child‐reported parental interest in the election and government‐reported county‐level voting patterns, respectively) hypothesized to predict outcome variables.
Although our findings are shaped by the nature of our sample (e.g., our participants were less likely to support Trump than children in larger, nationwide samples were), they offer preliminary insights into children's political development. Overall, children in our sample were interested in and knowledgeable about the presidential election (e.g., a large majority identified the candidates correctly and reported some knowledge about their personal qualities or policy positions). They reported more information about Donald Trump's than Hillary Clinton's policies, largely accounted for by the substantial percentage of children (41%) who referred to Trump's immigration policies (e.g., building a wall between the United States and Mexico). Overall, children reported as many negative as positive personal qualities of the candidates, with negative qualities being reported more often for Trump than for Clinton (56% and 18% of children, respectively). Most children (88%) supported Clinton over Trump, a preference that did not vary by participants’ gender/sex or race/ethnicity. In their responses to an open‐ended inquiry about their reactions to Trump's win, 63% of children reported negative and 18% reported positive emotions. Latinx children reacted more negatively to the election outcome than did White children. Girls’ and boys’ emotional responses to the election outcome did not differ. Children's personal interest in serving as U.S. president did not vary across gender/sex or racial/ethnic groups (overall, 42% were interested). Clinton's loss of the election did not appear to depress (or pique) girls’ interest in becoming U.S. president. With respect to the role of gender/sex in politics, many children (35%) were ignorant about women's absence from the U.S. presidency. Only a single child was able to name a historical individual who worked for women's civil rights or suffrage.
Child characteristics predicted some outcome variables. For example, as expected, older children showed greater knowledge about the candidates than did younger children. Family and community characteristics also predicted some outcome variables. For example, as expected, participants were more likely to support Trump if they perceived that their parents supported him and if Trump received a greater percentage of votes in the children's county of residence.
Our data suggest that civic education should be expanded and reformed. In addition to addressing societal problems requiring political solutions, civics lessons should include the histories of social groups’ political participation, including information about gender discrimination and the women's suffrage movement in U.S. political history. Providing children with environments that are rich in information related to the purpose and value of politics, and with opportunities and encouragement for political thought and action, is potentially beneficial for youth and their nations.
... While all bullying can be distressing, race and religion based bullying is particularly disturbing. Prejudice among children against Arab Muslims has been identified by other studies as well (Brown, Ali, Stone & Jewell, 2017). Children in our study recounted incidents of ethnic-religious discrimination when they were beaten up and told to go back to their "own" country when they attempted to pray outside of the school building: ...
Since 2011, the armed conflict that began in the Syrian Arab Republic has displaced an estimated 12 million Syrians, forcing them to seek refuge in various countries around the world. Over half of those uprooted are children. Education is key to integration of refugee children and is considered critical in bringing back a sense of normalcy, routine as well as emotional and social well-being in the lives of refugee children. In Canada, integration of Syrian refugee children in the public school system has, therefore, been identified as one of the vital aspects of their settlement needs. This article examines the challenges experienced by newly arrived Syrian refugee children as they struggle to integrate to the Canadian school system. We have conducted five focus groups with twelve Syrian refugee parents and eighteen Syrian refugee children between the age group of 10-14. Our research shows that Syrian refugee children not only find it difficult to make friends with local students but are also subjected to constant bullying and racism that affect their sense of belonging and connection. Making the views of these students explicit, we hope to provide a starting point for not only understanding their experiences in more detail, but also for developing educational strategies, resources and policies that might best meet the needs of these students and future refugee children and youth.
... Historically, in Hollywood and popular culture at least, depictions of Arabs as short-tempered and sexually depraved were common (Shaheen, 2003). Still today, so common are some stereotypes about Arab Muslims, that beliefs that Arab men are oppressive and Arab women oppressed have been established as common among schoolchildren in the United States as young as 6-11 years old ( Brown et al., 2017). Recent stereotypes about Arabs, however, are somewhat different for their subtlety. ...
This study examined concerns about Internet surveillance among Internet users in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar, and the UAE (N = 4160). Despite common stereotypes about how variables like gender, youth, income, nationality, and liberal or conservative ideology affect political and cultural attitudes in Arab countries, these indicators were not significant predictors of concerns about online surveillance by governments and companies. Arab nationals reported greater concern about companies monitoring their online activity, while expatriates were more worried about government surveillance. The study uses literature on the attribute substitution heuristic to discuss how people might form stereotypes about large groups.
... In spite of this evidence, some scholars have recommended caution in making claims about the representativeness and generalizability of public comments posted on social media sites (Purcell, Rainie, Mitchell, Rosenstiel, & Olmstead, 2010). But even with this caution, the anti-Muslim comments posted on online sites are supported by parallel attitudinal research (Brown, Ali, Stone, & Jewell, 2017;Dunwoody & McFarland, 2017). A YouGov poll (2018) revealed that 50% of Americans thought there should be "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United State until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." ...
In January 2017, a seven-country ban blocked immigrants from entering the U.S. When the story broke, many people posted comments on online news sites. Analysis revealed themes of rejection and acceptance. Rejection themes focused on security, demeaning Muslims, and exclusion. Acceptance themes called for inclusivity and providing a safe haven for immigrants. Comments aligned into partisan camps reflecting political branding of the sites. Analyses revealed both pro-ban and anti-ban emotionally charged comments. Hate speech was used to justify support of the ban on ultra-conservative sites. These analyses described the emotional response to admitting Muslim immigrants into the United States.
Names can carry signifiers of identity, like ethnic group, nation of origin, and religion. This chapter discusses the ongoing discrimination experienced by those carrying names associated with being Muslim, with a focus on the impact in employment and housing. Additionally, in an ever-globalized world, it questions if there is a change in names to avoid stigma and to create more “neutral” presentation, as they further interact with non-Muslim-majority countries. As immigration of Muslims to non-majority Muslim countries has increased, some names have shifted to attempt to mitigate a marginalized identity affecting housing access and economic success.
The term Islamophobia is used in research studies; however, it is evident many researchers do not similarly use the term and, subsequently, measure the construct. We evaluate measures based upon their alignment with one first definition of Islamophobia that includes: (1) a perceived fear or threat of Islam/Muslims and (2) an engagement in prejudicial attitudes and/or discriminatory actions. We conducted a systematic literature search of 15 databases to identify Islamophobia‐related measures used in the literature from 1992 to 2018 (updated 2022). The measures were reviewed to examine alignment with the definition of Islamophobia and their psychometric properties. We identified 12 validated measures of Islamophobia and provided an in‐depth review of each measure. Additionally, we cataloged the 249 validated and nonvalidated measures of Islamophobia ( N = 24), and the five remaining content areas—prejudicial attitudes ( N = 80), discriminatory actions ( N = 21), fear of Muslims ( N = 23), anti‐other group ( N = 52), and experiences of discrimination for Muslims ( N = 49) by validity, measure structure, and other criteria (Tables 1–12). This systematic review can assist researchers in identifying and selecting the most reliable and valid measure related to their definition of Islamophobia.
Children’s perceptions of similarity and dissimilarity between in- and out-groups and their associations with intergroup attitudes were examined. Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, 5- and 8-year-old Jewish-Israeli children (N = 100, 48 % girls) were investigated. They were asked about Arabs (which are considered a conflict out-group). Specifically, they were asked
whether a Jewish girl/boy and an Arab girl/boy are similar or dissimilar and in what way. They were also asked about their attitudes towards Arabs. In general, children reported more intergroup dissimilarities than similarities between Jews and Arabs. Children’s perceptions revealed that they considered three types of properties as fundamental for intergroup (dis)similarity:
appearance, psychological characteristics, and social identity. The results indicate that children form intergroup dissimilarity perceptions at an early age, but only at about 8 years of age do these perceptions become associated with negative attitudes towards the out-group. These findings highlight the importance of promoting early awareness of similarities between groups to mitigate the development of negative attitudes as children grow older.
Araştırmada sınıf öğretmenlerinin görüşleri dikkate alınarak ilkokul öğrencilerinin sahip olduğu kalıp yargı ve ön yargılarının incelenmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Araştırma, kişilerin yaşam deneyimlerini nasıl yorumladıklarına odaklanan temel nitel araştırma deseni ile yürütülmüştür. Çalışmaya, Türkiye’nin farklı illerinde görev yapan 20 sınıf öğretmeni katılmıştır. Veriler, araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen “İlkokul Öğrencilerinde Görülen Kalıp Yargı ve Ön Yargılara İlişkin Yarı Yapılandırılmış Görüşme Formu” ile toplanmıştır. Elde edilen verilerin analizinde içerik analizi kullanılmıştır. Ulaşılan bulgulara göre ilkokul öğrencileri cinsiyet, etnisite ya da ırk, dil, din, yerleşim yerleri, meslekler, özel gereksinimli bireyler, dersler, sosyoekonomik düzey ve bireysel farklılıklar ile ilgili konularda kalıp yargılara sahiptir. Öğrenciler, kalıp yargılara sahip oldukları gruplar karşısında kaçınma, uzak durma, dışlama, tercih etmeme, iğrenme ve engelleme gibi davranışlar sergilemektedir. Bu kalıp yargı ve ön yargıların azaltılması için kalıp yargı ve ön yargıyı fark etme becerisine Hayat Bilgisi Dersi Öğretim Programında da yer verilmelidir. Böylece, ilkokul öğrencilerinin kalıp yargı ön yargılarının gelişip yayılması daha erken bir süreçte önlenmelidir.
Es wurde festgestellt, dass Diskriminierung verschiedene Entwicklungsergebnisse beeinflusst. Bevor die Forschungsergebnisse zu den Ergebnissen bei arabisch-amerikanischen Jugendlichen erörtert werden, ist es wichtig, die Entwicklungsprozesse und Theorien zu verstehen, die im Zusammenhang mit Entwicklung und Diskriminierung existieren. In diesem Kapitel werden die verschiedenen Theorien vorgestellt, die in der Literatur am häufigsten zitiert werden und für arabisch-amerikanische Jugendliche relevant sind. Die Entwicklungsprozesse in der Adoleszenz werden im Detail erörtert und es wird aufgezeigt, wie Diskriminierung diese Prozesse beeinflusst. Der Dialog schafft die Grundlage dafür, warum und wie Diskriminierung in verschiedenen Umfeldern, einschließlich des Schulsystems, kritische Aspekte der Entwicklung von Minderheitenjugendlichen beeinflusst.
Research finds that social media platforms’ peer-to-peer structures shape the public discourse and increase citizens’ likelihood of exposure to unregulated, false, and prejudicial content. Here, we test whether self-reported reliance on social media as a primary news source is linked to racialised policy support, taking the case of United States Muslims, a publicly visible but understudied group about whom significant false and prejudicial content is abundant on these platforms. Drawing on three original surveys and the Nationscape dataset, we find a strong and consistent association between reliance on social media and support for a range of anti-Muslim policies. Importantly, reliance on social media is linked to policy attitudes across the partisan divide and for individuals who reported holding positive or negative feelings towards Muslims. These findings highlight the need for further investigation into the political ramification of information presented on contemporary social media outlets, particularly information related to stigmatised groups.
Cultural cues can affect individuals’ experiences and attitudes. The headscarf is one such cue, as a symbol strongly associated with Islam that is often the subject of public discussion. In the present study (N = 94), a Turkish experimenter wore vs. did not wear a headscarf while handing out questionnaires in a German town square. Analyzes showed that in the “headscarf condition”, participants reported higher negative stereotypes of Turkish Muslims, less warmth and more symbolic threat associated with this group than in the “non-headscarf condition”. No differences in competence ratings were found, which supports the primacy of warmth. Furthermore, acculturation preferences did not differ between conditions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Discrimination has been found to influence various developmental outcomes. Before discussing the research found regarding the outcomes in Arab American adolescents, it is important to understand the developmental processes and theories that exist pertaining to development and discrimination. This chapter presents the various theories that are most cited and relevant to Arab American youth in the literature. Developmental processes in adolescence are discussed in detail along with how discrimination has been found to affect these processes. The dialogue sets the stage for why and how discrimination in various settings, including the school system, influences critical aspects of development in minority youth.
The region of the Arab Middle East known as the Levant is located on the continent of southwestern Asia and includes the people of Lebanon, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and Jordan. The focus of this chapter is on the immigration of families from this region to the United States and Canada. This chapter provides a summary of the culture and values that the people of these regions bring with them when they immigrate to North America, as well as the currently available demographic patterns of data. Mental health and family vulnerability issues are reviewed given the potential histories of wartime trauma and post-migration acculturative stresses, including prejudice and discrimination experienced by those from the Levant. The implications of adverse life circumstances for adaptation and resilient functioning are highlighted in the context of acculturation issues, preventative interventions, and future research agendas.
This paper is a call for empirical research, and theory development, that focuses on the peer relationships of children and adolescents who experience forced displacement. During the last decade, an escalating humanitarian crisis has developed with historic levels of involuntary migration occurring across the world. The extant research on youth who become refugees or internally displaced has primarily targeted issues related to mental health and basic survival needs. Less attention has been devoted to normative developmental processes including peer relationships. Nonetheless, peers can play a critical role in facilitating the adjustment of displaced children and adolescents. Friends can help these vulnerable youth through the transitions associated with resettlement. From a less adaptive perspective, interactions in the peer group will potentially contribute to intensification of risk and can accelerate trajectories toward negative outcomes. Resettlement and relocation efforts will need to be informed by a focus on social adjustment in the peer group.
The United States is in crisis. We are experiencing a multitude of social, political, health, and economic challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, white supremacist reprisals under the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement, the highest unemployment rates since the Great Depression, and a nation still combating the xenophobic and racist climate fostered from the 2016 presidential election while continuing to witness a highly politicized 2020 presidential election. Unfortunately, schools are not immune from the toxic external factors plaguing our society. After the 2016 presidential election, Costello (2016) found that eight out of 10 students including Muslim; Black; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer; and immigrants reported increased anxiety, and four out of 10 students experienced verbal abuse. Furthermore, Muslim children (42 percent) in K–12 are more likely to be bullied in schools compared with their Protestant (20 percent) and Jewish (23 percent) counterparts (Institute for Social Policy and Understanding [ISPU], 2017). Despite ideals of religious liberty and tolerance as central to America’s founding, the continued threat and racialization of Islam has been on the rise since 2001 and continues to pose a threat to Muslim children in U.S. schools.
This study examined how intergroup processes and social-cognitive factors shape bystander responses to bias-based and general bullying. Participants included sixth and ninth graders (N = 179, M = 13.23) who evaluated how likely they would be to intervene if they observed bullying of immigrant-origin and nonimmigrant-origin peers. Adolescents’ grade, intergroup attitudes, and social-cognitive abilities were evaluated as predictors of bystander responses. Nonimmigrant-origin adolescents reported that they expect they would be less likely to intervene when the victim is an immigrant-origin peer. Furthermore, participants with more intergroup contact and higher theory of mind were more likely to expect they would intervene in response to bias-based bullying. Findings have important implications for understanding factors that inform antibullying interventions that aim to tackle bias-based bullying against immigrants.
This study examined the effect of media portrayals of immigrants and refugees on participants’ attitudes using an experimental design. Participants included 196 male and female college students who were primed with either negative or positive media portrayals of immigrants and refugees from either hard or fake news sources, or no media portrayals. Participants then answered questions regarding immigrants, immigration policy, and Islamophobia. We hypothesized that there would be differences in participants attitudes based on experimental condition and that information presented from fake news would have a stronger effect on consumers than information presented via hard news. Factors related to participant susceptibility to media portrayals were also examined and included participant race, biological sex, social class, and political and religious affiliation. Significant differences were found based on experimental condition for viewing immigration as an economic, cultural diversity, and humanitarian benefit, as well as cognitive Islamophobia. As predicted, the effect of media portrayals, whether positive or negative, in video clips had a stronger effect on participants if the video clips originated from a fake news source. Additionally, biological sex, race, social class, and political affiliation were found to relate to participant susceptibility to media portrayals from both hard and fake news sources.
Executive summary/Abstract
Background
In the field of terrorism research, the violent radicalisation of individuals towards perpetrating acts of terror has been the subject of academic enquiry for some time. One core focus by social scientists has been the role of narratives in this process. Narratives have the ability to present a socially constructed version of reality which serves the interest of the narrator(s). In the context of terrorism, by depicting violence as a viable antidote to individual vulnerabilities, the narratives purported for propagandistic purposes have the potential to thwart perceptions of instrumentality (a key characteristic of violent radicalisation). In order to prevent this from happening, researchers and counter‐terrorism practitioners have increasingly sought to explore the potential for counter‐narratives; targeted interventions that challenge the rationalisation(s) of violence purported in dominant narratives which, in turn, reconstructs the story. However, there is overwhelming consensus in both government and academic spheres that the concept of the counter‐narrative is underdeveloped and, to date, there has been no synthesis of its effectiveness at targeting violent radicalisation‐related outcomes.
Objectives
The objective of this review was to provide a synthesis of the effectiveness of counter‐narratives in reducing the risk of violent radicalisation.
Search Methods
After a scoping exercise, the literature was identified through four search stages, including key‐word searches of 12 databases, hand searches of reference lists of conceptual papers or books on the topic of counter‐narratives, as well as direct contact with experts and professional agencies in the field.
Selection Criteria
Studies adopting an experimental or quasiexperimental design where at least one of the independent variables involved comparing a counter‐narrative to a control (or comparison exposure) were included in the review.
Data Collection and Analysis
Accounting for duplicates, a total of 2,063 records were identified across two searches. Nineteen studies across 15 publications met the inclusion criteria. These studies were largely of moderate quality and 12 used randomised control trial designs with varying types of controls. The publication years ranged from 2000 to 2018, with the majority of studies published after 2015. The studies represented a range of geographical locations, but the region most heavily represented was North America. In most cases, the dominant narrative(s) “to‐be‐countered” comprised of hostile social constructions of an adversary or “out‐group”. The majority of studies challenged these dominant narratives through the use of stereotype‐challenging, prosocial, or moral “exemplars”. Other techniques included the use of alternative accounts, inoculation and persuasion.
Results
In terms of risk factors for violent radicalisation, there was some disparity on intervention effectiveness. Overall, when pooling all outcomes, the intervention showed a small effect. However, the observed effects varied across different risk factors. Certain approaches (such as counter‐stereotypical exemplars) were effective at targeting realistic threat perceptions, in‐group favouritism and out‐group hostility. However, there was no clear reduction in symbolic threat perceptions or implicit bias. Finally, there was a sparse yet discouraging evidence on the effectiveness of counter‐narrative interventions at targeting primary outcomes related to violent radicalisation, such as intent to act violently.
Authors' Conclusions
The review contributes to existing literature on violent radicalisation‐prevention, highlighting the care and complexity needed to design and evaluate narrative‐based interventions which directly counter existing, dominant narratives. The authors note the challenges of conducting high‐quality research in the area, but nonetheless encourage researchers to strive for experimental rigour within these confines
One of the most potent ways to communicate stigma is associating a group with peril. In this study, we examine how different forms of peril representations influence specific patterns of interpersonal inclinations. We explore how key social perceptions of group warmth and competence may serve as explanatory mediating mechanisms. Although African Americans and Arab-Muslims similarly share close mediated associations with threat, an empirical examination of how interaction intentions toward both groups differ under congruent conditions is warranted. Results demonstrate support for expectations pertaining to Arab-Muslims, though not African Americans, revealing the complicated nature of threat-influenced antipathy toward these groups.
Muslims are routinely and distortedly associated with danger and terrorist activity in the media. Such depictions have clear implications for the social behaviors oriented toward this social group, however, explicitly interpersonal media effects of this nature are in need of enhanced examination. In this study, we assess the potential for positive depictions of Muslims to enhance the interpersonal interaction inclinations of consumers, using psychological theory to explore underlying mechanisms (i.e., narrative transportation, perceptions of social stigma, and prejudicial attitudes). Experimental evidence provides general support for our proposed theoretical model. Moreover, findings reveal a process of mediated social dissent wherein consumers’ perceptions of negative societal evaluations about Muslims facilitated more positive personal evaluations. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Although standardized measures of prejudice reveal high levels of ethnocentric bias in the preschool years, it may reflect in-group favoritism or out-group prejudice. A measure that partially decouples the two attitudes was given to White children between 4 and 7 years of age to examine the reciprocal relation between and the acquisition and correlates of in-group and out-group attitudes. The two attitudes were reciprocally correlated in 1 sample from a racially homogeneous school but not in a 2nd sample from a mixed-race school. In-group favoritism did not appear until 5 years of age but then reached significant levels; it was strongly related to developing social cognitions. Out-group prejudice was weaker, but its targets suffer from comparison with the high favoritism accorded in-group members.
The self-concept literature is characterized by a continuing controversy over whether the self-concept is stable or malleable. In this article we suggest that it is both but that the stability observed for general descriptions of the self may mask significant local variation. In this study the social environment was varied by creating a situation in which subjects found themselves to be either very unique or very similar to others. Following this manipulation, subjects responded to a series of self-concept measures. Although the uniqueness and similarity subjects did not differ in the trait terms they used to describe themselves, they did differ systematically in their latency for these judgments, in positivity and negativity of their word associations, and in their judgments of similarity to reference groups. These findings imply that subjects made to feel unique recruited conceptions of themselves as similar to others, whereas subjects made to feel similar to others recruited conceptions of themselves as unique. The results suggest that very general self-descriptive measures are inadequate for revealing how the individual adjusts and calibrates the self-concept in response to challenges from the social environment.
This study compares Muslim women's views on wearing the veil in a Muslim majority society, Indonesia, with the Muslim minority in India. In-depth interviews reveal significant differences between the two: Majority women talk in terms of convenience, fashion, and modesty with little reference to religion as their reasons for veiling. The responses of Muslim minority women are diverse: their account of veiling stretches from religiously inspired arguments through to reasons of convenience, and to opposition against stereotypes and discrimination. Most minority women see the veil as a way of affirming their cultural identity. We argue that religious minorities are forced into constructing their cultural identity in ways that exaggerate their group belonging and difference from broader society. This may be motivated either by falling back on religious resources or by using ethnic markers to overtly oppose endemic prejudice. No such identity issue exists for the Muslim majority women. This contradicts the dominant view in non-Muslim countries in the West, where the female scarf is primarily considered a symbol of religious fundamentalism and patriarchal oppression.
Prior research found that stereotypical media content shapes the perception of racial groups and social policy. Using the UCLA Communication Studies Digital News Archive, we sampled 146 cable and network news programs aired between 2008 and 2012. Findings revealed that Blacks were actually “invisible” on network news, being underrepresented as both violent perpetrators and victims of crime. However, Whites were accurately represented as criminals. Moreover, Latinos were greatly overrepresented as undocumented immigrants while Muslims were greatly overrepresented as terrorists on network and cable news programs. The implications of these findings are contextualized using the “guard dog” media coverage theory, structural limitations/economic interest of media, ethnic blame discourse, and the community philanthropy perspective.
This paper focuses on time, space, and identity relations in narratives of Muslim women in an Islamic student group in Colorado, who use autobiographies of how their faith developed for countering stereotypes of Islam and Muslims in post 9/11 America. In these faith development narratives, these women, who were born and raised in Islam, strive to dispel the often abstract media claims of Muslim women being oppressed by Muslim men and by Islamic doctrines, as well as being behind the times, stagnant in the past, or simply anti-modern, anti-secular, or anti-American. In narrating how they have progressed from unknowing children socialized into Islam to knowledgeable adults, the women decontextualize, and thereby idealize, Islam to stress their agency and individuality. The women resignify Islamic rituals, such as the
salat
(praying five times a day),
sawn
(fasting during Ramadan), and
hijab
(wearing the head scarf), by delinking them from the often criticized materialistic and pure-repetitious nature characteristic of religious rituals of the pre-modern. Instead, they project these rituals as self-disciplining and self-realizing practices very much in line with modern precepts of individuality and female emancipation. In their narratives, they reinforce the media’s binary opposition between America and Islam, reducing them to caricatures of a purely secular, somewhat ignorant, state and a perfect and pure religion, respectively.
The relationship between the self and the collective is discussed from the perspective of self-categorization theory. Self-categorization theory makes a basic distinction between personal and social identity as different levels of self-categorization. It shows how the emergent properties of group processes can be explained in terms of a shift in self perception from personal to social identity. It also elucidates how self-categorization varies with the social context. It argues that self-categorizing is inherently variable, fluid, and context dependent, as sedf-categories are social comparative and are always relative to a frame of reference. This notion has major implications for accepted ways of thinking about the self: The variability of self-categorizing provides the perceiver with behavioral and cognitive flexibility and ensures that cognition is always shaped by the social context in which it takes place.
The purpose for this study was to examine the structure and construct validity of a measure of ethnic identity among young adolescents from diverse ethnic groups. Students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades (N = 5,423) from diverse ethnic groups completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM), measures of psychological well-being and a measure of salience of ethnicity. Factor analyses of data for the three largest ethnic groups (European American, African American, Mexican American) yielded a two-factor structure that corresponded to two theoretical approaches to ethnic identity, as hypothesized. Similar patterns in magnitude of loadings were observed across groups, indicating that the MEIM could be used as a global composite index of ethnic identity. Ethnic identity was related positively to measures of psychological well-being such as coping ability, mastery, self-esteem and optimism, and negatively to measures of loneliness and depression. MEIM scores also were moderately strong and positive with salience (the importance of a person’s own ethnic background in his or her life), across ethnic groups.
This study was designed to assess the (score) construct- related validity of an instrument called the School- Wide Cultural Competence Observation Checklist (SCCOC). The instrument was developed to use as a tool in conducting culture audits as a means of assess- ing school-wide cultural competence, or how well a school's programs, policies, and practices reflect the perspectives and experiences of diverse groups. An exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the fac- tor structure of the SCCOC. Results revealed that the SCCOC contained two factors that explained 72.1% of the total variance. These factors, called Policy (22 items) and Practice (11 items), yielded score reliabili- ty coefficients of .97 and .89, respectively. Recommen- dations for incorporating a school-wide cultural com- petence assessment as part of a school counseling pro- gram are then discussed.
We investigate Americans' stereotypes of Muslims. We distinguish specific dimensions of stereotypes and find that negative stereotypes relating to violence and trustworthiness are commonplace. Furthermore, these stereotypes have consequences: those with less favorable views of Muslims, especially in terms of violence and trustworthiness, are more likely to support several aspects of the War on Terror. Our findings contrast with some previous research that emphasizes the role of a generalized ethnocentrism, rather than specific stereotypes of Muslims, in explaining public opinion in this domain. We argue that citizens do use specific stereotypes when there is a close correspondence between the dimension of the stereotype and the policy in question.
Stereotypes, which are based on the categorization process, are learned. Children first acquire a category of a social group and subsequently attribute characteristics to the group (i.e., form a stereotype). This paper illuminates the development of stereotypes among young children on the basis of cognitive theories of conceptual development. Specifically, several studies investigating the concept formation of “the Arab” among Jewish children in Israel are reported. These studies concern the five following research questions: When do children acquire the concept “an Arab”? On what basis do children form the concept “an Arab”? How do children understand the concept “an Arab”? What is the affective meaning of the concept “an Arab”? What is the visual image of “an Arab” in the minds of children? The results of the reported studies show that children acquire the word and the concept “an Arab” very early. From the beginning, even though little knowledge is associated with the concept, it has negative connotations. Young children described Arabs mostly by referring to violent and aggressive behaviors, and the characterization was unidimensional. These results demonstrate the strength of the Israeli cultural stereotype of Arabs and its influence on young children on the one hand, and show the general principles of category and stereotype development, on the other.
The years between 6 and 14-middle childhood and early adolescence-are a time of important developmental advances that establish children's sense of identity. During these years, children make strides toward adulthood by becoming competent, independent, self-aware, and involved in the world beyond their families. Biological and cognitive changes transform children's bodies and minds. Social relationships and roles change dramatically as children enter school, join programs, and become involved with peers and adults outside their families. During middle childhood, children develop a sense of self-esteem and individuality, comparing themselves with their peers. They come to expect they will succeed or fail at different tasks. They may develop an orientation toward achievement that will color their response to school and other challenges for many pars. In early adolescence, the tumultuous physical and social changes that accompany puberty the desire for autonomy and distance from the family, and the transition from elementary school to middle school or junior high can all cause problems for young people. When adolescents are in settings (in school, at home, or in community programs) that are not attuned to their needs and emerging independence, they can lose confidence in themselves and slip into negative behavior patterns such as truancy and school dropout. This article examines the developmental changes that characterize the years from 6 to 14, and it highlights ways in which the organization of programs, schools, and family life can better support positive outcomes for youths.
In the wake of the events of September 11, Muslim-American youth found that the multiple cultures within which they live were suddenly and alarmingly in conflict. The developmental consequences of living in a world fractured by religious and ethnic terror have yet to be determined for Muslim youth in the United States. This exploratory, mixed-method study begins to examine how Muslim youth negotiate their identities in these challenging times. Documented in the surveys, narrated in the interviews, and drawn into their identity maps, Muslim-American youth (n = 70) ages 12 to 18, vividly portrayed their interior lives as a dialectic labor of psychological reconciliation – piecing together what we call hyphenated selves. The results show that Muslim youth experience discrimination, sometimes to an extreme degree. We observed diversity in how youth deal with the challenges of growing up Muslim in post 9/11 US, ranging from “telling nobody” to policing each other within the Muslim community. In addition we found that males and females negotiate their Muslim and American identities in different ways.
Educators teaching about social difference and about minorities in society face a variety of challenges in effectively teaching students accurate and balanced understandings of different groups in society, including, particularly, the competing influence of the mass media on young people's minds. Whether one views representations in contemporary US media as directly educational to youth, or as more reflective of common beliefs and attitudes deemed acceptable or normal in mainstream society, it remains clear that controversial minorities are vulnerable to stereotyping in this domain that has at least an indirect influence on young people, and that must, therefore, be taken into account by multicultural educators as partly constitutive of students' background knowledge/experience. In this article, the author illustrates this challenge for multicultural education by reference to some of the common themes that emerge in widely disseminated images of Islam and Muslims in US media since September 11, 2001 (9/11). Although many insightful accounts emphasize a systematic, structural, and/or comprehensive character to Muslim misrepresentation in Western/US media throughout the later half of the 20th century, it is important to consider chiefly representations of this group since 9/11, given the likelihood that recent media accounts may be more reflectively produced, for instance, given recent government statements disallowing hatefulness toward Islam and Muslim in US society. Additionally, media changes so rapidly that old structures of film and news journalism that predominated at earlier periods in media history are no longer necessarily central to an objective view of contemporary media representations; thus the author wants to largely discard earlier findings regarding mainstream media coverage of Islam, focusing instead on what is normal in media representations today, since 9/11, and its implications for education. After elaborating on her understanding of the impact the media has on young people, the author provides an overview of recent popular representations of Islam and Muslims, showing how this minority group is regularly and commonly portrayed in mainstream media in negative, stereotypical ways, especially since 9/11. Articulating this trend as a challenge to teachers aiming to provide students with more balanced, impartial understandings of Islam and Muslims, she goes on to elaborate on the need for thematic, analytical, and critical media literacy in social studies classrooms that responds to the irresponsible, incidental education of mass media, discussing in relation some best teaching practices for managing resources to learn about Muslims and related topics in public schools today. (Contains 8 figures and 4 notes.)
Ethnic-group differences in school achievement in the United States are distressing. At all school levels, African American and Latino students have lower grades, lower graduation rates, higher dropout rates, and lower standardized achievement test scores than do white and Asian students (see Burton and Jones 1982; Jencks and Phillips 1998; Kao and Thompson 2003; Sue and Okazaki 1990; Steele 1997). This achievement gap is particularly worrisome because it portends a sustained economic gap between low-achieving and high-achieving ethnic groups. That is, compared to whites and Asians, blacks and Latinos will be less likely to have stable well-paying jobs and own homes or achieve other signs of economic success (see Jacobson et al. 2001; Gyourko 1998; Jencks and Phillips 1998; Thernstrom and Thernstrom 2003). Reasons for ethnic-group differences in school achievement are numerous and complex (see Kao and Thompson 2003), but, like many of the chapters in this book, the present chapter examines how such group differences may be explained by ethnic-group differences in school values and also by individuals' ethnic identities. A popular hypothesis is that blacks and Latinos do not value school achievement as much as whites and Asians do (see Cook and Ludwig 1997; Sue and Okazaki 1990; Tyson 2002), and this hypothesis stems from various beliefs: Asian families socialize their children to value school and hard work (Mordkowitz and Ginsburg 1987); Latino families encourage their children to find jobs instead of going to college (Perez 2002); blacks and some Latino groups devalue school achievement because they believe that it conflicts with their ethnic identity, that those who strive for school achievement are not being true members of their ethnic group (see Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Fordham 1988; Gibson and Ogbu 1991). It is critical to note that empirical evidence for this hypothesis is inconclusive. Some studies support it, whereas other studies show that black and Latino students do value school and that their ethnic identity can facilitate valuing of school. Moreover, as Carla O'Connor, Sonia DeLuca Fernández, and Brian Girard note in chapter 8 of this volume, studies are unable to address all the aspects of this hypothesis. In particular, these studies often have limited samples. Although comparisons of different ethnic groups and of immigrant and non-immigrant groups are both essential to testing this hypothesis (see Ogbu 1978), many studies examine only one ethnic group (particularly blacks), and few studies include immigrants. Most studies also focus on adolescents and college-aged students; it is unclear whether children from different ethnic groups differ in school valuing, and whether ethnic identity influences their school valuing. Testing these ideas with children is important because we know little about how children's emerging constructions about ethnicity and ethnic identification during middle childhood influence their own achievement-related choices and behaviors (Ruble et al. 2004). Moreover, conclusions drawn from the specific information available during relatively circumscribed periods of acquiring the information may exert continued and profound influence and thus be difficult to change (Ruble 1994). In this chapter we discuss research on the hypotheses that cultural values lead students from certain ethnic groups to either value or devalue school, and that blacks' and Latinos' ethnic identities lead them to devalue school. We also offer explanations for some inconsistent findings. Then we present the results of a study of these hypotheses we undertook with an ethnically diverse group of elementary school-aged children from immigrant and non-immigrant families.
Drawing from social contract theory, we explore how some adolescent Arab immigrants' (n = 99) sensitivity to the image of their ethnic group as enemies of America colors their interpretation of the social contract. Analyses of data collected in 1997 reveal that those youth who reported that the American media portray Arab people and nations as enemies of the United States are more attuned to personal experiences of prejudice based on their ethnic identity and are more dubious that the tenets of the social contract apply equally across groups. Negative images of Arab Americans were well in place prior to September 11, 2001, a pivotal moment that altered the lives of Arab Americans as well as the discourse on immigration and citizenship.
This article explores the way pupils in English primary school perceive Islam through discussion of Islam in the media. The research suggests that pupils are aware of Islam as a world religion and of many of the images and popular discourses associated with Islam. The research also suggests that while a minority of pupils expressed explicit racist or prejudiced views about Islam many pupils appeared to perceive Islam and Muslims as ‘foreign’ and ‘alien’. The article questions the effectiveness of an approach to teaching Islam that does not include pupil’s negative preconceptions of religion and which focuses on presenting an idealised or monolithic version of Islam.
Examined longitudinal changes between ages 6 and 9 yrs in White children's prejudice toward Blacks and Native Indians. The Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II (PRAM II) and a multiple-response racial attitude measure (MRA) assessed 56 Ss in kindergarten and 40 Ss in 3rd grade. 47 of the kindergarten Ss were retested in the 3rd grade. In both samples, older Ss were less prejudiced on the PRAM II than younger Ss, most of whom were prejudiced. On the MRA, favorable-White and unfavorable-Black evaluations did not decline with age, but unfavorable-White and favorable-Black evaluations increased. These decreases in prejudice were associated developmentally with the perception that different races are more similar, that people of the same race are more different, and that racially different perspectives are both acceptable. Perception of within-race similarity was associated positively with individual differences in prejudice at each age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this article, the authors examine the conceptualization and measurement of ethnic identity as a multidimensional, dynamic construct that develops over time through a process of exploration and commitment. The authors discuss the components of ethnic identity that have been studied and the theoretical background for a developmental model of ethnic identity. The authors review research on the measurement of ethnic identity using the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (J. Phinney, 1992) and present a revised version of the measure. The authors conclude with a consideration of the measurement issues raised by J. E. Helms (2007) and K. Cokley (2007) and suggestions for future research on ethnic identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested how children use information about others" sex, sex-typed interests, and cross-sex labels to make predictions. 72 children (4–10 years) heard descriptions of girls and boys with either stereotypic, counterstereotypic, or neutral interests, or they were labeled as
tomboys or
sissies. Children rated how much they and other boys and girls would like each child and predicted how much each child would want to play with 4 sex-typed toys. Both younger and older children liked same-sex children and disliked tomboys and sissies. In contrast, younger and older children used information differently when predicting toy preferences. Young children ignored targets" interests and based their judgments on targets" sex, whereas older children used both types of information. These results may be due to younger and older children"s different processing abilities, to age changes in gender stereotypes, or to both. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Proposes a broader approach to research in human development that focuses on the progressive accommodation, throughout the life span, between the growing human organism and the changing environments in which it actually lives and grows. The latter include not only the immediate settings containing the developing person but also the larger social contexts, both formal and informal, in which these settings are embedded. In terms of method, the approach emphasizes the use of rigorously designed experiments, both naturalistic and contrived, beginning in the early stages of the research process. The changing relation between person and environment is conceived in systems terms. These systems properties are set forth in a series of propositions, each illustrated by concrete research examples. (1¼ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the conceptions of other European nationals held by 216 5–10 yr old English schoolchildren, focusing on developmental changes in the cognitive and the affective/evaluative aspects of these conceptions. Ss' interviews (schedule appended) about French, German, Spanish, and Italian people showed that, as more information about groups of foreign nationals is acquired with age, Ss developed increasingly differentiated nationality concepts composed of clusters of attributes agreed to be characteristic of a particular people. Affective responses (which remain relatively stable) toward foreign peoples may be established prior to the acquisition of factual information about those peoples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The rejection-identification model is investigated with multiple dimensions of ethnic identity in a sample of Mexican American youth. It is hypothesized that more perceived discrimination will be associated with higher ethnic identity in general, but that the multiple dimensions of ethnic identity will be associated differentially with discrimination. Higher perceived discrimination will be associated with more ethnic exploration and less ethnic affirmation. Self-report questionnaires were completed by middle school students of Mexican descent (N= 881). Based on structural equation modeling, the data were found to fit the rejection-identification model (p < .05). Higher discrimination was associated with lower ethnic affirmation (p < .05) and lower ethnic exploration (p < .05). Post hoc analyses indicated a significant interaction between discrimination and ethnic affirmation (p < .01) such that youth with high ethnic affirmation who experienced high discrimination still reported high self-esteem. The findings are discussed in the context of understanding methods of coping with prejudice and discrimination that will enhance the mental well-being of minority youth.
Recent years have witnessed a renewal of interest in intergroup contact theory. A meta-analysis of more than 500 studies established the theory's basic contention that intergroup contact typically reduces prejudices of many types. This paper addresses the issue of process: just how does contact diminish prejudice? We test meta-analytically the three most studied mediators: contact reduces prejudice by (1) enhancing knowledge about the outgroup, (2) reducing anxiety about intergroup contact, and (3) increasing empathy and perspective taking. Our tests reveal mediational effects for all three of these mediators. However, the mediational value of increased knowledge appears less strong than anxiety reduction and empathy. Limitations of the study and implications of the results are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Immigrant Stories portrays the contexts and academic trajectories of development of three unique immigrant groups: Cambodian, Dominican and Portuguese. The children of immigrant families or second generation youth are the fastest growing population of school children in the US. However, very little is known about these children’s academic and psychological development during middle childhood. We examine the previously under-explored intricacies of children’s emerging cultural attitudes and identities, academic engagement, and academic achievement. These processes are studied alongside a myriad of factors in the family and school environment that combine to shape children’s academic psychological functioning during this important period. Through a three-year longitudinal study, including interviews with teachers, parents and children, this book presents a fascinating look at the community, school, and family contexts of child development among second-generation children. Both pre-immigration and post-immigration characteristics are explored as critical factors for understanding children of immigrants’ development. In the current climate of US immigration policy debate, we offer research findings that may inform educators and administrators about the sources of community strengths and challenges facing our newest immigrant generations.
The present study examines three forms of ethnic self-identification among Dutch and Turkish children age 10-13 in relation to their school class. We distinguish between three forms: ethnic self-definition, ethnic self-evaluation, and ethnic group introjection. First, the results showed a cumulative dimension of identification: Ethnic group introjection was a higher level of identification than ethnic self-evaluation; both were higher than ethnic self-definition. Second, multilevel analysis showed that salience of ethnicity in self-descriptions was more context-dependent than ethnic self-evaluation, whereas we found no context effects for ethnic group introjection. Furthermore, Turkish children were more likely to refer to their ethnicity in self-description and to indicate a positive ethnic self-evaluation in classes with a high percentage of Turkish members. In contrast, Dutch children were less likely to refer to their ethnicity in self-description when the percentage of Dutch classmates was high.
Focusing on the issue of Arab representation in the Israeli-Jewish society, this study describes the negative intergroup psychological repertoire about the enemy (Arabs) that evolves in the context of intractable conflict (Arab-Israeli conflict). This analysis is of special importance because the negative psychological intergroup repertoire feeds the continuation of the conflict, and thus, serves as a major obstacle to conflict resolution and the peace making process. The major challenge of changing the negative psychological intergroup repertoire is emphasized.
Social stereotyping and prejudice are intriguing phenomena from the standpoint of theory and, in addition, constitute pressing societal problems. Because stereotyping and prejudice emerge in early childhood, developmental research on causal mechanisms is critical for understanding and controlling stereotyping and prejudice. Such work forms the basis of a new theoretical model, developmental intergroup theory (DIT), which addresses the causal ingredients of stereotyping and prejudice. The work suggests that biases may be largely under environmental control and thus might be shaped via educational, social, and legal policies.
Live images on big screen and television go beyond a thousand words in perpetuating stereotypes and clichés. This article surveys more than a century of Hollywood's projection of negative images of the Arabs and Muslims. Based on the study of more than 900 films, it shows how moviegoers are led to believe that all Arabs are Muslims and all Muslims are Arabs. The moviemakers' distorted lenses have shown Arabs as heartless, brutal, uncivilized, religious fanatics through common depictions of Arabs kidnapping or raping a fair maiden; expressing hatred against the Jews and Christians; and demonstrating a love for wealth and power. The article compares the stereotype of the hook-nosed Arab with a similar depiction of Jews in Nazi propaganda materials. Only five percent of Arab film roles depict normal, human characters.
Elements of racial-ethnic identity, often found among adolescents from racial-ethnic minority groups, have their origins in middle childhood and pre-adolescence. The present study explored the developmental trajectory of some of those components among Native Canadian children living on relatively remote First Nation communities. Children and young adolescents (N = 414,209 female) between the ages of 6-11 completed measures assessing their level of racial-ethnic identity, concrete operational thought, implicit and explicit self-esteem, implicit and explicit in-group attitudes, and the importance of their racial-ethnic identity each year for 5 years. Consistent with predictions from cognitive developmental theory, trajectory modeling revealed significant increases over time in explicit and implicit in-group attitudes, level of concrete operational thought and the importance of children's racial-ethnic identity. However, level of racial-ethnic identity remained unchanged over time. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive-developmental theory, and the influence of living in a racially homogeneous environment on the development of racial-ethnic identity among minority group children. Studies are also suggested for future research.
This study attempted to untangle how two dimensions of school racial/ethnic composition—racial/ethnic diversity of the student body and racial/ethnic matching between children and their peers—were related to socioemotional and academic development after the transition into elementary school. Analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort revealed that school racial/ethnic composition was more strongly associated with children’s academic, as opposed to socioemotional, outcomes. Students had higher achievement test scores in more diverse schools, especially when they also had more same-race/ethnicity peers in these diverse schools. These patterns were particularly strong for White students. Having more school peers of the same race/ethnicity, regardless of the overall level of diversity in the school, was associated with positive socioemotional development.
The terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, fueled widespread concern and speculation about mounting
Islamophobic sentiment among Americans in response to the events. To monitor developments in opinions about Muslims and Arabs
(both living in the United States and abroad) and attitudes toward the Islamic faith, survey organizations began to assess
more regularly Americans’ attitudes on these topics. I analyze developments in public sentiment about Arab and Muslim Americans
and Islam in the age of the war on terror using available public opinion data. The data analyses in this study suggest that
Americans possess lingering resentment and reservations about Arab and Muslim Americans. The evidence also reveals low levels
of awareness about basic elements of Islam but growing anxiety about Islam’s (especially Islamic fundamentalism’s) compatibility
with Western values of tolerance, acceptance, and civility. Some of the sharpest movement in opinion dynamics we observe is
in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but opinion levels stabilize shortly thereafter. Monitoring these developments
as the war on terror continues is crucial.
The consensus from the developmental literature examining children's intergroup attitudes has been that children as young as 3 years of age exhibit racial prejudice. We suggest, however, that as much of the developmental research has confounded ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity, it becomes difficult to determine whether young children are displaying ingroup bias or outgroup derogation. Furthermore, it appears that young children are not demonstrating hostility toward outgroups; studies that have separately assessed evaluations toward the ingroup and outgroup demonstrate that rather than evaluating the outgroup negatively, young children are demonstrating a positivity bias toward their ingroup. We propose, therefore, that young children are primarily utilizing a perceptually based lay theory that does not necessitate outgroup derogation. We argue, however, that children's lay theories are subject to social structural conditions and specific social transitions, and hence, can lead to the development of prejudice.
This research focused on the role of the ethnic family background and ethnic socialization in the social cognitive development of ethnic identity in Mexican-American children. Aspects of a theoretical model of the socialization of ethnic identity were tested in forty-five 6- to 10-year-old children and their mothers. Individually administered scales assessed parental generation of migration; parental education; mothers' cultural orientation; mothers' teaching about Mexican culture, ethnic pride, and discrimination; Mexican objects in the home; and children's ethnic identity. As predicted, the socialization indices functioned as a mediator of the influence of ethnic family background on their children's ethnic identity.
Identity development is a dynamic process which involves reconciling multiple messages. While ethnic minority adolescents' development is affected profoundly by discrimination, positive racial/ethnic encounters can also transform one's identity. Questionnaire data were gathered from 122 tenth-grade Mexican Americans in a low-performing school that had over 60% “Hispanic” students. Based on the data, 12 second-generation youth were selected for interviews based on their level of academic engagement and experiences with negative racial/ethnic encounters in school. Interviewees' descriptions of positive encounter experiences revealed ways in which schools can reinforce equal status and integrate Mexican American youth. Youth felt a renewed commitment to their ethnic selves when they participated in events that they perceived as dispelling stereotypes and when they had concrete experiences in which their bilingual competence was perceived as an asset. This qualitative study identifies avenues for future research on positive racial/ethnic encounters and academic engagement.
One direct or indirect benefit of exploring the intricacies of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination is the potential to learn how to reduce, eliminate, or reverse the processes that initiate and maintain these manifestations of intergroup conflict. Although psychologists have learned much about the intricacies of these phenomena, current events compellingly demonstrate that researchers still have much to learn about reducing intergroup hostility. In this chapter, we summarize research on a prejudice reduction strategy, the common ingroup identity model, which has guided our work on the reduction of intergroup bias. This work has found converging evidence across a variety of laboratory and field experiments, as well as cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys involving participants ranging in age from elementary school children to corporate executives who experienced a corporate merger. In this chapter, we first discuss the impact of social categorization on adults' and children's attitudes toward members of other groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Central to many immigration debates in the United States, past and present, are questions about what it means to be an American. In this article, I address three forms of this question: (a) What is an immigrant? (b) What is an American? and (c) What is a hyphenated American. Answers to these questions can vary, depending upon whether one is taking the perspective of the observer/host or of the immigrant himself or herself. Data suggest that neither unidimensionality nor simple dichotomy are appropriate frames for analyzing national identity.
This article examines the representation of Islam and Muslims in the British press. It suggests that British Muslims are portrayed as an ‘alien other’ within the media. It suggests that this misrepresenatation can be linked to the development of a ‘racism’, namely, Islamphobia that has its roots in cultural representations of the ‘other’. In order to develop this arguement, the article provies a summary/overview of how ethnic minorities have been represented in the British press and argues that the treatment of British Muslims and Islam follows these themes of ‘deviance’ and ‘un-Britishness’.
Drawing from cultural ecological models of adolescent development, the present research investigates how early adolescents received ethnic–racial socialization from parents as well as how experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination are associated with their ethnic identity (i.e., centrality, private regard, and public regard). Data for this study were drawn from a multimethod study of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse early adolescents in three mid- to high-achieving schools in New York City. After accounting for the influences of race/ethnicity, social class, gender, immigrant status, and self-esteem, parental ethnic–racial socialization was associated with higher levels of ethnic centrality (i.e., the extent to which youth identify themselves in terms of their group), more positive private regard (i.e., feelings about one's own ethnic group), and public regard (i.e., perceptions of other people's perceptions of their ethnic group). Ethnic discrimination from adults at school and from peers was associated with more negative perceptions of one's ethnic group (i.e., public regard). In addition, the association of ethnic–racial parent socialization and ethnic identity beliefs was stronger for those who reported higher levels of adult discrimination. Results highlight key ways in which ethnic identity may be shaped by the social ecologies in which adolescents are embedded.
This study examined (1) whether 5- to 12-year-old children consider gender and ethnicity to be central and important components of their identity, (2) whether the relative centrality of these identity components differs across children, and (3) how the centrality of children's gender and ethnic identities is affected by a dynamic situational context of inclusion and exclusion. Results indicate that although gender and ethnicity are not the most important aspects of elementary schoolchildren's self-concepts, both gender and ethnic identities differ among European-American and ethnic minority group children, and those differences are greater in older children. In addition, children's gender identity is context-dependent, but the exact nature of this flexibility is contingent on the existing centrality of their identity.