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. Racial prejudice is a predisposition to react unfavorably to members of a racial group because of their group affiliation (Aboud, 1988). It involves holding derogatory attitudes or beliefs, expressing negative affect, or displaying hostile or discriminatory behavior (Brown, 1995). Teachers and parents tend to think prejudice is low in the early school years because they observe little hostile or discriminatory behavior (Holmes, 1995). However, standardized measures reveal high levels of pro-White/anti-Black bias in White children 6 years of age (Bigler & Liben, 1993; Doyle & Aboud, 1995) and even as young as 3 years (Katz & Kofkin, 1997). Brewer (1999) argued that this may simply be strong in-group identification and attachment and that researchers' assumption about the reciprocal relation between in-group and outgroup attitudes has led them to infer, erroneously, that the observation of strong in-group bias implies equally strong out-group negativity and that the origins of both reside in intergroup conflict. This assumption has also led to the use of measures that confound the two attitudes. Before antibias interventions are implemented with children, it is important to determine which attitude should be addressed and whether changing one necessarily changes the other. A separate analysis of in-group and out-group attitudes in relation to social-cognitive underpinnings might also support the thesis that in-group attachment, but not out-group prejudice, has developmental value. The present study examined these issues as they apply to ingroup and out-group attitudes of young White children. Data from children in the process of forming attitudes about natural, as opposed to lab-created, groups would seem most appropriate for testing ideas about the primacy of in-group favoritism and its relation to out-group prejudice. Although Brewer (1999) based her evolutionary thesis of the primacy of in-group attachment on the survival value of group trust, it seems reasonable to derive developmental implications from these claims. The implications might concern the age at which in-group bias is formed, its intensity, and its prevalence. If in-group favoritism is psychologically primary to out-group prejudice, the former might appea...

Intergroup contact and friendship are keystones to the reduction of prejudice, yet most available data on this topic are based on indices that do not actually reflect contact or relationships. This study examined various indices of peer relations (viz., interactive companions, mutual friendships, and the stability and perceived qualities of mutual friends) for elementary school students who differed in grade, gender, and racial background; and it explored whether racial attitudes were associated with befriending or avoiding classmates. Cross-race mutual friendships declined with grade, and among fifth-graders were less likely to show 6-month stability than same-race friendships. Despite overall same-race selectivity, mutual cross-race friends, once selected, did not differ significantly from samerace ones in friendship functions such as loyalty and emotional security; only with respect to intimacy were they rated lower. Finally, racial prejudice was most strongly related to the number of excluded classmates, while children with less biased attitudes had more cross-race interactive companions and more positive perceptions of their friends.

Children throughout the world are confronted with growth problems ranging from underweight and stunting to overweight and obesity. The development of healthy eating behaviors depends on both healthy food and responsive parenting behaviors. With origins from anthropology, psychology, and nutrition, responsive parenting reflects reciprocity between child and caregiver, conceptualized as a 4-step mutually responsive process: 1) the caregiver creates a routine, structure, expectations, and emotional context that promote interaction; 2) the child responds and signals to the caregiver; 3) the caregiver responds promptly in a manner that is emotionally supportive, contingent, and developmentally appropriate; and 4) the child experiences predictable responses. This paper examines evidence for the practice and developmental benefits of responsive parenting with a view to providing a theoretical basis for responsive feeding. Recommendations are made that future efforts to promote healthy growth and to prevent underweight and overweight among young children incorporate and evaluate responsive feeding.

Health and nutritional risks co-occur in the lives of children under the age of 2 years who live in developing countries. We review evidence showing how these risks, in addition to inadequate psychosocial stimulation, prevent children from developing expected cognitive and language abilities. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 interventions aimed at enhancing stimulation and 18 interventions that provided better nutrition--all conducted since 2000--revealed that stimulation had a medium effect size of 0.42 and 0.47 on cognitive and language development, respectively, whereas nutrition by itself had a small effect size of 0.09. The implementation processes of these interventions are described and compared. A number of unresolved issues are outlined and discussed, including ways to maximize parental health behavior change, assess mediators that account for intervention effects, and expand the assessment of young children's brain functions that underlie language and cognition and are affected by nutrition and stimulation.

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