Children's Perceptions of Discrimination: A Developmental Model

Abstract

Discrimination affects millions of children in the United States and throughout the world. Although the topic is important for both theoretical and applied reasons, little developmental work has examined children's perceptions of discrimination directed toward themselves and others. A review of past theoretical and empirical work on the perception of discrimination is provided. Next, a developmental model of the perception of discrimination is offered. The model identifies developmental and individual differences expected to influence judgments about discrimination, as well as situational variables that are likely to support attributions to discrimination.

School Racial Climate and the Academic Achievement of African American High School Students: The Mediating Role of School Engagement

“…Previous research supports this assertion and indicates that adolescent youth perceive differential treatment from same-age peers (DuBois, Burk-Braxton, Swenson, Tevendale & Hardesty, 2002;Fisher et al, 2000;. Peer racial discrimination manifests in multiple ways, including intentional or overt social exclusion, teasing, hitting, and unfair treatment based on ethnic group membership (Brown & Bigler, 2005;Chavous et al, 2008;Greene et al, 2006;Rosenbloom & Way, 2004;Verkuyten & Steenhuis, 2005;. The ethnic and racial hierarchies that emerge in classroom-based sociometric research (Graham, Taylor, & Hudley, 1998;Verkuyten & Kinket, 2000), in which ethnic minorities tend to have lower status and are ascribed less favorable characteristics when rated by peers, also suggests that implicit negative group stereotypes operate within same age-peer groups.…”

Developmental Implications of Discrimination

“…Guiding the field are two seminal theoretical frameworks highlighting the saliency of discrimination and racism for influencing minority youth development in particular. These two theories-the Integrative Model (García Coll et al, 1996) and Perceptions of Discrimination Model (Brown & Bigler, 2005)-together comprise the main foundation of theoretical frameworks specifically developed with and for understanding discrimination's impacts on child and adolescent development.…”

“…Brown and Bigler (2005;see Figure 9.3) provided a developmental model incorporating the cognitive, individual, and situational factors necessary for children to acquire and hone the essential skill of discrimination perception. Although, as the authors argued, discrimination exerts detrimental effects on children and families regardless of whether or not the discrimination is directly perceived by the children, the ability to perceive discrimination-to recognize an act of discrimination and name it as such-is essential for children to then be able to interpret the social conflict or act accurately and to recover from it.…”

“…In the Brown and Bigler (2005) model, to perceive discrimination, children must first be capable of understanding socially constructed groupings such as race and gender, be able to attribute and understand others' intentions and actions, and be able to make social comparisons and categorizations. Such skills are present among children as early as 5 years of age, although the age at which children reliably use such skills is typically later (7-8 years) and is influenced greatly by factors including other cognitive abilities and characteristics of the social environments the child is accustomed to.…”

“…We therefore define this interpersonal construct of discrimination as purposeful and harmful actions toward others because of their membership in a social group. Such discrimination can include subtle, ambiguous, or explicit behaviors such as teasing, exclusion, or physical assault (Brown & Bigler, 2005;Fishbein, 1996). It is important to note that intent to discriminate is not part of this working definition; individuals may discriminate against others knowingly and/or unwittingly.…”