Language and the Development of Children’s Ethnic Prejudice

Abstract

This article considers whether the study of children's language in intergroup contexts enhances our understanding of the development of children's ethnic prejudice. It is concluded that whereas children's ethnic preferences may be well established by 6 years of age, ethnic prejudice does not emerge in middle childhood. In addition, whether children develop ethnic prejudice does not appear to be directly dependent on their perceptualcognitive abilities or the proximity of prejudiced others. Nevertheless, children may express racist statements toward ethnic outgroups by 5 years of age, and parents and peers are the primary sources of these expressions. However, such expressions are typically not held as the child's own. That is, younger children may have the verbal fluency, but not the intergroup attitudes and stereotypes of older children in whom ethnic prejudice is fully realized. The implications of these findings for minimizing children's ethnic prejudice are considered.

Learning Social Attitudes: Children's Sensitivity to the Nonverbal Behaviors of Adult Models During Interracial Interactions

“…A n abundant literature shows that very young White children have well-defined racial preferences from 3 years of age, with their evaluations of White targets being consistently more positive than their evaluations of Black targets (Aboud, 1988(Aboud, , 2003Castelli, Carraro, Tomelleri, & Amari, 2007;Castelli, De Amicis, & Sherman, 2007;Nesdale, 2001). This early differential perception of ingroup and outgroup members is likely to be at least partially affected by the specific cognitive a positive correlation between parents' racial attitudes and the attitudes of their preschool children (see Fishbein, 2002;Spencer, 1983).…”

Language and Intergroup Contact: Investigating the Impact of Bilingual Instruction on Children’s Intergroup Attitudes

“…This raises the question: 'At what point can we call a child's pattern of preferences "prejudice"?' (see Aboud, 1987;Nesdale, 2001). One response has been to compare children's appraisals of and preferences for ingroup members versus outgroup members.…”

Ten Hypotheses about Tolerance toward Minorities among Latin American Adolescents

“…The formation of these attitudes varies for the type of minority group. For example, by the age of six children develop preference for their ethnic ingroup; this occurs especially among children who are members of dominant groups in society (Nesdale, 2001). Gender differences in attitudes toward gays and lesbians that are typically found among adults appear early in adolescent years (Mata et al, 2010).…”