Religious Discrimination in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the links between religious discrimination and developmental and contextual variables. Based on the assumption that discrimination results from the interplay of prejudice and moral thinking, discriminatory behaviour was hypothesised to be linked to age, school environment, minority or majority group membership, and parental religious socialisation practices. The results indicate that discrimination is more frequent during childhood than during pre-adolescence or adolescence, more common in homogeneous schools than in heterogeneous schools, and more likely when parents frequently express messages promoting mistrust of other religious groups. Participants from the minority group were more likely to discriminate against their own ingroup than were those from the majority group. Further studies are needed to determine whether these links are correlative or predictive, and to understand the underlying processes of religious discrimination.

Perception of Christianity and Christian Peers in the Drawings of Muslim Children: The Example of Pforzheim/Germany

“…In parallel with the results of some previous studies, the perception of religious tolerance Perception of Christianity and Christian Peers in the Drawings of Muslim Children: The Example of Pforzheim/Germany increases as the students' ages increase (van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012b;van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012a) While 51% of the students between the ages of 9 and 11 years have a prejudicial approach, this rate drops to 24% in children between the ages of 12 and 15 years. It is possible to explain the decreased level of prejudice when the children grow older, by the development of children's abstract thinking ability and social interactions.…”

“…In some studies that reached the same conclusions as ours, it was seen that children's racial (Goodman, 1952;Aboud, 1988;Doyle & Aboud, 1993) (Elkind, 1964(Elkind, , 1970. The development of tolerance and prejudice may be influenced by the heterogeneity and homogeneity of schools and classes, group status, contacts among groups and ethnic, racial and religious socialization practices of parents (Allport, 1954;Kistner et al, 1993;Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006;Takriti, Barrett, & Buchanan-Barrow, 2006;van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012a;van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012b;Verkuyten & Thijs, 2010).…”

“…Moreover, S11 and S12 emphasize unity and solidarity by reminding everyone that they are human beings, ignoring the concept of other religion and race. Roskam, 2012a).…”

“…In this study, the religious homogeneity and heterogeneity of the schools where the children attend were not asked. Attending homogeneous schools (Kistner et al, 1993;Rotenberg & Cerda, 1994;van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012a;Verkuyten & Thijs, 2010) may lead to greater confidence among the groups and development of positive relationships (Allport, 1954;Bornstein, 1989;Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006;Velasco González et al, 2008).…”

“…In terms of moral development, in the context of tolerance and prejudice in children, the most important differences that may cause tension between groups, especially in multicultural societies, are race, ethnicity (White & Gleitzman, 2006;Lovini & Carlson, 1985;Doyle & Aboud, 1996;Kistner, Metzler, Gatlin, & Risi, 1993) and religious differences (Verkuyten & Thijs, 2010;Velasco González, Verkuyten, Weesie, & Poppe, 2008;Takriti, Barrett, & Buchanan-Barrow, 2006;van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012a;van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012b).…”