You don’t need to talk to throw a ball! Children’s inclusion of language-outgroup members in behavioral and hypothetical scenarios.

Abstract

To investigate children's inclusion of language-outgroup members, English-speaking children (8-9 years and 10-11 years of age, N = 57) made inclusion decisions while playing a simulated ball-tossing game, Cyberball, and while evaluating hypothetical scenarios involving language-outgroup members who wanted to play with their group. In the Cyberball game, the group norm was to exclude non-English-speaking peers, and participant tosses to a language-outgroup member (i.e., Spanish, Chinese, or Arabic speaking) were coded as a measure of behavioral inclusion. In the hypothetical scenarios, participants made prescriptive and descriptive judgments about their expectations regarding the inclusion of a language-outgroup member. They also evaluated their own and their group's inclusion likelihood. Results revealed that participants' evaluations of how acceptable exclusion was predicted their behavioral inclusion in the Cyberball game. Further, participants were more likely to think that the language-outgroup member should be included and less likely to think that the outgroup member would be included. They also differentiated between their own and their group's likelihood of including a language-outgroup member and reasoned about this decision by focusing on group functioning and language. In addition, there were age-related differences, with participants demonstrating greater inclusivity with age. The findings suggest the complexity of children's social cognition and the importance of providing them with a rich array of opportunities to play with language-outgroup members. (PsycINFO Database Record

Social Inclusion of Refugee and Native Peers Among Adolescents: It is the Language that Matters!

“…This pattern of differences was documented for all three groups, including the native German, the Syrian with good German skills, and the Syrian with poor German skills. This is in line with prior research that documents that adolescents often assume that their group will be less inclusive than they would be, individually (Mulvey & Killen, ; Mulvey et al., ; Mulvey, Boswell et al., ). Further, it is important to document the many contexts in which adolescents assume that their peers will be less inclusive than they should.…”

“…This also highlights the importance of bullying and inclusion interventions targeting these misconceptions. While adolescents frequently assume that their peers will not be inclusive, data indicate that children and adolescents are very inclusive, even of those who do not speak the same language as them (Mulvey, Boswell et al., ). Interventions that focus on inclusion of refugees are particularly important, as exclusion is linked to a host of negative outcomes including mental health concerns (Buhs & Ladd, ; Buhs et al., ), and as refugees frequently struggle with mental health needs due to prior trauma, victimization, and exposure to violence (Jefee‐Bahloul, Bajbouj, Alabdullah, Hassan, & Barkil‐Oteo, ; Nicolai, Fuchs, & von Mutius, ).…”

“…For instance, research has documented that, often, children and adolescents individually prefer to be inclusive, and think their group should be inclusive for moral reasons, but believe that their group will be more swayed by group loyalty and group functioning leading to greater expected exclusivity by groups (Mulvey, Hitti, Rutland, Abrams, & Killen, ; Mulvey & Killen, ). Importantly, expectations about group inclusivity are related to how participants think about if groups should be inclusive and if they, personally, will be inclusive (Mulvey, McMillian, Irvin, & Carlson, ; Mulvey, Boswell et al., ). Further, children's and adolescents’ social‐cognitive abilities, emotional understanding, awareness of moral and societal norms, and understanding of the information in the social context are factors that influence their inclusion decisions when balancing morality and group norms (Mulvey, ).…”

“…Prior research has documented that language skills are a key element for integration in terms of academic achievement (Duong, Badaly, Liu, Schwartz, & McCarty, 2016;Stanat & Christensen, 2006) and labor market entry (Auer, 2018;Esser, 2006). Further, language is an important intergroup category for social categorization (Kinzler, 2013;Mulvey, Boswell, & Niehaus, 2018). Prior research with children has demonstrated that children expect to be quite inclusive of language out-group members (Mulvey, Boswell et al, 2018), but new research is needed that focuses on adolescents.…”

“…Further, language is an important intergroup category for social categorization (Kinzler, 2013;Mulvey, Boswell, & Niehaus, 2018). Prior research with children has demonstrated that children expect to be quite inclusive of language out-group members (Mulvey, Boswell et al, 2018), but new research is needed that focuses on adolescents. Moreover, while prior work has examined inclusion of language out-group members (Mulvey, Boswell et al, 2018), no prior work has examined inclusion of refugee youth or considered differences in language skill level as a possible important factor in decisions to include.…”