Ethnic Attitudes Among Minority and Majority Children: The Role of Ethnic Identification, Peer Group Victimization and Parents

This study examines the relative importance of key variables proposed by intergroup and social learning theories for understanding ethnic attitudes. The focus is on how ethnic identification, perceived parental attitudes and victimization by peers are related to ethnic attitudes. The sample includes Dutch (N = 295) and Turkish (N = 158) children (10–12 years of age) in the Netherlands. For both ethnic groups, stronger ethnic identification is related to more positive in‐group evaluation, and a higher degree of victimization relates to more negative out‐group evaluation. Furthermore, parental attitudes are related to out‐group evaluation. Higher perceived in‐group favoritism among parents was related to a less positive evaluation of the out‐group. In addition, Turkish parental attitudes turn out to be related to ethnic identification and in‐group evaluation. Further analyses suggest that the effect of perceived parental attitudes on children's group evaluations is not only due to projection. It is concluded that the study of ethnic attitudes among children should focus on group identification as well as on the social influences of parents and peers. Furthermore, it is important to distinguish between in‐group and out‐group aspects of ethnic attitudes and to include both majority and minority children.     

Patterns of Bully/Victim Problems in Mixed Race Groups of Children

This study investigated the extent of bullying within and between British Asian and White girls and boys (n = 156) and some of the reasons why it occurs. There was no significant difference in the percentage of peers that nominated Asian and White children as either bullies or victims. Contrary to our prediction (derived from Tajfel's social judgement theory), both Asian children and White children were significantly more likely to be named as bullies of same-race classmates than to be named as bullies of other-race classmates. Again contrary to our prediction, for Asian boys and White boys there were no significant correlations between general racial preferences/attitudes on the one hand, and the extent to which they were named by classmates as bullies of other-race children on the other hand. In order to investigate the types of bullying directed at own-race and other-race pupils, a subset of the sample of children (n = 60) were also asked about the specific types of bullying they had experienced, and who was responsible. Some significant racial differences emerged, most notably that proportionally more Asian children than White children reported that they had been teased about their colour or race by children of the other-race, and the opposite was the case for non-racial types of teasing. The implications of these results for children's social development, and for school's attempts to remove bully/victim problems, are discussed. One recommendation was that teasing, and especially racial teasing by racial majority pupils, should be a focus for intervention.     

What children want to know about in‐ and out‐groups,and how knowledge affects their intergroup attitudes

One of the key factors contributing to the development of negative attitudes toward out‐groups is lack of knowledge about them. The present study investigated what type of information 3‐ to 4‐ and 5‐ to 6‐ year‐old Jewish Israeli children (N = 82) are interested in acquiring about unfamiliar in‐ and out‐group individuals, and how providing children with the requested information affects their intergroup attitudes. Children were shown pictures of individuals from three groups—an in‐group (“Jews”), a “conflict” out‐group (“Arabs”), and a “neutral” out‐group (“Scots”)—and were asked what they would like to know about them. The experimenter responded by either answering all of children's questions, half of the questions, or none. Children's attitudes toward the groups were also assessed. It was found that children asked the most questions in regard to conflict out‐group individuals. Moreover, the older age group asked more questions regarding the psychological characteristics, and fewer questions regarding the social identity, of the conflict out‐group than of the other two groups. Finally, full provision of information improved attitudes toward the groups, especially among 3‐ to 4‐year olds, and especially regarding the conflict out‐group. These findings have implications for understanding the sources of intergroup biases, and for developing interventions to reduce them.     

Learning difficulties and academic competence among children in contact with the child welfare system

Children who have been in the welfare system tend to have poor social and health outcomes as adults. The aim of this study was to examine learning difficulties, as well as academic competence, among children in contact with child welfare service, and to compare this group to their same‐age peers. The material consisted of 4114 children in fifth to seventh grade, of which 101 were in contact with child welfare services. Information on learning difficulties and academic competence was obtained through questionnaires to teacher and parent/caregivers. As expected, there were significantly more children with learning difficulties in the child welfare group than the peer group; 12% of child welfare clients had general learning difficulties compared to only 0.4% of their peers, and 31% had specific learning difficulties in relation to mathematics and/or reading and writing, compared to 10% of their peers. The majority of child welfare children received assistance from pedagogical–psychological services. While more than every second child welfare client without general learning disability had low academic competence, there were also 15% who had high academic competence. The results show that although many of the children in contact with child welfare service have learning difficulties, there is also heterogeneity and potential for academic achievement.     

Links between personalities and leadership perceptions in problem-solving groups

Leadership emergence and related variables in leaderless group problem-solving situations were examined in improvised problem-solving groups. Participants were randomly organized into 56 four-person groups and asked to evaluate themselves and others in each group by the Round Robin method. Evaluations were based on the “Big Five” personality traits, physical appearance, and two types of leadership. Generally, self-effacing bias rather than self-enhancing bias was dominant, and self-enhancing bias was not shown in two types of leadership evaluations. Relative variances of the perceiver, the target, and the relationship effects were 26.7, 9.5, and 28.8%, respectively. That the target effect was the lowest in several aspects of evaluations including leadership suggests low consensus among members in leadership evaluations. Also, older participants received higher credits in task leadership while no gender effects of target were evidenced. Finally, members’ evaluations on target were substantially accurate in most evaluation dimensions, contrary to expectations. The evaluation was particularly more accurate on task-leadership than that on relation-leadership.     

Social Networks and Self Enhancement in Chinese Children: A Comparison of Self Reports and Peer Reports of Group Membership*

Children's self reports of social groups were compared with the social groups identified by a consensus judgment of their peers. The subjects were 138 Chinese 4th grade students (mean age = 9.91) from a primary school and 167 Chinese 7th grade students (mean age = 13.09) from a secondary school, both located in Hong Kong. Following the Social Cognitive Map (SCM) procedure, students were asked to identify the social groups within their grades, including their own groups. The subjects also rated themselves on multiple domains of competence. Their teachers rated them on the same domains. Subjects tended to be biased toward self-enhancement when reporting their own groups: They omitted members who had low school scholastic rank and unfavorable scores on teacher ratings of competence. There was a strong effect of propinquity and gender on group membership, in that all groups were comprised of children from the same classroom and virtually all (98%) of the same sex. Members scored similarly on teacher ratings of competence. In elementary school, conventional values and academic achievement provided the behavioral bases for peer group cohesion. By early adolescence, peer-related concerns supplemented rather than replaced conventional values as the bases for group cohesion.     

Changing preferences towards redistribution: How deliberation shapes welfare attitudes

The article departs from the argument that research on welfare attitudes is, so far, dominated by large‐scale survey‐studies, which allow for generalizable insights into citizens' preferences and evaluations, but are necessarily limited in their ability to capture the dynamic and contextual aspects of attitude formation. In order to broaden the horizon of welfare attitudes' research, this article introduces a new qualitative method, namely deliberative forums. In these large group discussions—originally developed for participatory decision‐making—attitudes, opinions, and preferences are core aspects of the deliberation process, and the article argues that by observing deliberation, we can observe attitude construction “in vivo ”. The evidence from a two‐day German deliberation event illustrates in an exploratory manner how information, reasoning, and group processes can influence people's evaluations and expressed policy preferences with regard to redistribution. By linking participants' answers from a survey before and after the event to their statements during the discussions, the article not only shows that the preferences for redistribution people expressed in the survey answers are often higher after the deliberative event, but also seeks to make sense of attitudinal dynamics on the basis of the qualitative material by pointing towards the role of information, reasoning, and group processes.     

Preschoolers prefer in‐group to out‐group members,but equally condemn their immoral acts

Previous research has shown that young children robustly display in‐group favoritism; that is, they favor in‐group over out‐group members. Moreover, preschoolers also consider information on morality in their evaluations of others. In the present study, we integrated both aspects: In particular, fifty‐six 4‐ to 6‐year‐old preschoolers were assigned to minimal groups and observed either prosocial or antisocial acts conducted by either an in‐group or an out‐group member. After observing these behaviors, children's liking and sharing were significantly higher for moral compared to immoral actors. In addition, children's liking and sharing were substantially higher for in‐group compared to out‐group actors. However, when children were directly asked to morally evaluate the actor's conduct, no in‐group favoritism emerged: In particular, children evaluated immoral acts conducted by an in‐group or an out‐group agent as equally bad/wrong and similarly claimed that these acts deserve punishment. These findings demonstrate that preschoolers differentially weigh information on group membership and moral valence depending on the type of evaluation, namely sharing and liking versus explicit moral evaluations of others’ conduct.     

Effects of consistency between self and in‐group on children's views of self,groups, and abilities

Children's developing views of self and in‐groups inevitably conflict at points during childhood (e.g., a girl who thinks of herself as strong encounters the gender stereotype that girls are weak). How are self and group views reconciled in such cases? To test hypotheses based on Greenwald et al.'s model of self, group, and attribute relations, children (N = 107; ages 7–12; M = 9 years, 6 months) were assigned to novel social groups, denoted by red and blue t‐shirts, in their classrooms. Across 3 weeks, children completed three novel tasks and received false feedback on personal and group task performance, producing a between‐subjects experimental design in which children received either consistent or inconsistent self and group feedback. Immediately after receiving feedback, children answered questions about the particular task. Finally, upon completion of all three manipulations, children completed measures of views of the self and novel groups. As predicted, children's views of the tasks, self, and groups were influenced by feedback. Unexpectedly, children viewed themselves as more similar to the in‐group than out‐group irrespective of feedback consistency. Furthermore, children developed in‐group biased attitudes, but these biases were largely unrelated to feedback.     

Predicting the development of dependency on the teacher in late childhood: The role of peer victimization and peer beliefs

Evidence indicates that being overly dependent on the teacher places children's academic and socioemotional development at risk. However, little is known about what predicts dependency on the teacher or how the quality of interactions occurring within the classroom peer system may impact how children relate to their teacher the following school year. The current study tested the proposition that peer victimization may result in negative perceptions of classmates (i.e., peer beliefs), leading to overreliance on teachers. Data were collected from 365 children in the fall and spring of their third/fourth grade year and the fall of their fourth/fifth grade year (195 girls; M_age = 8.92 years; 86.8% white). Peer-reports of peer victimization and self-reports of peer beliefs were collected at each wave of the study. Teacher-reports of dependency were collected in the fall of the first and second years of the study. Path analyses showed that for boys peer victimization directly predicted higher levels of dependency on the next year's teacher, and, for boys and girls, peer victimization indirectly predicted dependency through lower levels of prosocial peer beliefs. Supplemental analyses assessing teacher-child conflict and closeness confirmed that findings were unique to dependency. These results underscore how children's perceptions of their classmates may contribute to dependency in their relationships with teachers and highlight the need for further research into the transactional and cumulative impact of difficulties within peer and teacher relationships.     

Threat, Group Identification, and Children's Ethnic Prejudice

This experiment tested predictions from social identity development theory (SIDT, Nesdale, 1999 ), that children's tendency to show out‐group prejudice depends on the strength of their in‐group identification and/or their perception of threat from the out‐group. Anglo‐Australian children (N= 480) aged 6, 7, or 9 years were assigned to a high‐status team and their identification with the in‐group (high vs. low) was manipulated together with threat from the out‐group (present vs. absent). The members of the out‐group were revealed to be of the same (Anglo‐Australian) or different (Pacific Islander) ethnicity to the in‐group. Results supported the SIDT predictions. In addition, consistent with socio‐cognitive theory (ST, Aboud, 1988 ), dislike for the out‐group at 6 years gave way to increasingly neutral reactions by 9 years of age. Ethnic composition of the out‐group did not impact differentially on liking but it did affect the children's desire to change groups. Strongly identified children were reluctant to leave their group regardless of the ethnicity of the out‐group, whereas children with low in‐group identification were more willing to change into a same‐ than into a different‐ethnicity out‐group. It is concluded that both social identity and social cognitive processes are implicated in the development of prejudice in middle childhood.     

I’m respectful. Why don’t they like me? Evaluator and gender effects of showing respect and children’s social competence

Despite extensive research on the importance of conceptualizing respect, little is known about how respect recipients and peer onlookers evaluate showing respect. Few studies have examined how such evaluations affect children's peer relations across four levels of social complexity (individual, interactions, relationships, and group), and few have assessed how gender influences the evaluations of showing respect to peers on peer social competence. This study used multi‐group structural equation modeling (MSEM) to examine how (a) cross‐evaluators’ views on showing respect mediated the relation between multiple measures of social complexity and children's social competence and (b) whether gender moderated the above relations. Two hundred and sixteen participants were chosen from third to sixth graders (111 girls; M_age =10.30). They completed self‐reports of social competence and showing respect, and peer reports of classmates’ showing respect, overt aggression, physical victimization, mutual friends, and social competence. Self‐evaluations of showing respect were negatively related to group‐level social competence. Peer evaluations of showing respect mediated the association between peer relations (specifically, number of mutual friends and overt aggression) and individual‐level and group‐level social competence. Gender moderated three paths in the model, namely links between overt aggression and (a) peer evaluations for showing respect; (b) group‐level social competence; and (c) individual‐level social competence. Negative associations were stronger for girls than for boys. The research findings suggest that gender norms shape the complex relations between children's showing respect and social competence, and an understanding of these relations must take into account differences in evaluations made by children and their peers.     

A Person‐Oriented Analysis of Social Withdrawal in Chinese Children

The goal of this study was to compare the socio‐emotional and academic adjustment of different subtypes of socially withdrawn (shy, unsociable, avoidant) school‐age children in mainland China. Participants were N = 1344 children ages 10–12 years from public elementary schools in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Multi‐source assessment included: child self‐reports of social withdrawal subtypes and internalizing difficulties (e.g., depression, social anxiety); peer nominations of children's peer relations (e.g., peer victimization, peer preference); and teacher ratings of children's school adjustment (e.g., academic success, internalizing problems). Results from person‐oriented analyses indicated that socially avoidant (i.e., shy‐unsociable) children reported the most pervasive internalizing difficulties compared to other groups. However, in contrast to findings among Western samples, unsociable children were as likely to have peer and academic difficulties as their shy and socially avoidant peers. Findings are discussed in terms of the implications of different subtypes of social withdrawal among children in collectivistic societies such as China.     

When Is It Okay to Exclude a Member of the Ingroup? Children's and Adolescents’ Social Reasoning

Social exclusion of those who challenge group norms was investigated by asking children and adolescents, adolescents, age 9–13 years (N = 381), to evaluate exclusion of group members who deviated from group norms. Testing predictions from social reasoning developmental theories of group‐based exclusion, children and adolescents evaluated exclusion based on group norms involving allocation of resources and group traditions about dress code. Exclusion of deviant members was viewed as increasingly wrong with age, but also varied by the type of norm the deviant challenged. Participants who reported disliking a deviant member who wanted to distribute money unequally also found it acceptable to exclude them. Those who disliked deviants who went against norms about dress codes did not think exclusion was warranted. These findings are discussed in the context of children's social‐cognitive development regarding peer rejection as well as the role played by moral judgment and group dynamics.     

Friendships of Indonesian Children: Adjustment of Children Who Differ in Friendship Presence and Similarity Between Mutual Friends

Two aspects of the friendships of 960 Indonesian 10‐year‐old children were assessed. First, the characteristics of children with and without mutual friends were compared. Children without friends were more aggressive, withdrawn, and lower in academic achievement and social preference than those with friends. Second, similarities between children and their friends were assessed by comparing 132 target children with their friend and non‐friend classmates. Children were more similar to their friends than to non‐friends in social preference, achievement, peer and teacher rated antisocial behavior, and peer and teacher rated social withdrawal. The similarities of the friendships of Indonesian children to those of Western children with respect to these two features provide evidence of construct equivalence of friendships across cultures.     

Communicative competence in 5- to 8-year-olds with mild or moderate learning difficulties and their classroom peers: referential and negotiation skills

Two studies were run to examine communicative and social aspects of the interaction between 5- to 8-year-old children with mild or moderate learning difficulties (LD) and their classroom peers for whom no such difficulties had been observed (NLD). In the first study, the children's communicative responses to a referential group task were explored, through children describing drawings to each other. In terms of the nature of information exchange, few differences were found between NLD and LD children. Differences were found in terms of the social content of language: in the listener role, LD children tended to be the recipients of more critical and directive speech. The second study, focusing on consensus forming and negotiation processes in a co-operative group task, mirrored the patterns of social aspects found in Study 1. LD children tended to be less influential in affecting the consensus and in directing the course of the task.     

Understanding Solitude: Young Children's Attitudes and Responses Toward Hypothetical Socially Withdrawn Peers

The goal of the present study was to explore young children's attitudes and responses to different forms of social withdrawal by eliciting responses to hypothetical vignettes. Participants included 137 children (49 boys, 88 girls) in kindergarten and grade 1 classes (M_age = 75.94 months, SD = 9.03) in Ottawa, Canada. Parents rated child characteristics, including shyness, unsociability and aggression. Children were also interviewed individually and presented with a series of hypothetical vignettes describing the behaviors of shy, unsociable, aggressive and socially competent children. In response to each vignette, children were asked a series of questions designed to assess their perceptions, attitudes and responses toward each child behavior. Results suggested that young children made surprisingly sophisticated distinctions between shyness and unsociability, demonstrating differences in terms of attributions of behavioral intent, liking and sympathetic responses. In addition, unsociable children evidenced a distinct pattern of responses to hypothetical peers. These findings add to the growing body of research distinguishing different forms of social withdrawal, and shed some light as to why unsociability in early childhood may not be so benign.     

Child involvement in treatment planning and assessment in Israel

What can facilitate at‐risk children's involvement in treatment planning and assessment? We examine this question by investigating the perceptions, attitudes, and characteristics of Israeli social workers. We examine whether their seniority, views on the importance of children's participation, and their attitudes toward parents are related to their report of at‐risk children's involvement in treatment planning and placement decisions. At‐risk children's involvement includes preparing them to appear before the committees that handle placement decisions for youth and the social workers' willingness to consider children's opinions. Eighty coordinators of these committees in social services departments in Israel participated. Our findings indicate that, based on the coordinators' answers, at‐risk children are more likely to be involved in treatment planning and assessment committees when the child protection officers prepare parents prior to participating in the committee meetings, and when the coordinators assigned the case are more senior. The influence of children's opinions on the decisions of the committees was predicted by the weight their parents' opinions carried and whether their parents received any relevant materials prior to the committee meetings. Our findings highlight the importance of involving parents in treatment planning and assessment committees' decision making.     

The changing social profile of mothers whose children are admitted into institutional care in Greece

The study sample consisted of 69 mothers in Greece whose children had been admitted into institutional care at an age of less than 7 years. These mothers were divided into two groups, 32 whose children were aged 2.5–5.5 years and 37 whose children were aged 15.5–17.5 years at the time of study. The mean age of the first group of mothers was 27 years and the second 42 years. Corresponding control groups consisted of 65 mothers, 24 younger and 37 older, in intact families. All the mothers were interviewed using a semistructured interview schedule. Study mothers of both groups were from a lower social class (occupation, education) than controls, had experienced more adversity in childhood and had more health problems. They had left their parental homes and given birth at a younger age and faced more difficulties (financial, housing problems, marital discord and/or divorce). The older group of study mothers more often had their children admitted into care because of financial difficulties or illegitimacy, in contrast with the younger mothers who more often gave the reason of marital breakdown. There were indications that the same kind of adversity that they had experienced themselves as children was the main reason for admission of their children into institutional care.