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ERIC Number: EJ1013059
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-May
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0165-0254
EISSN: N/A
Modifying Ethnic Attitudes in Young Children: The Impact of Communicator Race and Message Strength
Johnson, Philip Jai; Aboud, Frances E.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, v37 n3 p182-191 May 2013
Due to their sociocognitive limitations, children between the ages of 4 and 8 years tend to resist antibias messages from others. The purpose of this study was to examine if children would be more responsive to an antibias message as a function of the race of the communicator, the strength of the antibias message, and their ability to reconcile different perspectives. As children's inferences of communicators' attitudes constitute an unintended message, we assessed children's inferences of communicators' Black and White attitudes before and after the intervention. Children's own attitudes and cognitive elaboration of the antibias message were assessed after the intervention. Very few children were able to reconcile different ethnic perspectives. Results further revealed that communicators were inferred to hold more positive attitudes after the intervention, but that this was largely due to an increase in the ingroup communicator's inferred White attitudes and when the message was weak. Moreover, no difference was observed for children's own attitudes and cognitive elaboration of the message. Results are discussed with respect to social cognitive barriers that result in children's distortion or dismissal of antibias messages. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Kindergarten; Grade 1; Grade 2
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada (Montreal)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A