Racial Identity Development and Stereotypes in Childhood and Early Adolescence: Understanding the Path of Resistance

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Nearly 60 years post the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education (1954), inequality still plagues the nation's education system. While explicit barriers to educational equity (e.g., laws) have been put in place, implicit attitudes and beliefs that foster educational disparities remain. For example, the cultural belief that Black Americans are less intelligent than their White American counterparts still persists, and has implications for children's self-concepts, development, and academic outcomes. The existing research on stereotyping and identity processes focuses primarily on adolescents and adults, and chiefly on the ways that individuals adhere or accommodate to these stereotypes. Yet, recent empirical research suggests that the influence of cultural stereotypes may start earlier than middle-school. The dual objectives of this postdoctoral project are to understand (a) the origins and early development of racial identity in childhood and (b) the ways that youth challenge or resist prevailing cultural stereotypes. These objectives are achieved through interdisciplinary work conducted by Drs. Andrew Meltzoff (Sponsoring Scientist) and Leoandra Onnie Rogers (Postdoctoral Fellow), and the support of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS), a state-of-the-art research center at the University of Washington. In these studies, in-depth interviews and tests with elementary school-age children in racially diverse public schools provide a measure of how racial stereotypes shape racial identity across developmental ages and racial groups. These data, which come from explicit verbal reports, are then used as input to refining tests of implicit cognition to capture the ways that racial stereotypes inform children's implicit racial identities. This research aims to add to the knowledge of how stereotype processes operate prior to adolescence, and also to lay the groundwork for exploring psychological factors related to educational inequality. Intellectual merit: The racial identity literature is vast and diverse in theory and methods. This research integrates theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to examine racial identity formation. The focus is on early childhood responds to a gap in the literature concerning racial identity processes prior to the adolescent years. The use of new research techniques from developmental and social psychology adds an interdisciplinary perspective to the racial identity literature. The research also contributes new information on the ways that youth challenge stereotypes. By recognizing that children possess the ability to resist negative racial stereotypes, and investigating why some children are successful at this, it allows us to uncover how resistance processes might counteract the pernicious effects of cultural stereotypes. Moreover, the project provides new methodological tools for identity research by using explicit, in-depth interview techniques to help design more quantitative measures that are suitable for studying young children. Broader impacts: The findings from the study have the potential to impact educational inequality by diminishing the effects of stereotypes on youth development, for minority groups in particular. With better understanding of how children interpret racial stereotypes, such as those related to intellectual ability, teachers are better positioned to teach them to contest pernicious beliefs that otherwise may undermine their academic performance and career pursuits, particularly in disciplines where they are underrepresented such as STEM fields. Such information is useful for parents, teachers and other practitioners working with children, and the children themselves, with considerable benefits at a societal level. I-LABS has established partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies and public-private partnership on childhood learning and education. Operating this research through I-LABS creates the ability to disseminate the scientific discoveries to people who can use them.