A Chip Off the Old Block: Parents' Subtle Ethnic Prejudice Predicts Children's Implicit Prejudice.

Sabine Pirchio,Giuseppe Carrus,Ylenia Passiatore,Angelo Panno,Fridanna Maricchiolo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00110

Sabine Pirchio, Giuseppe Carrus + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00110

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Abstract

The increasing flow of immigrants in many European countries and the growing presence of children from immigrant families in schools makes it relevant to study the development of prejudice in children. Parents play an important role in shaping children’s values and their attitudes toward members of other ethnic groups; an intergenerational transmission of prejudice has been found in a number of studies targeting adolescents. The present study aims to investigate the intergenerational transmission of ethnic prejudice in 3- to 9- year-old children and its relations to parenting styles. Parents’ blatant and subtle ethnic prejudice and parenting style are measured together with children’s explicit and implicit ethnic prejudice in pupils and parents of preschool and primary schools in the region of Rome, Italy (N = 318). Results show that parents’ subtle prejudice predicts children’s implicit prejudice regardless of the parenting style. Findings indicate that children might acquire prejudice by means of the parents’ implicit cognition and automatic behavior and educational actions. Implications for future studies and insights for possible applied interventions are discussed.

Highlights

The multiethnic character of increasingly large parts of urban and rural communities in western societies makes the topic of interethnic contact more and more relevant in order to improve the quality of life and personal relations in daily life contexts, and to foster social inclusion
Our study aims to analyze: (a) the role of the parents’ blatant and subtle prejudice on their children explicit and implicit prejudice; (b) the role of parenting styles in the prejudice transmission from parents to children; (c) the role of children age in the development and expression of children explicit and implicit ethnic prejudice
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of parental influences in the development and expression of ethnic prejudice in preschool and primary school children, in particular taking into account the distinction between different forms of prejudice in adults and children

Summary

Introduction

The multiethnic character of increasingly large parts of urban and rural communities in western societies makes the topic of interethnic contact more and more relevant in order to improve the quality of life and personal relations in daily life contexts, and to foster social inclusion. While the presence of ethnic prejudice is manifest in children as young as 3 years old in terms of ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination (Dweck, 2009), the identification of the environmental sources of ethnic prejudice in children still needs to be studied Long before they are able to identify themselves in relation to a social group, infants in their first year of life show early capacities of social discrimination such as a clearer preference for faces of their same-ethnicity (Kelly et al, 2007), for someone speaking their language and for toys selected by someone speaking their own language (Kinzler et al, 2007). An ethnicity bias clearly emerges in children as young as 3 or 4 years of age

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