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Panel information
Panel 17. Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

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In recent years, developmental scientists have looked at the importance of ethnic-racial
experiences and processes, such as ethnic-racial identity and discrimination, to children’s
development (e.g., Marcelo & Yates, 2018). Researchers have also examined factors that could
influence ethnic-racial related processes, such as socialization and caregivers' ethnic-racial
identity and discriminatory experiences (e.g., Simon, 2021). However, there is a need to explore
how context outside the home may influence children’s early experiences related to ethnicity and
race. Thus, the current study examines if and how children’s racial bias at age 6 relates to the
diversity make up of their school and how these relations may vary as a function of the child’s
ethnic-racial group.

Racial preferences of 215 6yr olds (49.3% girls, 45.6% Latinx, 24.2% multiracial, 19.1% Black,
11.2% White) were assessed with a doll-based racial identification measure that was adapted
from the Preschool Racial Attitudes Measure II (PRAM; Williams, 1977) and the Racial
Attitudes and Beliefs Scale II (RABS-II; Beale, 1996). Children were asked to identify one of 4
gender-matched, ethnoracial dolls (White, Black, Latinx, and Asian) based on 22 questions (e.g.,
“one of these boys/girls is nice; s/he has a lot of friends. Which boy/girl is nice and has a lot of
friends?”; 50% negative descriptions). Children were also asked which doll they looked like the
most, then asked to identify the race of each doll. A diversity index for the school the child was
attending at age 6 and was calculated based on the demographic data reported by the California
Department of Education. We also collected the demographic breakdown for each of the schools
(i.e., percentage of Black students, Asian, etc.). Importantly, the data was collected from schools
where there were predominantly Latine students, so higher diversity index means there are more
non-Latine students at the school.

A MANOVA revealed main effects for ethnicity-race (Wilks λ= .46, p<.01) but not for gender or
gender-ethnicity. Black and White children went to a more diverse school compared to the
Latine children. The Latine children went to a school with more Black children compared to the
Black children. The Black children attributed more positive traits to the Black dolls (i.e., positive
racial bias) than the White and Latine children. We ran correlations by ethnic-racial groups to
examine the relation between children’s racial bias and the diversity of the school (see Table 1).
Overall, the findings demonstrate that the relation between diversity make-up of the school and
child’s racial bias varied depending on the child’s ethnic-racial group. Interestingly, higher
percentage of the child’s ethnicity-race did not relate to the child’s bias towards the doll that
represents their ethnicity-race.

These findings highlight the importance of examining other contexts for socialization to
understand how early ethnic racial experiences develop as well as ways to deter the development
of racial bias. This study also highlights how concepts of race are understood at an early age,
making it an important time to maintain diversity in socialization.

Author information

Author	Role
Jay Nunez, Clark University	Presenting author
Ruth Babich, Clark University	Non-presenting author
Kate Smolens, Clark University	Non-presenting author
Ana K. Marcelo, PhD, Clark University	Non-presenting author

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