The Development of Race, Gender, and Social Class Stereotypes in Black and White Adolescents

We examined race, gender, and social class stereotypes in fourth, sixth, and eighth grade European American and African American children. Participants reported their perceptions of the competence of rich, poor, Black, White, female and male children in academic domains, sports, and music. Sixth and eighth graders were more likely than fourth graders to report traditional stereotypes. Low status groups (girls and African American children) did not endorse stereotypes that reflected negatively on their own group, but were likely to report stereotypes that favored their social group. Correlations among stereotype scores indicated that children consistently favored one social group over another, and eighth graders, but not younger children, showed moderate consistency in their tendency to be traditional versus egalitarian. Our results show the importance of social status in children’s endorsement of stereotypes. Development of Stereotypes 3 The Development of Race, Gender, and Social Class Stereotypes in Black and White Adolescents Although holding stereotypes about social groups is often viewed negatively, stereotypes are grounded in our knowledge about the world and our attempts to differentiate among concepts (e.g., “boyness” versus “girlness”). Thus, children’s stereotypes—or their understanding of the attributes of various social groups—reflect their concept development (e.g., what is a “girl”) and are also important in the child’s emerging sense of self (e.g., I am a girl; therefore I wear dresses) and of social relationships (I am a girl; I play with girls). An early rudimentary understanding of social categories such as race, gender, and even social class eventually develops into a rich knowledge base and belief system regarding the behaviors and attributes ascribed to groups as well as the awareness that all group members do not share these characteristics. The present study focuses on the development of race (African American and European American), sex, and social class (rich, poor) stereotypes regarding academic skills. We had three goals. The first goal was to investigate whether children’s stereotypes/beliefs about race, sex, and social class differences in academic skills and the strength of those stereotypes change with age. The second aim was to examine whether there were race and sex differences in stereotypes. The third goal was to determine whether individuals who held traditional stereotypes in one domain (e.g., sex) were likely to hold traditional stereotypes in other domains (e.g., race). In the following discussion, we first briefly summarize the development of race, gender, and social class stereotypes. Next we discuss race, sex, and grade differences in stereotypes. We conclude with a description of our research questions. Development of Stereotypes 4 The Development of Social Stereotypes Stereotypes are cognitive structures that represent social groups (Hamilton, Stroessner, & Driscoll, 1994). As such, they develop through both cognitive processes and social experience (Bigler & Liben, 1992). From a cognitive developmental perspective, children’s understanding of stereotypes increases with certain cognitive competencies, such as multiple classification (Bigler & Liben, 1992), conservation (Serbin, Powlishta, & Gulko, 1993), and social cognition (Spencer, 1982). A strong cognitive theory would suggest that children’s stereotypes regarding members of different social groups should become more traditional and flexible over time and should share similar developmental trajectories. Few studies of stereotype development allow examination of this possibility, however, as most focus on a single social category such as gender or race, rather than examining the simultaneous development of several categories. A second set of theories of stereotype development suggests that environmental factors and social interaction strongly influence children’s adoption of stereotypes (Chafel, 1995; Huston, 1983; Katz, 1983, 1987; Leahy, 1983). According to these theories, stereotypes of different groups develop as individuals interact with members of the stereotyped group or obtain information about the group from other sources. For example, Quintana and de Baessa (1996, as cited in Quintana, 1998) found that children in Guatemala were aware of social class differences earlier than U.S. children, probably because the degree of economic stratification is greater in Guatemala than in the U.S. Such a social experiential theory allows for both intraindividual variability (i.e., variability in the strength of stereotypes across domains, but with individuals) and inter-individual variability (i.e., variability in stereotypes with domains among children of similar age). It is still possible, however, that the traditionality of different types of Development of Stereotypes 5 stereotypes converges at some point as a result of both cognitive maturation and social experience. Indeed, research in stereotypes across a variety of social categories and content domains has shown that children’s stereotypes increase in sophistication and flexibility throughout childhood and into adolescence (Signorella, Bigler, & Liben, 1993). In the following section we briefly examine the development of stereotypes in each of the three focal areas of this project: race, sex, and social class stereotypes regarding academic skills. The predominant academic racial stereotype in the United States is that African Americans are not as smart and do not do as well in school as their European American (and Asian American) counterparts. In addition, it is widely believed that African Americans’ natural talents lie in their musical, and especially, sports abilities. Children as young as 3 years old can reliably categorize individuals according to race (Aboud, 1988; Katz, 1983). Moreover, children report traditional race stereotypes (i.e., according greater status to Whites than Blacks) by age 5 (Clark & Mamie K. Clark, 1939). Although few studies have examined race-related academic stereotypes, research about race differences in general characteristics has shown that a pro-white bias develops in Black and White children at a young age. However, as children move into middle childhood, both Black and White children become more positive towards Blacks and view Whites less favorably (Doyle & Aboud, 1995; (Doyle, Beaudet, & Aboud, 1988); Freeman, 1997). Unfortunately, most of these studies include only participants who are less than 10 years old. Thus, it is unclear whether attitudes towards Blacks continue to grow more positive beyond this age or whether they remain constant. Gender is universally one of the most salient social categories for human beings and thus is a powerful influence on children’s developing understanding of the world and of themselves. Already by 30 months of age, children label themselves and others as male and Development of Stereotypes 6 female and show some limited knowledge of gender stereotypes (Fagot & Leinbach, 1989; Huston, 1983; Katz, 1983; Weinraub et al., 1984). Children’s awareness and reports of genderbased academic stereotypes have been researched much less than other stereotype categories such as occupations (e.g., nurses are female), personal qualities (e.g., boys are strong), and activities (e.g., girls like to jump rope). Although research on children’s reports of ability stereotypes is limited, a substantial body of research has shown that gender differences appear in self-perceptions of academic skill by late childhood or early adolescence. This research has shown that males tend to overestimate their performance across the board, and both males and females report self-perceptions in line with traditional stereotypes (i.e., girls report greater self competence in verbal domains whereas boys report greater self competence in math and science) (Bornholt, Goodnow, & Cooney, 1994; Lundeberg, Fox, & Puncochar, 1994; Stevenson & Newman, 1986; (Wigfield et al., 1997), Eccles, Yoon, Harold, Arbreton, Doan, & Blumenfeld, 1997). Elementary-aged girls’ and boys’ self-perceptions of sports and music abilities also show similarities to societal stereotypes: Girls believe that they are better in music and boys view themselves as better at sports (Wigfield et al., 1997). Researchers have not substantiated whether differences in individuals’ perceptions of self competence reflect differences in underlying beliefs about sex differences in ability, or whether these beliefs change as children enter adolescence. Unlike gender and race, social class is not biologically based, but socially derived, making its markers less stable and distinct, and perhaps less recognizable to children. Consequently, we might expect that stereotypes about social class would emerge later than sex and race stereotypes. Yet a growing body of research suggests that by age 5 children have at least a rudimentary schema for economic status (Ramsey, 1991), and by middle childhood they Development of Stereotypes 7 are able to distinguish among a variety of possessions and occupations on the basis of economic status cues (Brusdal, 1990; Emler & Dickinson, 1985; Estvan, 1952; Jahoda, 1959; Leahy, 1981, 1983; Mistry & Crosby, 2001; Stendler, 1949; Tudor, 1971). Much less is known about the development of children’s beliefs about the attributes of rich and poor people (see review by Chafel, 1995). It has been suggested, however, that children begin to form such beliefs at an early age (Chafel, 1997; Mistry & Crosby, 2001; Skafte, 1988; Stendler, 1949). In a classic study, Stendler (1949) reported age-related differences in first, fourth, sixth, and eighth graders’ conceptions of rich and poor individuals. Younger children tended to ascribe positive attributes to the rich and negative attributes to the poor, whereas adolescents attributed more negative characteristics to the rich and more positive attributes to the poor. More recent studies report findings that are bo