Promoting Intergroup Friendships and Reducing Prejudice in Childhood

促进群体间友谊并减少童年偏见

• 批准号: 1728918
• 负责人: Melanie Killen
• 金额: $ 43.8万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1728918&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Promoting; Intergroup; Friendships; Reducing; Prejudice

Social exclusion from peer groups and the experience of negative treatment based on one's group membership (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, and wealth status) has long-term negative consequences such as depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal. Stereotypes and biases that often underlie social exclusion are entrenched by the time individuals reach adulthood. Thus, the most effective time for intervention is childhood. This project will implement an intervention program designed to change children's attitudes and behaviors in ways that produce greater inclusion and less bias. This intervention will utilize an innovative web-based interactive application ("app") that will be used in the classroom along with teacher led in-classroom discussions. Determining how to promote children's inclusive attitudes towards others in group contexts will have positive consequences for the classroom environment. The research findings regarding prejudice reduction, social inclusion and exclusion, and intergroup attitudes will be disseminated to developmental scientists, educators, teachers, and parents. The findings from this study will provide a tool for changing children's attitudes in elementary school classrooms to facilitate school belonging and academic achievement. An experimental randomized control intervention design will be implemented to evaluate a program designed to reduce prejudice and promote intergroup friendships among 720 children enrolled in 36 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classrooms at 6 schools. The app that will be used to deliver the intervention features a series of animated scenarios, with voice-over narration, depicting peer encounters in which children are excluded from an activity by a majority group of peers. Children are asked to make decisions about inclusion and exclusion and watch the action unfold. Teacher-led classroom discussions occur immediately after children are exposed to the app, to enhance an understanding about the importance of inclusion and positive peer interactions. Pre-test and post-test measures include assessments of intergroup attitudes and behaviors (e.g., perceptions of similarity, reports of peer playmates, social exclusion evaluations, and stereotypic expectations) and socioemotional wellbeing (e.g., school belonging, ethnic identity, and perceived discrimination). Using mixed modeling, analyses will test the effects of the treatment condition on intergroup attitudes and socioemotional wellbeing. The investigators predict that attitudes and behaviors of children in the intervention group will differ from those in the control group. In addition, the investigators predict that the greatest benefit of the intervention program for younger children will be a reduction in negative intergroup attitudes, which start to form in middle elementary school, and that the greatest benefit for older children will be their increased sense of school belonging, which starts to diminish in late elementary school. The goal of this empirical project is to determine how to promote positive peer relationships in childhood, particularly relationships with peers from different cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. The intervention program is expected to facilitate positive learning environments for all children.

被同龄人群体排斥和因群体成员身份而受到负面待遇的经历（例如，种族、民族、性别和财富状况）会产生长期的负面后果，例如抑郁、焦虑和社交退缩。往往成为社会排斥基础的陈规定型观念和偏见在个人成年时已经根深蒂固。因此，最有效的干预时间是童年。该项目将实施一项干预方案，旨在改变儿童的态度和行为，以产生更大的包容性和更少的偏见。这种干预将利用一种创新的基于网络的互动应用程序（“应用程序”），该应用程序将与教师引导的课堂讨论一起沿着在课堂上使用。确定如何促进儿童在群体环境中对他人的包容态度，将对课堂环境产生积极影响。关于减少偏见、社会包容和排斥以及群体间态度的研究结果将分发给发展科学家、教育工作者、教师和家长。本研究的结果将提供一个工具，改变儿童在小学课堂上的态度，以促进学校归属感和学业成绩。 一个实验性的随机对照干预设计将被实施，以评估一个旨在减少偏见和促进团体间友谊的720名儿童在36个三年级，四年级和五年级的教室在6所学校。将用于提供干预的应用程序具有一系列动画场景，带有画外音叙述，描绘了同龄人遭遇，其中儿童被大多数同龄人排除在活动之外。儿童被要求就包容和排斥作出决定，并观看行动的展开。在孩子们接触到应用程序后，教师主导的课堂讨论立即发生，以增强对包容和积极的同伴互动的重要性的理解。测试前和测试后的测量包括对群体间态度和行为的评估（例如，相似性的感知、同伴玩伴的报告、社会排斥评估和刻板期望）和社会情感健康（例如，学校归属感、种族认同和感知的歧视）。使用混合模型，分析将测试治疗条件对组间态度和社会情感健康的影响。研究者预测干预组儿童的态度和行为将与对照组不同。此外，研究人员预测，干预计划对年幼儿童的最大好处将是减少消极的群体间态度，这种态度开始在初中形成，而对年长儿童的最大好处将是他们的学校归属感增加，这种归属感在小学后期开始减少。这个实证项目的目标是确定如何促进儿童时期积极的同伴关系，特别是与来自不同文化，种族和民族背景的同伴的关系。该干预方案有望为所有儿童创造积极的学习环境。

项目成果

Children’s and Adolescents’ Expectations about Challenging Unfair Group Norms

儿童和青少年对挑战不公平群体规范的期望

• DOI: 10.1007/s10964-017-0671-y
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: Journal of Youth and Adolescence
• 影响因子: 4.9
• 作者: Mulvey, Kelly Lynn;Killen, Melanie
• 通讯作者: Killen, Melanie

Giving priority to race or wealth in peer group contexts involving social inclusion.

• DOI: 10.1037/dev0001178
• 发表时间: 2021-05
• 期刊: Developmental psychology
• 影响因子: 4
• 作者: Burkholder AR;Elenbaas L;Killen M
• 通讯作者: Killen M

How social experience is related to children's intergroup attitudes

• DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.733
• 发表时间: 2010-06-01
• 期刊: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: McGlothlin, Heidi;Killen, Melanie
• 通讯作者: Killen, Melanie

Children's Perceptions of Economic Groups in a Context of Limited Access to Opportunities

• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13024
• 发表时间: 2019-09-01
• 期刊: CHILD DEVELOPMENT
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Elenbaas, Laura;Killen, Melanie
• 通讯作者: Killen, Melanie

Developmental Perspectives on Social Inequalities and Human Rights.

关于社会不平等和人权的发展观点。

• DOI: 10.1159/000526276
• 发表时间: 2022-12
• 期刊: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• 作者: Killen, Melanie;Elenbaas, Laura;Ruck, Martin D.
• 通讯作者: Ruck, Martin D.