Promoting Intergroup Friendships and Reducing Prejudice in Childhood

同龄人群体的社会排斥和基于群体成员（如种族、民族、性别和财富状况）的负面待遇经历具有长期的负面影响，如抑郁、焦虑和社交退缩。通常作为社会排斥基础的陈规定型观念和偏见在个人成年后就根深蒂固了。因此，最有效的干预时间是儿童时期。该项目将实施一项干预计划，旨在改变儿童的态度和行为，以产生更大的包容和更少的偏见。这种干预将利用一种创新的基于网络的交互式应用程序（“app”），该应用程序将在课堂上与教师主导的课堂讨论一起使用。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的影响。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传播给发展科学家、教育工作者、教师和家长。本研究结果将提供一个工具，以改变儿童在小学课堂上的态度，促进学校归属感和学业成就。在6所学校的36个三年级、四年级和五年级的720名学生中，将实施一项实验性随机对照干预设计，以评估一项旨在减少偏见和促进群体间友谊的计划。用于提供干预的应用程序以一系列动画场景为特色，配有画外音叙述，描绘了孩子们被大多数同龄人排除在活动之外的同伴遭遇。孩子们被要求做出关于包容和排斥的决定，并观察行动的展开。在孩子们接触到这款应用程序后，立即进行教师主导的课堂讨论，以增强他们对包容和积极的同伴互动重要性的理解。测试前和测试后的措施包括对群体间态度和行为的评估（例如，对相似性的感知、同伴玩伴的报告、社会排斥评估和刻板印象的期望）和社会情感健康（例如，学校归属感、种族认同和感知歧视）。使用混合模型，分析将测试治疗条件对群体间态度和社会情绪健康的影响。研究者预测干预组儿童的态度和行为会与对照组有所不同。此外，研究人员预测，干预计划对低年级儿童的最大好处将是减少消极的群体间态度，这种态度在小学中期开始形成，而对年龄较大的儿童的最大好处将是增加学校归属感，这种归属感在小学后期开始减弱。这个实证项目的目标是确定如何在童年时期促进积极的同伴关系，特别是与来自不同文化、种族和民族背景的同伴的关系。该干预计划旨在为所有儿童创造积极的学习环境。

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.