Children's Intergroup Relations and Attitudes

Abstract

The existence of warm, intimate, supportive, and egalitarian relationships between members of differing social outgroups is likely, at the societal level, to facilitate cooperation and cohesion, and at the individual level, to promote positive social, educational, and occupational outcomes. The developmental pathway from intergroup contact to intergroup attitudes as it operates among children is not, however, well understood. In our chapter, we review and integrate selected social and developmental science related to intergroup relations and attitudes with the goal of proposing a conceptual model of the pathway from intergroup contact to positive intergroup attitudes among youth.

Keywords: Children and adolescents; Contact theory; Cross-race relations; Gender roles; Ingroup favoritism; Ingroups and outgroups; Intergroup attitudes; Intergroup relations; Peer relations; Prejudice.