The Development of Racial Awareness

According to the Socio-Cognitive theory
the development of prejudice during childhood is
related to, and dependent on, the development of
cognitive abilities:Prejudice in childhood should be
conceptualized more as a developmental outcome than
as a personality trait. Several tasks were designed
to measure the different aspects that conform
children s racial awareness:Perception of
similarities and differences between racial groups,
Comprehension of the social labels that designate
different social groups, and Membership
selfidentification. We also assessed children s
early racial attitudes by traditional tasks of
preferences and rejections.The results showed that
racial awareness increased dramatically between
three to four years of age:During these critical
ages children become more realise that color of skin
is a relevant social cue. The preferences towards
ingroup were stronger than the rejections towards
outgroups. The rejections and the membership
identification were the two aspects that conform
racial awareness more related to the cognitive level
of the child.

Autorentext
Dr.Silvia Guerrero is Assitant Professor of Developmental Psychology at the UCLM at Spain.She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology, from the UCM in 2006 with and extraordinary award of bachelor on Psychology. Dr. Guerrero's research includes racial awareness, with a specific focus on very young children.