Intergroup Contact and Evaluations of Race-Based Exclusion in Urban Minority Children and Adolescents

• NCJ Number: 235329
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 40 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2011 Pages: 633-643
• Author(s): Martin D. Ruck; Henry Park; Melanie Killen; David S. Crystal
• Date Published: June 2011
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1R01HD04121-01
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article reviews ethnic minority children's and adolescents' evaluations of racial exclusion.

Abstract

There is a dearth of published research on the role of intergroup contact on urban U.S. ethnic minority children's and adolescents' evaluations of racial exclusion. The current investigation examined these issues in a sample of low-income minority 4th, 7th, and 10th grade (N = 129, 60 percent female) African-American and Latino/a students attending predominately racial and ethnic minority U.S. urban public schools. Using individual interviews, participants were presented with scenarios depicting three contexts of interracial peer exclusion (lunch at school, a sleepover party, and a school dance). Novel findings were that intergroup contact was significantly related to low-income urban ethnic minority youth's evaluations of the wrongfulness of race-based exclusion and their awareness of the use of stereotypes to justify racial exclusion. Further, significant interactions involving intergroup contact, context, age, and gender were also found. Findings illustrated the importance of intergroup contact for ethnic minority students and the complexity of ethnic minority children's and adolescents' judgments and decisionmaking about interracial peer exclusion. (Published Abstract)