Martyn Barrett

Children's subjective identification with the group and in-group favoritism

Recent developments in social psychology have explained childrens preference for members of the in-group in terms of processes of self-categorization and identification with the in-group. In contrast, this study, addressing nationality self-conceptions, examines the possibility that even before subjective identification with the group has occurred, as de facto group members, children will have been exposed to a great deal of positive information about their own national group, which is likely to encourage group-serving judgments. Children who had failed to identify themselves as members of their national group were required in this study to make evaluative judgments about 5 national groups, including their own. Significant preference for the in-group emerged on 2 of 3 measures. It is concluded that subjective identification with the in-group is not a necessary precondition for in-group favoritism.

Children's colour choices for completing drawings of affectively characterised topics

BACKGROUND This study was designed to explore whether or not children systematically use particular colours when completing drawings of affectively characterised topics. METHOD Three hundred and thirty 4-11-year-old children were subdivided into three conditions, colouring in a drawing of a man, a dog, or a tree, respectively. The children completed two test sessions in counterbalanced order. In one session, children rated and ranked ten colours in order of preference. In the other session, children completed three colouring tasks in which they had to colour in three identical figures but which had been given different affective characterisations: a neutrally characterised figure, a figure characterised as nasty, and a figure characterised as nice. RESULTS It was found that, in all age groups and for all topics, the children used their more preferred colours for the nice figures, their least preferred colours for the nasty figures, and colours rated intermediately for the neutral figures. It was also found that, in all age groups and for all topics, black tended to be the most frequently chosen colour for colouring in the drawings of the negatively characterised figures. By contrast, primary colours were predominantly selected for the neutral figure, while a wide range of mainly primary and secondary colours were chosen for colouring in the nice figure. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that children are able to alter systematically their use of colour during picture completion tasks in response to differential affective topic characterisations, and that even very young children are able to use colours symbolically.

The development of national in‐group bias: English children's attributions of characteristics to English, American and German people

This study investigated the development of national in-group bias in 5-11-year-old children. Three hundred and seven English children were asked to attribute characteristics to their own national group either on its own or in conjunction with attributing characteristics to one of two national out-groups, either Americans or Germans. The importance which the children ascribed to their own national identity in relationship to their other social identities was also assessed. It was found that, with increasing age, there was an increase in the number of negative characteristics attributed to the national in-group, and an increase in the number of positive characteristics attributed to the two out-groups, the net result being an overall reduction in in-group bias across this age range. However, in-group favouritism was still exhibited at all ages. Greater importance was attributed to national identity with increasing age. However, the characteristics attributed to the English in-group did not vary as a function of the comparative out-group which was present while the attributions were being made. The presence of a comparative out-group also did not affect the importance that was ascribed to the national identity. These findings suggest that children are relatively insensitive to the prevailing comparative context when making judgments about national groups.

Findings, theories and methods in the study of children's national identifications and national attitudes

This paper reviews some of the relevant background findings against which the empirical studies reported in this special issue were designed. Particular attention is given to previous findings on the development of childrens national knowledge, national attitudes and national identifications. The paper also reviews five existing theories, which have been proposed to explain the development of childrens intergroup attitudes: cognitive-developmental theory (Aboud, 1988, 2008), social identity development theory (Nesdale, 2004, 2008), social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1986), societal-social-cognitive-motivational theory (Barrett, 2007, 2009; Barrett & Davis, 2008) and integrative developmental-contextual theory (Bar-Tal & Teichman, 2005; Teichman & Bar-Tal, 2008). The paper concludes by describing the shared methodology that was utilized by all of the following studies that are reported in this special issue. These studies were designed to examine how childrens attitudes to other nations develop within a range of different national contexts, some of which have not experienced violent conflict in the recent past (England, The Netherlands) but others of which have recently experienced, or still are experiencing, conflict, violence or warfare (Basque Country, Bosnia, north and south Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Israel).

Internalising and externalising problems in middle childhood: A study of Indian (ethnic minority) and English (ethnic majority) children living in Britain

The psychological adjustment of ethnic minority children has received little research attention, particularly in Britain. The present study set out to investigate the adjustment of Indian children living in Britain as well as the adjustment of their English peers. The sample consisted of 125 children (66 Indian and 59 English) between the ages of 7 and 9 years (M = 8.51, SD = 0.62) and their parents and teachers. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported about the children’s problem behaviour, and parents also reported on their acculturation strategy and use of their Indian language. Analyses revealed that overall Indian children seem to be well adjusted in Britain. Nevertheless, according to parental reports, they exhibited more internalising problems than did their English peers. No significant differences, however, were found for externalising or total problem behaviour. Furthermore, within the Indian group, it was found that children whose mothers and fathers were more traditional in their acculturation style displayed lower levels of externalising, internalising and total problem behaviour, according to their teachers. In addition, children whose mothers and fathers utilised their Indian language to a greater extent displayed lower levels of externalising and total problem behaviour (teachers’ reports). These findings highlight the importance of examining the adjustment of ethnic minority children in multiple contexts.

The effect of affective characterizations on the size of children's drawings

Previous research has yielded conflicting findings about the existence and the direction of the size changes which occur in childrens drawings when they are asked to draw topics which have been given an affective characterisation. The present study was designed to investigate whether children scale up the size of drawings of topics which have been given a positive characterisation, and scale down the size of drawings of topics which have been given a negative characterisation. Two hundred and fifty-eight children aged between 4 and 11 years completed three drawings of either a man, a dog or a tree. Each child drew a baseline drawing of a neutrally characterised figure, and two further drawings of a positively and a negatively characterised version of the same figure. It was found that the children drew the positively characterised topics larger than the neutrally characterised topics, and reduced the size of the negatively characterised topics relative to the baseline drawings. These patterns occurred at all ages and with all three drawing topics. Two possible explanations of the findings are discussed: the operation of an appetitive-defensive mechanism in children, and the acquisition of pictorial conventions.

The effect of affective characterizations on the use of size and colour in drawings produced by children in the absence of a model

Previous studies have revealed that children increase the size of drawings of topics about which they feel positively and use their most preferred colours for colouring in these drawings, and decrease the size of drawings of topics about which they feel negatively and use their least preferred colours for colouring in these drawings. However, these previous findings have been obtained in studies employing drawing tasks where planning and production difficulties have been minimized by asking the children either to copy or to colour in an outline stimulus of a figure provided by the experimenter. The present experiment was designed to examine whether children also alter the use of size and colour in their drawings in response to emotional characterizations when they are not constrained by the presence of a model. In all 253 children aged between four and 11 years were asked to produce drawings of a neutrally, a positively and a negatively characterized topic (either a man, a dog or a tree). It was found that the children consistently increased the size of the positively characterized figures, did not consistently decrease the size of the negatively characterized figures, used their most preferred colours for the positive figures, and used their least preferred colours for the negative figures. These findings are discussed in relation to the operation of an appetitive‐defensive mechanism and pictorial conventions.

Children's understanding of mental illness: an exploratory study

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate childrens thinking about mental illness by employing a well-established framework of adult illness understanding. METHODS The study adopted a semistructured interview technique and a card selection task to assess childrens responses to causes, consequences, timeline and curability of the different types of mental illness. The children were aged between 5 and 11 years. RESULTS Results indicated a developmental trend in the childrens thinking about mental illness; there was an increase in the childrens understanding of the causes, consequences, curability and timeline of mental illness with age. The older children demonstrated a more sophisticated and accurate thinking about mental illness compared with the younger children, who tended to rely on a medical model in order to comprehend novel mental illnesses. Furthermore, the girls exhibited more compassion, showing greater social acceptance compared with the boys. CONCLUSIONS The Leventhal model provides a useful framework within which to investigate childrens knowledge and understanding of mental illness. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

Children's implicit and explicit ethnic group attitudes, ethnic group identification, and self-esteem

An increasing amount of research explores how children distinguish different aspects of ethnic group attitudes. However, little work has focused on how these aspects tie in with other social and psychological processes. In the present study, 112 black and white children aged 5-, 7- and 9-years completed tests of implicit and explicit ethnic group attitudes, racial and ethnic identification, and self-esteem. Whereas all children exhibited coherent identification with ethnicity defined in terms of family ancestry, only black children identified with ethnicity as defined by racial colour terms. There were no differences in black and white childrens self-esteem. Children from both ethnic groups stereotyped only the black character. This stereotyping was stable with age. Positivity was greater towards the black than the white target on implicit and explicit tasks. Negativity towards the white target was evidenced on the implicit task. Positivity, but not stereotyping, was greater on the explicit task compared with the implicit task. Black but not white childrens in-group identification was associated with implicit in-group stereotypes. Self-esteem was related to in- and out-group stereotyping and positivity for white but not black children. The implications of these results for social identity development theory and social identity theory are discussed.

The relationship between children's geographical knowledge and travel experience: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT As learning is identified as a main motive for family travel, this study explores the link between childrens demographic characteristics, travel experience and their geographical knowledge. Interviews were conducted with 261 children, aged 6 to 13, in nineteen schools in England. To validate the childrens reports of travel experience, a questionnaire was also distributed to the parents of the participants. The analysis was conducted using simultaneous multiple regression. The results suggest a direct link between social class, age and travel experience. Unexpectedly, no link was found between travel experience and geographical knowledge. It is suggested that there is a need for further research on the effects of travel on children and specifically on the learning that results from tourist activity.