Intergroup contact childrens intergroup attitudes The role of

Intergroup contact & children’s intergroup attitudes: The role of parents Lindsey Cameron Researcher in Residence, TLN Reader, University of Kent

Intergroup contact Interactions across group lines In-person, personal interactions Face-to-face Reduce prejudice, improve attitudes This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

‘Confidence in contact’ We argue that one of most important aspects of intergroup attitudes: confidence in contact “a state of readiness for positive contact, whereby children have the necessary confidence, skills, beliefs, and experience for successful intergroup contact. ” • instilling confidence in contact, making them ‘contact ready’ will increase the chances that they will have positive cross-group interactions and in turn form high quality cross-group friendships that are maintained over time. Parents also have a role in cultivating confidence in contact and positive intergroup attitudes

Are children’s attitudes influenced by their parents? • Meta-analysis (Degner et al. , 2013) • 60 years worth of research on parent-child similarity in inter-group attitudes • 131 studies • 45, 000 parent-child dyads Conclusion: parent-child attitudes are related

Modeling How are Parents attitudes are transmitted to their children? Directly teaching Nonverbal, unconscious behaviours Control the child’s environment

Are parents attitudes transmitted to their children? Castelli, Zogmaister & Tomelleri (2007): • 72 White Italian children, aged 3 -6 year olds • Explicit and implicit attitudes in parents Who would you like to play with? 8 negative traits 8 positive traits

Parent-child attitudes cont. Parents implicit attitudes Child’s explicit attitudes Children were picking up various unconscious signals from their mothers about what they felt about outgroup.

How do they pick up on these unconscious attitudes?

Castelli, De Dea & Nesdale (2008) • Do children pick up on adult non-verbal intergroup behaviours? • Does this influence their intergroup attitudes? • Manipulate eye contact (nonverbal) How are children picking up adults unconscious behaviours?

Castelli et al. , 2008 How much do you cont. think IG enjoyed talking to OG? Do you think that OG likes IG? What do you think about this person? Do you think IG could become friends with OG?

What does this tell us? -children sensitive to nonverbal behaviours -use these to infer relationships -this impacts on personal attitudes towards new outgroup member.

Why are parents important? Model & normalise good inter-group interactions Indirect contact: observing cross-group friendships leads to positive inter-group attitudes Parents with more outgroup friends have adolescents with more outgroup friends (Smith, 2015)

Books, TV, newspapers Parents create children’s environments School, clubs, friends Playdates, relationships they encourage and support

Can it work both ways? There may be a bidirectional relationship between parental and adolescent intergroup attitudes (Miklikowska, 2016)

Influence the families in their own linking Family Engagement is key… Challenge family member’s misperceptions Immerse the children in the linking program

How is it done? Letters home Families sharing a game Watch an online play Recipes Sharing the activities https: //thelinkingnetwork. org. uk/schools-linking-2020 -2021/family-engagement/ A family’s journey

Thank you for listening Questions? Love to hear from you…. L. Cameron@kent. ac. uk https: //www. fatherly. com/healthscience/kids-learn-racism-prejudicefrom-parents/