Equity and Justice in Developmental Science: Discrimination, Social Exclusion, and Intergroup Attitudes

Exploring Intergroup Peer Exclusion: Validation of the Latency Social-Psychological Developmental Questionnaire (LSPD)

Intergroup peer exclusion has been studied mainly from a pathological aspect. Currently, methods of diagnosis and treatment focus on this pathological point of view. Qualitative research has revealed that social intergroup peer exclusion has a role in the developmental task of the latency stage. The study’s main aim was to develop and validate a quick and easy quantitative questionnaire for use in a school setting that reflects the social developmental variables exposed in previous qualitative research. The 32-item Latency Social-Psychological Developmental questionnaire (LSPD) and the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire were administered to 20 Grade 4 and Grade 5 classes at four co-ed public elementary schools (N = 373 participants). Factor analysis revealed six developmental factors, and correlations were found between these factors and loneliness. The LSPD is a tool for assessing latency stage development among children who experienced exclusion as well as the developmental status of the entire class. The LSPD can assist in identifying specific development areas to focus on in treatment and intervention.

Belief, culture, & development: Insights from studying the development of religious beliefs and behaviors

We describe the theoretical and methodological contributions of a cultural and developmental approach to the study of religious belief and behavior. We focus on how the study of religious development can provide a foothold into answering some key questions in developmental science: What is belief? What is culture? What is the nature of human development? Throughout the chapter, we provide examples of methodological innovations that have emerged over the course of the first year of a global, collaborative research project into the development of religious beliefs and behaviors.

Intergroup Contact and Prejudice Reduction: Prospects and Challenges in Changing Youth Attitudes

Intergroup contact has long been lauded as a key intervention to reduce prejudice and improve intergroup attitudes among youth. In this review, we summarize classic perspectives and new developments in the intergroup contact literature, highlighting both prospects and challenges associated with achieving desired youth outcomes through contact. First, we review literature showing how positive intergroup outcomes can be facilitated through cultivating optimal conditions for contact, as well as by attending to youth’s emotional responses to contact. We then discuss how desired contact outcomes may be inhibited by limited understanding of ways in which contact strategies may affect youth across developmental stages, as well as by limited focus on societal inequalities and intergroup conflict, which require examination of outcomes beyond prejudice reduction. We also review growing bodies of research on indirect contact strategies—such as extended contact, vicarious contact, and online contact—showing many options that can be used to promote positive relations among youth from diverse backgrounds, beyond the contact literature’s traditional focus on face-to-face interaction. We conclude this review by acknowledging how understanding both prospects and challenges associated with implementing contact strategies can enhance our capacity to prepare youth to embrace group differences and build more inclusive societies.

Developmental Prevention of Prejudice: Conceptual Issues, Evidence-Based Designing, and Outcome Results

This article reviews conceptual and empirical issues on the developmental prevention of prejudice in childhood and adolescence. Developmental prejudice prevention is defined as interventions that intentionally change and promote intergroup attitudes and behavior by systematically recognizing theories and empirical results on the development of prejudice in young people. After presenting a general conception of designing evidence-based interventions, we will discuss the application of this model in the field of developmental prejudice prevention. This includes the legitimation, a developmental concept of change, and the derivation of intervention content and implementation. Finally, we summarized recent evaluations results by reviewing meta-analytical evidence of programs and discuss important issues of future research and practice.

Outgroup prosocial behaviour among children and adolescents in conflict settings

More than 420 million children live amid political conflict. In such settings, understanding the development of prosocial behaviours, specifically directed at outgroups, can provide opportunities for peacebuilding. Informed by research on intergroup competition and structural inequality, we focus on outgroup prosocial behaviour targeting conflict rivals. Already from a young age, children are politically socialised and show intergroup biases that dampen helping behaviours towards conflict rivals, which continue into adulthood. We review factors that shape youth's interpersonal helping and broader forms of prosociality, such as civic engagement, across group lines. We conceptualise outgroup prosocial behaviour along a continuum, ranging from interpersonal acts to broader structural and cultural constructive change. We conclude with directions for future research.

Moving from the Margins to the Mainstream: Equity and Justice as Key Considerations for Developmental Science

Worldwide, most children face marginalization and societal inequities to varying degrees. For developmental science to have both scientific and societal value, scientists must account for the impact of societal inequities, regardless of the focus of their research. In this article, we illustrate how equity and justice are relevant for all children. We also argue that equity and justice are essential components for all developmental science and should be the basis for how we evaluate scientific rigor. Ignoring equity and justice issues perpetuates biases within the field and limits our understanding of developmental processes. We offer graduated recommendations for all developmental scientists to consider, starting with minimal standards for inclusion and descriptions of participants, and continuing with guidance for articulating what mechanisms lead to observed differences. We also urge researchers to examine why and how social inequities and contexts shape their focal domain of developmental science.

Children's Perceptions of Economic Groups in a Context of Limited Access to Opportunities

Children (N = 267, ages 8-14 years, M = 11.61 years, middle to upper-middle income) made predictions regarding groups of same-aged peers from high-wealth and low-wealth backgrounds. The context involved granting access to a special opportunity. From middle childhood to early adolescence children increasingly expected both high- and low-wealth groups to want access to opportunities for their own group. However, children viewed high-wealth groups as motivated in part by selfishness and low-wealth groups as concerned in part with broader economic inequality. Finally, the higher children's family income, the more they expected group-serving tendencies. These findings revealed children's perceptions of exclusive preferences between economic groups, negative stereotypes about high-wealth children, and awareness of some of the constraints faced by low-wealth children.

Personal identity development in cultural context: The socialization of master narratives about the gendered life course

The present studies focused on the role and socialization of biographical master narratives – cultural narratives that prescribe the types and ordering of events that should occur in one’s personal life identity narrative – by focusing on adolescent and emerging adult gender identity development. We employed a combined explanatory and triangulation mixed methods design. Study 1a ( n = 414) was a survey study examining the expected biographical master narrative events for men and women, and the content of master narrative deviation and conformity in an emerging adult sample. In Study 1b ( n = 14) we interviewed participants from Study 1a about their conformity and deviation narratives, as well as their socialization experiences regarding gendered biographical master narratives. In Study 2 mothers and adolescents ( n = 11 pairs), engaged in conversation about expected life course events, as well as a follow-up interview about their conversation. We first found that there are more gender differences in the personal experiences of conformity to and deviation from master narratives compared to the expectations of the life course (Study 1a). Second, deviating is related to more engagement in identity processes (Study 1a). Third, emerging adults report contradictions in retrospective reports of socialization messages regarding expectations (Study 1b), a finding confirmed in a discourse analysis of mothers and their adolescents (Study 2). Overall, across the studies, we see that (a) adolescents and emerging adults are engaged in a delicate balance of negotiating between various cultural and familial messages, as well as personal experiences, about gender identity particularly in regards to gender equality and, (b) there is a complex relation between socialization messages about gender equality that may make some biographical master narratives about the expected life course events for men and women more resistant to change.

"It's Wrong to Exclude Girls From Something They Love." Adolescents' Attitudes About Sexism in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

The current research examined adolescents' attitudes about sexism in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The ethnically diverse sample (61% East Asian) was composed of 629 adolescents (M_age  = 16.09) who attended a public school in the United States. Participants responded to closed- and open-ended questions about the prevalence and severity of sexism in STEM. We used latent profile analysis to classify participants into latent classes according to their responses. Of note, one latent class included participants who perceived sexism in STEM as a fairly common and very serious problem. Relative to the other classes, participants in this class were more likely to be girls and showed higher STEM value. Qualitative analyses illustrated that the participants in each class reasoned in fundamentally different ways about sexism in STEM.

Intergenerational Consequences: Women's Experiences of Discrimination in Pregnancy Predict Infant Social-Emotional Development at 6 Months and 1 Year

OBJECTIVE

Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in infant development in the United States have lifelong consequences. Discrimination predicts poorer health and academic outcomes. This study explored for the first time intergenerational consequences of women's experiences of discrimination reported during pregnancy for their infants' social-emotional development in the first year of life.

METHODS

Data come from a longitudinal study with predominantly Black and Latina, socioeconomically disadvantaged, urban young women (N = 704, Mage = 18.53) across pregnancy through 1 year postpartum. Women were recruited from community hospitals and health centers in a Northeastern US city. Linear regression analyses examined whether women's experiences of everyday discrimination reported during pregnancy predicted social-emotional development outcomes among their infants at 6 months and 1 year of age, controlling for potentially confounding medical and sociodemographic factors. Path analyses tested if pregnancy distress, anxiety, or depressive symptoms mediated significant associations.

RESULTS

Everyday discrimination reported during pregnancy prospectively predicted greater inhibition/separation problems and greater negative emotionality, but did not predict attention skills or positive emotionality, at 6 months and 1 year. Depressive symptoms mediated the association of discrimination with negative emotionality at 6 months, and pregnancy distress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms mediated the association of discrimination with negative emotionality at 1 year.

CONCLUSION

Findings support that there are intergenerational consequences of discrimination, extending past findings to infant social-emotional development outcomes in the first year of life. It may be important to address discrimination before and during pregnancy and enhance support to mothers and infants exposed to discrimination to promote health equity across the life span.

How discrimination and perspective-taking influence adolescents' attitudes about justice

Little is known about factors influencing adolescents' justice attitudes. This online study investigates perspective-taking and experiences with discrimination for their associations with adolescents' beliefs about how justice is best served. Participants included 179 ethnically/racially diverse high school students (M_age = 16.67 years; SD = 1.02). Higher perspective-taking was associated with less punitive and more restorative attitudes. Youth reporting more personal and ethnic/racial discrimination experiences endorsed more restorative justice attitudes. Perspective-taking also moderated the associations between reports of family, personal, and religious discrimination and punitive justice attitudes: adolescents reporting higher discrimination showed a stronger inverse relationship between perspective-taking and punitive attitudes. Findings have implications for school and community programs aiming to implement restorative policies, and for adolescents' civic participation.

Commentary: The Role of Race/Ethnicity in a Developmental Science of Equity and Justice

This commentary makes a case for the role of school racial/ethnic diversity in a new developmental science of equity and justice with a focus on intergroup attitudes, discrimination, and social exclusion. Creative ways to conceptualize and measure ethnic diversity as a multifaceted, dynamic, and fluid construct that changes across time and space are discussed. The commentary concludes with policy implications of this approach for improving the lives of children growing up in an increasingly multiracial/multiethnic society.