Stereotypes Affects On Child Development-3

STEREOTYPES AFFECTS ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Stereotypes Affects on Child Development

Amber Khalid
Tallwood High School
Global Studies and World Languages Academy
What dont bug them white kids sure bugs me. We knows everybody aint free.
Langston Hughes

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract....3
Introduction......4
Methodology5
Limitations...5
Literature Review.6
Discussion9
What is a Stereotype....9
Racism & Prejudice...11
Origin of Conflict...12
Perception of a Child.12
Children vs. Adults14
Conclusion.14
References..16

Abstract
Social exclusion and societal norms have caused for a negative affect on child
development due to stereotypical categorization of many to all individuals the child will meet
thereafter in life. Society and those contributing to exclusion may be the cause for stereotypical
developmental patterns in children however individual perception may be the culprit instead.
Children are more prone to imitate behaviors and attitudes they observe rather than what they
learn on their own. Adults are more likely to act accordingly with how they feel and have
interpreted the situation whilst also utilizing past concepts and ideals that they have formed over
time. Children are at a disadvantage here seeing as with their lack of development, in
comparison to an adult, their minds are much more fluid in their beliefs and thoughts which
leaves room for any sort of interpretation of their environment in whereas adults have much
more solidified views, limiting their perceptions. One of the most crucial steps to breaking down
stereotyping barriers is to first remove ourselves, the older generation, from the mindsets in
which we have created that include categorization of individuals based on race, ethnicity, gender,
and more.

Introduction
Every individual is born in different hues of color with differing ethnic backgrounds. As
we grow older and submerge ourselves into ever-changing societies, we begin to realize that our
color and our ethnicities pull us away from all those around us for reasons unfathomable to some
yet also clear as day to others. What some may seem as a racial slur, stereotype, or degrading
comment, others may see as completely acceptable due to social norms that have allowed groups
of people isolate and categorize others.
Racial stereotypings negative effects are irreversible on society. Ever since skin color
and ethnicity became distinguishable and noted as a cause for distrust amongst the masses, the
amount of political, social, and economic backlash has spiked and we continue to watch it
steadily increase. With growing stereotypes due to inequality and societal issues, our and many
other nations diverse populations continuously distance ourselves from each other. The largest
and most important group that stereotype issues affect are our youth. The impact of ethnic and
cultural stereotypes is deeper and more prevalent on the long-term psyche of children. A childs
developmental patterns can give way as to how and why political and social imbalance occur
later in generations due to racial and ethnic normalitys and differences that have been set as
templates for the minds of individuals at young ages. The social divide created in childhood
carries on into the future and allows for atrocities such as societal distrust and violence to occur.
This paper seeks to examine the factors which have caused racial stereotyping to become a norm
and closely analyze why childhood development is threatened by such issues both nationally and
globally.

Methodology
This paper employs a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. The use of qualitative data
provides information that is more psychologically relevant to the area of focus however
quantitative data allows the author to statistically and accurately prove hypotheses as well as
come to coherent conclusions, backed with credible information, on developmental changes in
child psyche.
The author used a wide range of sources for collecting data. To provide readers with the
most professional data possible, many sources were taken from The American Psychological
Association database found through a search on Google Scholar. Many articles were taken from
the e-book Child Development which included a multiplicity of articles on the topic at hand.
These articles enlist research and focused studies done by professionals doing field work in
specific areas of study concerning social stereotypes and prejudice.
Limitations
Limitations for the author include the inability to utilize time studies as well as conduct
hands on research, outdated research, and the inability to travel in order to acquire more literal
global perspectives.
The author did not utilize time studies and experimental data taken from groups of
individual students. Though many of the articles and sources used include time studies, the
author themselves had no intent on conducting such. Child based studies focus on psychological
impacts through experimental study as well, however, no physical change was measured.
Much of the research found by the author consisted of articles or time studies written
from the late 1950s to late 1980s. Though this research is valuable, the relevancy of such articles

is untrustworthy. This research paper will need relevant, fact-based data, from issues and groups
now seeing as social issues and ethnic conflict can change is the span of a day.
Although attempting to include a global perspective of the topic, the author is unable to
travel to collect field data, but attempted to surpass this obstacle through the use of secondary
sources and information gathered by internationally aware sources. Some information may be
slightly biased given the source and background of such yet the author strives to be as unbiased
as possible given the topic and situations effects on said author.
Despite limitations in research, the author will attempt to answer the question, How does
racial stereotyping affect a childs development?
Literature Review
The accuracy of stereotyping affecting child development is not a completely measurable
aspect but in an attempt to evaluate the most information possible for a thoroughly researched
paper, the author has included time studies and psychological patterns. In an effort to provide an
unbiased paper, the author has reviewed and included studies from both affected and unaffected
sides.
The authors first goal is to evaluate and establish a concise definition of the term
stereotype. In her article What Is A Stereotype?, Nadra Kareem Nittle defines a stereotype and
then describes the differences between the terms generalization and stereotype in which she
states that all stereotypes are generalizations yet not all generalizations are stereotypes. She goes
on to explain that stereotypes are seen as oversimplifications of people groups that are widely
circulated in certain societies and as such, when one stereotypes, one repeats the cultural
mythology already present in a particular society.

Another goal of the author is to clearly show a correlation between the terms racism as
well as prejudice with the term in main focus, stereotype. In Carlos Hoyt Jr.s paper The
Pedagogy of the Meaning of Racism: Reconciling a Discordant Discourse, racism is defined as
the belief that all members of a purported race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities
specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or
other races. Prejudice is then defined as preconceived opinion not based on reason or actual
experience; bias, partiality. With stereotypes definition in the above paragraph, a direct
correlation can be seen between the three and their negative connotations. In the article How
Racism Sparks Depression in Children and Young People, Nadra Kareem Nittle examines the
correlation between children and their perception of race in negative connotation. She states that
even children, as young as preschoolers, notice racial differences between groups and tend to
separate themselves into race-based cliques; a common quality usually associated with distrust
built upon stereotypes.
In a study done by Meagan M. Patterson and Rebecca S. Bigler, Preschool Childrens
Attention to Environmental Messages About Social Categorization and the Origins of Intergroup
Bias, a study was conducted to examine the effects of adults labeling and use of social groups on
preschool childrens intergroup attitudes. Eighty-seven children aged three to five attending day
care were given measures of classification skill and self-esteem and assigned to membership in a
novel (red or blue) social group and were treated differently thus behaving accordingly.
Prior research shows that by their first birthday, most infants can categorize individuals by
gender. By 18 months they can match voices to photographs and by 24 months they show
knowledge of the gender typing of common activities such as applying lipstick. By 3 years of
age, children demonstrate extensive knowledge of gender stereotypes and marked preferences for

members of their own gender in-groups. All of this shows that even at the earliest of life, young
children are able to sort individuals along some dimension of categories created by social
stereotypes and prejudice. After the conduction of the initial study at hand in this paper, Patterson
and Bigler found that young children are not free of the negative social biases exhibited by adults
due to their ability to exhibit racial, gender, and attractiveness biases in their trait attributions and
peer preferences by even the ages three to four as seen in the differentiated behaviors from the
children based on their exposure to different levels of self-esteem and skill set.
In the paper Childrens Perceptions of Discrimination: A Developmental Model, Christia
Spears Brown and Rebecca S. Bigler review theoretical and empirical work on childrens
perception of discrimination directed toward themselves and others. Their studies indicated that
many children report having had experiences with some form of discrimination and thousands of
court cases filed on behalf of children every year in the United States provide substantial
evidence for such. At a theoretical level, childrens perception of themselves to be the targets of
discrimination are likely to affect their identity formation, peer relations, academic achievement,
occupational goals, and mental/physical well-being. At an empirical level, studies show that
childrens perception of discrimination start as early as a year old and slowly progress with a
notable heighten in elementary school years.
The paper Childrens Social Reasoning about Inclusion and Exclusion in Gender and
Race Peer Group Contexts by Melanie Killen and Charles Stangor is a study in which they
investigated whether childrens and adolescents judgments about exclusion of peers from peer
group activities on the basis of their gender and race would differ by both age level and context
in which the exclusion occurred. Killen and Stangor conducted interviews on 130 middle class,
European American children and adolescents. On measures of their judgments, the vast majority

of children used moral reasoning and rejected exclusion in which only the presence of a
stereotype justified it. However, older children (around 13 years old) were more likely to allow
exclusion than younger children (7-10 years).
The paper Identity Processes among Racial and Ethnic Minority Children in America by
Margaret Beale Spencer and Carol Markstrom-Adams synthesize literature related to identity
processes among American ethnic and racial minority children and adolescents. The literature
studies are found to be unequally distributed across ethnic groups, with more research on African
Americans and American Indians and on Hispanics and Asians. The synthesis concludes with an
identification of intervention efforts.
An article from the book Child Development entitled Do Children See in Black and
White? Childrens and Adults Categorizations of Multiracial Individuals by Steven O. Roberts
and Susan A. Gelman showcase a study in which children and adults, both White and Black,
categorizations of multiracial individuals were examined. Childrens rates of in-group contact
predicted their categorizations and suggest that a tendency to categorize multiracial individuals
as Black than as White are due to perceptual biases in White children.
Discussion
What is a Stereotype
Conceptually, a stereotype can individually be numerous words, thoughts, ideals, and
actions or even a combination of such. The formal definition of a stereotype is a characteristic
ascribed to groups of people involving gender, race, national origin, and other factors (Nittle).
Also known as a generalization, stereotypes do not allow for diversity within groups and may
result in discrimination of groups if the stereotypes linked to them are based in primarily

negative connotations. Though not all stereotypes are negative, they can still be harmful in that
they limit the nature of someone(s) and/or something(s).
Nittle goes on to explain that all stereotypes are generalizations yet not all generalizations
are stereotypes. Stereotypes are oversimplified descriptions of groups of individuals that are
widely circulated in society thus presenting that when one stereotypes they are simply repeating
the cultural mythology already rooted in the society around them. Generalizations can be made
about ethnic groups without prior perpetuation in society thus basing the categorization and
thoughts off of individual perception.
Nittle further argues the issue of stereotypes in negative connotations and says that the
problem with stereotypes is that they suggest that groups of people are inherently prone to
certain behaviors. In the article Stereotypes, McLeod points out that stereotypes trigger
individuals to ignore the differences between them, therefore some may think things about
people that arent necessarily true. They simplify the social world since they reduce the amount
of thought and processing we implement when meeting someone new. Those who spread
stereotypes ignore social factors and make links between groups of people and certain skills,
activities or behaviors where none inherently exist (Nittle) thus linking the origin of stereotypes
to absolutely nothing but human thought process and psyche developed from their environment.
Psychologists argue that it is a natural aspect of human behavior that benefits each group
because it helps in the long-run to identify with ones own ethnic group as a sense of protection
however there is no evidence for this theory and many writers counter argue that it may just be a
mere way of justifying racist attitudes and behaviors (McLeod).

Racism & Prejudice
The terms stereotype, prejudice, and racism more often than not used interchangeably in
day to day conversation however each plays a different role in the entirety of the sociological
world. As stated earlier, stereotypes are oversimplified ideas, or generalizations, about groups of
people. Prejudice, however, refers to thoughts and feelings about said groups while racism is a
subunit of prejudice that involves set beliefs about a specific racial group (OpenStax).
Racism is the belief that all members of a race possess the same specific characteristics, abilities,
or qualities that are only used to distinguish them as inferior. Hoyt (2012) states racism is in
evidence at the point that one subscribes to the notion of race itself further proving stated
points that individuals fully and ultimately cause the use and creation of such concepts. As
quoted, Hoyt states,
Racism is a term on which a great deal of discourse does and should turn in all
realms of social work theory, practice, policy, and research. Because it is a
concept heavily freighted with multiple and conflicting interpretations and used in
a wide variety of ways, the idea and action of racism is not easy to teach or learn
in a simple and straightforward manner. It is a term the meaning of which has
been the subject of so much argument and mutation that its utility as a clear and
reliable descriptor of a crucial form of ideology or behavior is less than certain.
This quote captures the concept of having more than one factor to conceptualize stereotypes
seeing as racial bias is not the only way a stereotype is supported. Given that one includes
prejudice; the three phrases must go hand-in-hand in order to fully define each other.
A prejudice is usually in reference to beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that and
individual may hold about a group (OpenStax). Prejudices are not based on experience rather a

prejudgment formed from an actual experience thus showing that like stereotypes, prejudices are
formed off of individual thoughts and opinion of a certain group rather societal pressures and
ideals normally conceived from a bias (Hoyt 2012).
Origins of Conflict
The word stereotype was first used in 1798 by the French printer Didot to describe a
distinct printing process. About a century later, psychiatrists began to use the term to denote a
pathological condition characterized by persistent repetitiveness and unchanging modes of
expression (Ashmore 2015). In 1922, Lippmann wrote Public Opinion in which his use of the
word stereotype was more literally translated into pictures in our heads which thus brought the
term to more focus with social scientists and the idea that humans relate more to what they
interpret than what the cold hard facts may be.
In 1933, Katz and Braly conducted a study entitled Racial Stereotyping in which the first
investigation of stereotypical attitudes was conducted. A questionnaire was used to determine
how American university students categorize certain ethnic groups. The results showed that
participants rated ethnic groups with who they had no personal contact with at lower traits than
those they had direct contact with. Their conclusion led them to believe that Ethnic stereotypes
are widespread, and shared by members of a particular social group (Katz 1933).
Through the evaluation of multiple articles cited above in reference to definitions of the
terms stereotype, racism, and prejudice, it can be concluded that stereotypes originate from self
perpetuated thought processes and personal connection with the opposing group in question.
Perception of a Child
Child reasoning towards stereotypes directly correlates with skewed developmental
patterns during the time of exposure and for the rest of their lives thereafter. As a child grows

older, their perceptions on society start to become solidified and certain traits that they observe
begin to structure their psyches. In a study conducted by Patterson and Bigler (2006) children
aged 3 to 5 attending day care were given measures of classification and self-esteem and
assigned to membership in a red or blue social group. In experimental classrooms the
teachers used the color groups to label children and organize the classroom while in control
classrooms the teachers ignored the color groups. After 3 weeks of observation, it was clear that
both types of classrooms developed in-group-biased attitudes however children in experimental
classrooms showed greater in-group bias than those in control classrooms. This leads one to
conclude that even young children are able to determine social differences and implement them
accordingly by subjecting themselves to group with one another based preconceived ideals of
themselves and their peers.
In a study conducted by Killen and Stangor (2001) an investigation was done as to
whether childrens and adolescents judgments about exclusion of peers from peer group
activities on the basis of their gender and race would differ by both age level and the context in
which the exclusion occurred. They found that older children (13 years) were more likely to
allow exclusion than younger children (7 and 10 years) when group functioning was threatened.
This allows us to interpret that at a older age, exclusive tendencies are stronger than at a younger
age when developmental patterns are still settling. A younger child is more open minded and
willing to reject exclusion than older children due to a longer period of time for their
developmental traits to settle in.
Both studies indicate that childrens developmental patterns are more flexible in their
early years but become more rigid as they mature.

Children vs. Adults
Categorizations of multiracial individuals provide insight into the development of racial
concepts (Roberts 2015). In a study conducted by Roberts and Gelman studying whether
children and adults have different categorizations of multiracial individuals, it was found that
White children more often categorized multiracial individuals as Black than as White without
knowledge of parentage information whereas White and Black adults categorized multiracial
individuals as Black than as White while knowing their parentage. This data suggests that a
tendency to categorize multiracial individuals as Black rather White due to perceptual biases in
White children but ideological motives in White and Black adults. Children are more likely to
act as they see whereas adults are more likely to act as they think.
Conclusion
The implementation of stereotypes and exclusive behaviors directly affects children,
whether society realizes this or not. A childs psyche is much more fluid than that of an adults
allowing a child to grasp small changes more easily. When exclusive behaviors are implemented
upon children, their minds grasp the concepts at hand and stick with them. While a child is in
their early developmental stages, many affects of negative ideals (and/or thoughts, actions, etc.)
will become irreversible. Our judgmental, categorizing society has allowed newer generations to
be corrupted with the negatives of stereotypes, prejudice, and racism at times as young as
preschool. As one grows, our views and thoughts become more solidified based on how our
minds decide to implement what we have retained after seeing and experiencing things hands-on
in our every day lives. Rather than show children the differences between one another, society
must strive to showcase the similarities between one another to them in hopes to develop a more
positive view on those who are in any aspect different than they may be. In order to help the

youth of our nation become more open-minded and less susceptible to the negative aspects of
stereotypes, we must first change our own ideals and views in order to positively showcase a
much more equal world view.

References
Ashmore, R. D., & Del Boca, F. K. (2015). Cognitive Processes in Stereotyping and Intergroup
Behavior. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?
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%2Bdevel&ots=x6GiEdMyRt&sig=XwwfLYgdVmeGElhDuLDRR0QWqkA#v=onepag
e&q&f=false
Brown, C. S., & Bigler, R. S. (2005, May/June). Children's Perceptions of Discrimination: A
Developmental Model. Retrieved from
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Hoyt, C. (2012). The Pedagogy of the Meaning of Racism: Reconciling a Discordant Discourse.
Social Work, 57(3), 225-234. doi:10.1093/sw/sws009
Killen, M., & Stangor, C. (2001, January/February). Children's Social Reasoning about Inclusion
and Exclusion in Gender and Race Peer Group Contexts. Retrieved from
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1111%2F1467-8624.00272?
Killen, M., & Stangor, C. (2003, January 28). Children's Social Reasoning about Inclusion and
Exclusion in Gender and Race Peer Group Contexts. Retrieved from
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McLeod, S. (2008). Stereotypes | Simply Psychology. Retrieved from

http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html
Molden, D. C., & Dweck, C. S. (2006, April). Finding "Meaning" in Psychology: A Lay Theories
Approach to Self-Regulation. Retrieved from
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/61/3/192/
Nittle, N. K. (n.d.). Why Stereotypes Should Be Avoided. Retrieved from
http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/WhatIsaStereotype.htm
OpenStax CNX. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://cnx.org/contents/afe4332a-c97f-4fc4-be274e4d384a32d8@7.21:49/Introduction-to-Sociology
Patterson, M. M., & Bigler, R. S. (2006, July/August). Preschool Children's Attention to
Environmental Messages About Groups: Social Categorization and the Origins of
Intergroup Bias. Retrieved from http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1111%2Fj.14678624.2006.00906.x?
Patterson, M. S., & Bigler, R. S. (2006, July 25). Preschool Children's Attention to
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%2B17%3A00-17%3A30%2B%2BSGT%2B%2Bfor%2Bessential%2Bmaintenance.
%2B%2BApologies%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Binc

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