The impact of a prejudice-prevention television program on young children’s ideas about race

Two studies investigated whether children’s television programs that were produced to decrease racial prejudice had the intended positive effect on young children. Study 1 measured 60 White 5- and 6-year-old children’s attitudes toward Asian, Black, and White stimuli prior to, and immediately follow...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Early childhood research quarterly 2003-01, Vol.18 (4), p.530-546
Main Authors: Persson, Anna, Musher-Eizenman, Dara R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Asian Americans
Attitude Change
Childrens Television
Cultural Pluralism
Diversity
Hispanic Americans
Intervention
Mass Media Effects
Multicultural
Prejudice
Preschool children
Pretests Posttests
Prevention
Program Effectiveness
Race
Racial Attitudes
Social Bias
Television
Television Viewing
Whites
Young Children
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Two studies investigated whether children’s television programs that were produced to decrease racial prejudice had the intended positive effect on young children. Study 1 measured 60 White 5- and 6-year-old children’s attitudes toward Asian, Black, and White stimuli prior to, and immediately following, a brief, one-time anti-prejudice television program. No significant change was observed. Study 2 assessed the attitudes of 30 White 3–6-year-old children toward Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White stimuli at the beginning and end of a 3-week intervention period. During the intervention period children watched a pro-diversity television program four times. Plot and anti-prejudice message comprehension was assessed at three time-points during the testing period. Participants improved on plot and message comprehension over time, but no change in ideas about race was evidenced (children indicated a strong pro-White bias at both pre- and post-test). Possible reasons for, and implications of, this lack of change are discussed.
ISSN:0885-2006
1873-7706
DOI:10.1016/j.ecresq.2003.09.010