Psychology
Young children's stereotype endorsement about people in poverty: Age and economic status effects
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Childhood poverty in the U.S. is common and is associated with increased risk for negative outcomes in social-emotional, physical, and academic functioning domains beginning as early as toddlerhood. While research has addressed adults’ negative stereotyped beliefs about people in poverty, little is known about children's endorsements of stigmatizing stereotypes about people in poverty. In the current study, interviews were conducted with 94 socioeconomically diverse four to nine year-old children. Children in the study endorsed various. negative beliefs about people in poverty, with endorsement of negative beliefs emerging in the late preschool period (age four to five years). More socioeconomically advantaged children demonstrated a linear increase in overall stereotype endorsement with age. In contrast, less socioeconomically advantaged children demonstrated a curvilinear relation between age and stereotype endorsement, with endorsement first increasing and then decreasing over the period covered in the study. Implications for future research are discussed.
Publication Title
Children and Youth Services Review
Publication Date
2020
Volume
108
ISSN
0190-7409
DOI
10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104605
Keywords
beliefs, childhood, poverty, socioeconomic status, stereotypes
Repository Citation
Heberle, Amy E. and Carter, Alice S., "Young children's stereotype endorsement about people in poverty: Age and economic status effects" (2020). Psychology. 517.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_psychology/517