Ethnicity and Race, Understanding of

Developmental Levels

Development of children's understanding of race and ethnicity, not surprisingly, appears to parallel their development of understanding other aspects of their social world. Children's understanding of ethnicity matures along with increases in social perspective taking and the cognitive skills needed to construe social relations and situations. Quintana and his colleagues (e.g., Quintana, 1994, 1998; Quintana, Castañeda-English, & Ybarra, 1999; Quintana & Segura-Herrera, 2003; Quintana & Vera, 1999; Quintana, Ybarra, Gonzalez-Doupe, & de Baessa, 2000) have developed the following taxonomy of ethnic perspective taking (see Table 1).

Level 0: Physical Perspective of Ethnicity

The first level of ethnic perspective-taking ability involves young children's (e.g., preschool to early elementary school) tendency to construe ethnic and racial status based on physical and other superficial manifestations of race and ethnicity. At this level, to be White or African American, for example, means to have either white or black skin coloration. Indeed, young children seem more able to understand and apply racial terms that have color connotations (e.g., Black or White vs. African or European American). They may also coin their own terms based on physical properties (e.g., “Brown”) to refer to ethnic and racial groups. Similarly, young children may suggest that a change in skin color (or other observable markers of race) would change a person's racial or ethnic status. Hence, ethnic status is not seen as permanent, but is understood by young children to be changeable to the extent that physical and observable markers of ethnicity are changeable.

There is some evidence that some young children express racial bias against groups who have dark skin complexion. It is, however, unclear whether children's responses are based on a bias against certain skin colors rather than on behavioral or attitudinal negative stereotypes of racial groups. For example, research has shown that young children do not use expressed racial attitudes to determine their playmates. In short, young children's understanding of ethnicity and race is strongly determined by their emphasis on physical and [Page 424]observable features of race, and they seem relatively less able to understand features of race and ethnicity that cannot be directly observed.

Level 1: Literal Perspective of Ethnicity

During early to middle elementary school, children develop an understanding of race and ethnicity that is based on nonobservable features and characteristics, such as heritage and ancestry. Consequently, children at this level understand that ethnic/racial status is permanent and unchangeable. Children's conceptions of ethnicity and race at this level are primarily limited to a literal understanding of ethnic/racial characteristics similar to a dictionary definition. To illustrate, they associate ethnicity with characteristics that include an ethnic label, such as speaking Korean, having African heritage, or participating in American Indian rituals. Interestingly, at this level of development, children tend to construe ethnicity and race as primarily an artifact of an individual's past or as having occasional importance, such as how holidays are celebrated or which foods are preferred. Children's literal understanding of ethnicity tends to exclude a full understanding of the social implications of ethnic and racial status.

...