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Teaching Children Fairness: Decreasing Gender Prejudice Among Children
Author(s) -
Brinkman Britney G.,
Jedinak Allison,
Rosen Lee A.,
Zimmerman Toni S.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
analyses of social issues and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1530-2415
pISSN - 1529-7489
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-2415.2010.01222.x
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , psychology , social psychology , developmental psychology
Elementary school children (66 girls and 55 boys, aged 10–13 years) in the Western United States participated in a program designed to teach them about fairness and to decrease their engagement in gender‐prejudice behaviors. The study utilized a pretest/posttest design comparing students in the treatment group to students in a control group. Children and teachers completed measures regarding the children's engagement of gender prejudice among their classmates, and students participated in focus groups after completing the program. At posttest, students in the treatment group reported experiencing less gender‐prejudice by their classmates than students in the control group. Teachers also reported fewer gender‐prejudice behaviors by the students in the treatment group. Qualitative analyses of the focus groups revealed that the students reported learning to challenge gender role stereotypes and endorsed a commitment to treating boys and girls fairly.