Preventing prejudice and improving intergroup attitudes: A meta-analysis of child and adolescent training programs☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Study selection
Primary studies were selected according to the following eligibility criteria: First, the study had to evaluate a standardized psychological or educational intervention program aimed at reducing prejudice or otherwise improving intergroup attitudes and relations on the basis of intergroup contact, information/knowledge acquisition, or promotion of individual social-cognitive competencies. The main feature for selecting programs was their standardization, that is, there had to be at least a
Description of research reports and comparisons
The 81 research reports were published between 1958 and 2010 and mostly written in English (k = 78, 96.3%). The majority of studies was conducted in the United States (k = 60, 74.1%) and published in scientific journals (k = 51, 63.0%). A further description of the 81 research reports is given in Table 1.
The 122 intervention–control group comparisons contained a great diversity of intervention programs and samples (see Table 2 for details). The majority of interventions addressed prejudice against
Discussion
The present meta-analysis integrated the effects of standardized intervention programs designed to prevent and reduce prejudice or otherwise improve intergroup attitudes in children and adolescents. The interventions proved to be generally effective with a mean effect size of around d = 0.30. These outcomes are largely comparable to those effects ascertained within other prevention fields such as antisocial behavior or the outcomes for social and emotional training programs in general (see, e.g.,
References1 (84)
- et al.
Interventions to reduce prejudice and enhance inclusion and respect for ethnic differences in early childhood: A systematic review
Developmental Review
(2012) - et al.
Recent advances in intergroup contact theory
International Journal of Intercultural Relations
(2011) Children and prejudice
(1988)A social-cognitive theory of prejudice
- et al.
Exploring and evaluating school-based interventions to reduce prejudice
Journal of Social Issues
(1999) - et al.
Interventions to reduce prejudice and discrimination in children and adolescents
- et al.
The authoritarian personality
(1950) The nature of prejudice
(1954)- et al.
Peer attitudes toward the Handicapped Scale
(1981) - et al.
The development of intergroup social cognition: Early emergence, implicit nature, and sensitivity to group status
Peace education in societies involved in intractable conflicts: Direct and indirect models
Review of Educational Research
Stereotypes and prejudice in conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish society
Prevention of right-wing extremism: European and international research results
The scientific foundation of prevention: The status quo and future challenges for developmental crime prevention
Intergruppale soziale Einstellungen und der Zusammenhang zum Sozialverhalten von Grundschülern [Intergroup attitudes and their relation to the social behavior of elementary school children]
Zeitschrift für Grundschulforschung
Meta-analysis of effect estimates from multiple studies
The effects of preventing antisocial behavior and crime in childhood and adolescence: Results and implications of research reviews and meta-analyses
European Journal of Developmental Science
Cognitive mechanisms in children's gender stereotyping: Theoretical and educational implications of a cognitive-based intervention
Child Development
Developmental intergroup theory: Explaining and reducing children's social stereotyping and prejudice
Current Directions in Psychological Science
The psychology of prejudice: Ingroup love or outgroup hate
Journal of Social Issues
Prejudice: Its social psychology
Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
Cross-group friendships and intergroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review
Personality and Social Psychology Review
The apple does not fall far from the tree, or does it: A meta-analysis of parent–child similarity in intergroup attitudes
Psychological Bulletin
Automatic prejudice in childhood and early adolescence
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Beyond prejudice: Are negative evaluations the problem and is getting us to like one another more the solution?
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
A longitudinal study of White children's racial prejudice as a social-cognitive development
Merrill–Palmer Quarterly
Historical overview
Implementation matters: A review of research on the influence of implementation on program outcomes and the factors affecting implementation
American Journal of Community Psychology
The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions
Child Development
The essential guide to effect sizes. Statistical power, meta-analysis, and the interpretation of research results
Reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model
The common in-group identity model: Applications to children and adults
Television and prejudice reduction: When does television as a vicarious experience make a difference?
Journal of Social Issues
Inducing change in values, attitudes, and behaviors: Belief system theory and the method of value self-confrontation
Journal of Social Issues
Statistical methods for meta-analysis
Individual factors of prejudice development in childhood and adolescence. A meta-analysis
Modification of the attitudes of non-handicapped children toward the handicapped through information-based and contact-based intervention
Cooperation and competition: Theory and research
Conflict resolution and peer mediation programs in elementary and secondary schools: A review of the research
Review of Educational Research
The three Cs of reducing prejudice and discrimination
Cited by (0)
- ☆
This research was supported by the German Research Foundation Grant BE 3731/2-1.
- ☆☆
We thank Jonathan Harrow for native-speaker advice.
- 1
References marked with an asterisk indicate research reports included in the meta-analysis. The in-text citations to studies selected for meta-analysis are not preceded by asterisks.