Abstract
We conducted two studies to examine the influence of achievement-related cultural stereotypes among early adolescents. In Study 1 male and female African–American junior high school students (N = 62) read hypothetical descriptions of students who displayed high or low levels of achievement striving and school engagement. Their task was to select one photograph that they believed matched each hypothetical description from a set of photos of unknown junior high school students of diverse ethnicities and both genders. We replicated our procedures in Study 2 with a more ethnically diverse sample of African–American, Latino, and Anglo junior high school students (N = 197). Results indicated that all adolescents most frequently selected photos of ethnic minority males for scenarios of academic disengagement, consistent with cultural stereotypes of these young men. Photos of females across all ethnicities were selected most frequently for scenarios of achievement strivings. Findings are discussed in terms of the need for greater support for minority males in school settings and the potential impact of school programs on the attitudes and behaviors of students.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abi-Nader, Jeannette (1990). 'A house for my mother': motivating Hispanic high school students. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 21, 41–58.
Aboud, Francis (1988). Children and prejudice. New York: Blackwell.
Aboud, Francis & Doyle, Anna (1995). The development of in group pride in Black Canadians.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 243–254.
Aboud, Francis & Skeery, Shelagh (1983). Self and ethnic concepts in relation to ethnic constancy.Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 15, 14–26.
Allport, Gordon (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.
Augoustinos, Martha & Rosewarne, Dana (2001). Stereotype knowledge and prejudice in children.British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 19, 143–156.
Anderson, Claud & Cromwell, Rue (1977). ‘Black is beautiful’ and the color preferences of Afro-American youth. The Journal of Negro Education, 46, 76–88.
Averhart, Cara & Bigler, Rebecca (1997). Shades of meaning: Skin tone, racial attitudes, and constructive memory in African-American children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 67, 363–388.
Bigler, Rebecca & Liben, Lynn (1993). A cognitive-developmental approach to racial stereotyping and reconstructive memory in Euro-American children. Child Development, 64, 1507–1518.
Black-Gutman, Dasia & Hickson, Fay (1996). The relationship between racial attitudes and social-cognitive development in children: an Australian study. Developmental Psychology, 32, 448–456.
Blosser, Betsy (1988). Ethnic differences in children's media use. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 32, 453–470.
Bogle, Donald (1994). Toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies, and bucks: An interpretive history of Blacks in American films (3rd edn). New York: Continuum.
Brand, Elaine, Ruiz, Rene, & Padilla, Amado (1974). Ethnic identification and preference A review.Psychological Bulletin, 81, 860–890.
Brown, Rupert (1995). Prejudice: Its social psychology. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
Clark, Kenneth (1965). Dark ghetto: Dilemmas of social power. NewYork: Harper &Row.
Clark, Reginald. (1983). Family life and school achievement: Why poor Black children succeed or fail. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Clark, Kenneth & Clark, Mamie (1939). The development of consciousness of self and the emergence of racial identity in Negro preschool children. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 591–599.
Clark, Kenneth & Clark, Mamie (1940). Skin color as a factor in racial identification of Negro preschool children. Journal of Social Psychology, 11, 159–169.
Clark, Kenneth & Clark, Mamie (1947). Racial identification and preference in Negro children. In T. Newcomb & E. Hartley (Eds.), Readings in social psychology. New York: Henry Holt, pp. 602–611.
Cowan, Gloria, Martinez, Livier, & Mendiola, Stephanie (1997). Predictors of attitudes toward illegal Latino immigrants. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 19, 403–415.
Croizet, Jean-Claude, Desert, Michel, Dutrevis, Marion, & Leyens, Jacque-Phillipe (2001). Stereo-type threat, social class, gender, and academic under-achievement: When our reputation catches up to us and takes over. Social Psychology of Education, 4, 295–310.
Devine, Patricia & Elliott, Andrew (1995). Are racial stereotypes really fading? The Princeton trilogy revisited. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1139–1150.
Doyle, Anna & Aboud, Francis (1995). A longitudinal study of White children's racial prejudice as a social-cognitive development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 41, 209–228.
Doyle, Anna, Beaudet, Jocelyne, & Aboud, Francis (1988). Developmental patterns in the flexibility of children's ethnic attitudes. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 19, 3–18.
Dweck, Carol (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040–1048.
Eckert, Penelope (1989). Jocks and burnouts: Social categories and identity in the high school. New York: Teachers College Press.
Fine, Michelle (1991). Framing dropouts: Notes on the politics of an urban high school. Albany,NY: SUNY Press.
Ford, Donna (1993). Black students' achievement orientation as a function of perceived family achievement orientation and demographic variables. Journal of Negro Educationx, 62, 47–66.
Fordham, Signithia & Ogbu, John (1986). Black students' school success: Coping with the 'burden of 'acting White''. Urban Review, 18, 176–206.
Goodman, Leo & Kruskal, William (1954). Measures of association for cross classification. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 49, 732–764.
Goto, Stanford (1997). Nerds, normal people, and homeboys: Accommodation and resistance among Chinese-American students. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 28, 70–84.
Graham, Sandra (1994). Motivation in African-Americans. Review of Educational Research, 64, 55–118.
Graham, Sandra, Taylor, April, & Hudley, Cynthia (1998). Exploring achievement values among ethnic minority early adolescents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 606–620.
Griffin, Christine (2001). Imagining new narratives of youth: Youth research, the 'new Europe' and global youth culture. Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research, 8, 147–166.
Hamilton, David & Trolier, Tina (1986). Stereotypes and stereotyping: An overview of the cognitive approach. In John Dividio & Samuel Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 127–163.
Hawley, Willis & Jackson, Anthony (1995). Toward a commondestiny: Improving race and ethnic relations in America. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hudley, Cynthia (1995). Assessing the impact of separate schooling for African-American male adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 15, 38–57.
Hudley, Cynthia (1997a). Supporting achievement beliefs among ethnic minority adolescents: Two case examples. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 7, 133–152.
Hudley, Cynthia (1997b). Teacher practices and student motivation in a middle school program for African-American males. Urban Education, 32, 304–319.
Irvine, Jacqueline (1990). Black students and school failure: Policies, practices, and prescriptions. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Jones-Wilson, Faustine (1990). The state of African-American education. In Kofi Lomotey (Ed.), Going to school: the African-American experience. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 31–51.
Judd, Charles, Park, Bernadette, Ryan, Carey, Braur, Markus, & Kraus, Susan (1995). Stereotypes and ethnocentrism: Diverging interethnic perceptions of African-American and White American youth. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 460–481.
Kao, Grace (2000). Group images and possible selves among adolescents: Linking stereotypes to expectations by race and ethnicity. Sociological Forum, 15, 407–430.
Kawakami, Kerry, Dovidio, John, Moll, Jasper, Hermsen, Sander, & Russin, Abby (2000). Just say no (to stereotyping): Effects of training in the negation of stereotypic associations on stereotype activation. Journal of Personality and Social psychology, 78, 871–888.
Knoke, David & Burke, Peter (1980). Log-linear models. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Kromhout, Mariska & Vedder, Paul (1996). Cultural inversion in Afro-Caribbean children. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 27, 568–586.
Krueger, Joachim (1996). Personal beliefs and cultural stereotypes about racial characteristics.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 536–548.
Landrine, Hope (1999). Race X class stereotypes of women. In Letitia Peplau, Sherry DeBro, & Rosemary Veniegas (Eds.), Gender, culture, and ethnicity: Current research about men and women. Mountain View, Ca.: Mayfield; pp. 38–47.
Lippmann, Walter (1922). Public opinion. New York: MacMillan Press.
Major, Brenda, Spencer, Steven, Schmader, Toni, Wolfe, Connie, & Crocker, Jennifer (1998).Coping with negative stereotypes about intellectual performance: the role of psychological disengagement. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 34–50.
National Center for Education Statistics (1997). Digest of education statistics. Washington DC: US Department of Education.
Niemann, Yolanda, Jennings, Leilani, Rozelle, Richard, Baxter, James, & Sullivan, Elizabeth (1994). Use of free responses and cluster analysis to determine stereotypes of eight groups. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 379–390.
Niemann, Yolanda, O'Conner, Elizabeth, & McClorie, Randall (1998). Intergroup stereotypes of working class Blacks and Whites: Implications for stereotype threat. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 22, 103–107.
Niemann, Yolanda, Pollack, Kathryn, Rogers, Stephanie, & O'Conner, Elizabeth (1998). Effects of physical context on stereotyping of Mexican-American males. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 20, 349–362.
Oakes, Jeanne (1985). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ocampo, Kathryn (1991). Ethnic identity and school achievement in Mexican-American youths. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 13, 234–235.
Ogbu, John (1978). Minority education and caste: The American system in cross-cultural perspective. New York: Academic Press.
Ogbu, John (1992). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. Educational Researcher, 21, 5–14.
Ogbu, John (1993). Differences in cultural frame of reference. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 16, 483–506.
Peshkin, Alan (1991). The color of strangers the color of friends: The play of ethnicity in school and community. Chicago: University of Chicago press.
Porter, Cornelia (1991). Social reasons for skin tone preferences of Black school-age children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61, 149–154.
Ramsey, Patricia (1987). Young children's thinking about ethnic differences. In Jean Phinney & Mary Rotherzam (Eds.), Children's ethnic socialization. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Ramsey, Patricia & Myers, Leslie (1990). Salience of race in young children's cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to social environments. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 11, 49–67.
Reynolds, Arthur (1989). A structural model of first-grade outcomes for an urban, low socioeconomic status, minority population. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 594–603.
Root, Maria (1996). The multiracial experience: racial borders as the new frontier. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rutland, Adam (1999). The development of national prejudice, in-group favouritism and self-stereotypes in British children. British Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 55–70.
Schmader, Toni, Major, Brenda, & Gramzow, Richard (2001). Coping with ethnic stereotypes in the academic domain: Perceived injustice and psychological disengagement. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 93–111.
Sherman, Steven, Hamilton, David, & Lewis, Amy (1999). Perceived entitativity and the social identity value of group memberships. In Dominic Abrams & Michael Hogg (Eds.), Social identity and social cognition. Malden, MA: Blackwell; pp. 80–110.
Sizemore, Barbara (1990). The Madison Elementary School: A turnaround case. In K. Lomotey (Ed.), Going to school: The African-American experience. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 155–180.
Stangor, Charles & Schaller, Mark (1996). Stereotypes as individual and collective representations. In Neil Macrae, C., Charles Stangor, & Miles Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and stereotyping. New York: Guilford, pp. 3–37.
Steele, Claude (1992, April). Race and the schooling of Black Americans. The Atlantic Monthly, 269(4), 68–78.
Steele, Claude (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613–629.
Stroebe, Wolfgang & Insko, Chester (1989). Stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination: Changing conceptions in theory and research. In Daniel Bar-Tal, Carl Graumann, Arie Kruglanski, & Wolfgang Stroebe (Eds.), Stereotyping and prejudice: Changing conceptions. NewYork: Springer-Verlag, pp. 3–34.
Tajfel, Henri (1981). Social stereotypes and social groups. In John Turner & Howard Giles (Eds.), Intergroup behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 144–167.
Tajfel, Henri & Turner, John (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Steven Worchel & William Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, pp. 7–24.
Tatum, Beverly (1997). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? NewYork: Basic Books.
Thomas, Velma (1997). Lest we forget: The passage from Africa to slavery and emancipation. New York: Crown.
University of California, Outreach Task Force (1997). New directions for outreach. Oakland: University of California.
United States Census Bureau (1996). Educational attainment in the United States. Washington DC: Dept. of Commerce; Series P-20.
Weitz, Rose & Gordon, Leonard (1993). Images of Black women among Anglo college students. Sex Roles, 28, 19–34.
Williams, John & Morland, Kenneth, J. (1976). Race, color, and the young child. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Wolfe, Connie & Spencer, Steven (1996). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their overt and subtle influence in the classroom. American Behavioral Scientist, 40, 176–185.
Yuill, Nicola (1993). Understanding of personality and dispositions. In Mark Bennett (Ed.), The development of social cognition: the child as psychologist. New York: Guilford, pp. 87–110.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hudley, C., Graham, S. Stereotypes of Achievement Striving Among Early Adolescents. Social Psychology of Education 5, 201–224 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014438702266
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014438702266