Children’s understanding of ethnic belonging and the development of ethnic attitudes

Abstract

The chapter is a state-of-the-art review of the research focused on children’s understanding of ethnic belonging and the development of ethnic attitudes, in which classic theories as well as recent changes and trends in this field of research are summarised. This review is explained in terms of a progression from the Piagetian stages model of development to the current emphasis on affective processes, socio-cultural context and children's own naiive theories about ethnic belonging and ethnic groups. In this perspective, the chapter deals with some key topics of developmental social psychology, such as the theoretical explanations of children’s ethnic identity and ethnic attitudes, the operationalisation and measurement of children’s ethnic identification and ethnic attitudes, the relations between ethnic identification and ethnic attitudes.