Preadolescents' Understanding of Ethnic Discrimination

Abstract

Social representation theory was used as a heuristic framework for investigating preadolescents' (193 Dutch and ethnic minority respondents between 10 and 13 years of age) understanding of discrimination in the Netherlands. Shared beliefs and understandings were found regarding when a specific act was considered discriminatory, who the actors were, and why the discrimination occurred. The prototypical example of discrimination was a situation in which a Dutch child called a minority child names without an acceptable reason. Discrimination was seen to a lesser degree as unequal division of valued things and as social exclusion. Consistent with social representation theory and contrary to common belief, there were very few differences in understanding of discrimination between ethnic majority and minority respondents. No differences were found for age and gender.