Stereotypic beliefs about young people: nature, sources, and consequences

Most stereotypes of youth depict them as problematic. Yet, the effects of those representations on behaviour are not understood. The nine studies conducted for this thesis investigated stereotypic beliefs about youth. This thesis aimed to specify the range of stereotypic beliefs about youth, the sources of those beliefs, and the consequences of those beliefs for adults' and young people's behaviour. Chapter 1 reviews the stereotype literature and provides information about our current understanding of stereotypic beliefs about youth. It also highlights the limitations of existing research and presents the rationale for this program of research. Chapter 2 presents studies 1 to 4, which explored the breadth in the content of four sets of stereotypic beliefs about youth. Study 1 investigated adults' knowledge of the cultural stereotype of youth and Study 2A specified adults' personal beliefs about youth. Adults' knowledge of the cultural stereotype was shown to consist of very negative content, although their personal beliefs were both positive and negative in content. Study 3A compared young people's perceptions of adults' beliefs about youth with their personal beliefs about youth. Young people's perceptions of adults' beliefs were found to be extremely negative, and to be comparable with that identified as adults knowledge of the cultural stereotype of youth in Study 1. In contrast, young peoples personal beliefs about youth were found to be more positive. Study 4 investigated the extent to which adults and young people hold multiple stereotypes of youth. Adults and young people formed six conceptually similar subtypes of youth. They were labelled as yuppies, lives for today and forget the consequences, depressed, problem kids, active, and conventional. The problem kids subtype was the most salient; it had the greatest number of descriptors assigned to it and the greatest agreement across groups regarding the constellation of traits and behaviours comprising it. Studies 2B and 3B, also presented in Chapter 2, were carried out to develop two valid and reliable measures of stereotypic beliefs about youth. In Study 2B, the 20-item Beliefs about Adolescence Scale was developed to assess adults' personal beliefs about youth. Study 3B developed the 26-item Adolescents Perceptions of Adults Beliefs Scale to assess young peoples perceptions of adults beliefs about them. Both measures were shown to be internally consistent and to have good test-retest reliability. The Beliefs about Adolescence Scale also demonstrated good convergent validity. Chapter 3 presents studies 5 and 6, which examined the media as a possible source of stereotypic beliefs about youth. Study 5 investigated media representations of youth as they appear in newspaper reports. Study 6 aimed to establish an empirical association between those representations and stereotypic beliefs about youth. In Study 5, newspaper reports of young people were found to be largely negative; the 'problem kids' stereotype was afforded the most news space. In Study 6, newspaper readership was shown to be predictive of stereotypic beliefs about youth. Further, stereotypic beliefs were found to discriminate between readers of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. Chapter 4 presents Studies 7 and 8, which focused on the consequences of stereotypic beliefs about youth for evaluations and behaviour. Study 7 investigated the extent to which beliefs that young people are problematic affect adults' evaluations of young people. Subjects who were presented with sentences that described irresponsible and disrespectful behaviours later judged a youth target as more irresponsible and disrespectful than subjects who were presented with sentences that described neutral behaviours. Study 8 investigated whether beliefs that young people are problematic can result in self-fulfilling prophecies. Subjects were exposed to faces of male teenagers or adults and were then paired with partners who had been exposed to faces of male adults. Each pair of subjects played a word-guessing game and their interaction was recorded. Judges who were blind to the experimental hypotheses listened to the recordings and rated each participant for the degree of rudeness that was displayed. Subjects who had been exposed to the teenage faces were rated as ruder than those who had been exposed to adult faces. Moreover, those who interacted with subjects who had been exposed to teenage faces were rated as ruder than those who interacted with subjects who had been exposed to adult faces. In that way, stereotypic beliefs about youth were shown to produce self-fulfilling prophecies. Chapter 5 presents Study 9. Its focus was on young people's perceptions of adults' beliefs about them. It examined the way those beliefs influence young people's engagement in problem behaviour, in interaction with established correlates of problem behaviour. This was explored via the testing of a structural model of problem behaviour. The findings provided partial support for the model, and the model accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in problem behaviour. Young people's perceptions of adults' beliefs about them made an important contribution to the explanation of problem behaviour involvement. Subsidiary analyses determined that young people's perceptions that adults believe them to engage in problem behaviour was the 'active ingredient' of that construct. Chapter 6 presents the general discussion of the findings from this program of research. It also outlines their theoretical and practical implications, and points to specific research that is needed to add to the findings of this thesis. The findings emphasise the important influences of stereotypic beliefs about youth on adults' and young people's behaviour. Recommendations are made for improving adult-youth relations and preventing adolescent problem behaviour. In particular, the media and adult members of the community need to recognise the role that they play in the causation of adolescent problem behaviour. The media have a responsibility to disseminate accurate and balanced information about young people and youth-related issues. In addition, interventions aimed at reducing adolescent problem behaviour need to incorporate a community-based component that seeks to promote positive adult-youth relations within the wider community