The effects of age, race, and question format on racial identification, attitudes, and preference

The current study assessed racial identification, preference, and awareness using two methods: forced choice, and multiple choice. The participants consisted of 138, 4- and 12-year-old Black, White, and Biracial children. The Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II was used to assess the racial attitudes of children, and Racial Identification and Racial Preference questions were also used. The results show that Black and White children were all able to accurately self-identify. When using the forced choice format the majority of the Biracial children identified as Black, whereas when using the multiple choice format the majority of the Biracial children self identified as both Black and White. When using the multiple choice format to assess Racial Attitude the results revealed that across all racial groups there were more White preference choices by 4 year olds than by 12 year olds. For Racial Attitude, the results also revealed that Whites showed a higher mean White preference score than did Blacks, and Biracial children were intermediate between the other two groups. The results revealed that format did not significantly affect the Racial Preference response among the 4-year-old children, although the percentage of pro-White responses declined significantly when using the multiple choice format with the 12 year olds. For Racial Preference the results also indicate that regardless of format White children had significantly higher pro-White means than the Black children, and for the forced choice format only, Biracial children had a mean pro-White response intermediate between the other two groups. With the multiple choice format, the 4 year olds showed a higher pro-White mean than the 12 year olds. These results show that Biracial children tend to respond in a more race neutral manner when provided more choices than just Black and White. (Abstract shortened by UMI.