Perceived Racial Expectations of Children

This is a proposed research study concerning the presence of prejudice among children, especially concerning ambiguous everyday situations. Racism can be a source of chronic stress, mental health issues, and physical health issues for those involved, and everyday acts of prejudice can be even more harmful that overt acts of racism. These acts can cause health problems as serious as cardiovascular disease. Therefore this study aims to identify racial preferences among children, in the form of everyday ambiguous situations by having them identify what is occurring in a picture involving ambiguous interactions between white and black children on a playground. These interactions include a child passing candy to another, children playing tag, and a child picking up books with another child on looking. The participant responses would be recorded and coded by a blind judge to reveal race preferences in children. Identifying racism early in life could help combat the cumulative stress effects that racism has on individual. By reducing this stress, you can in turn decrease the frequency of mental and physical health issues amongst adults. Identification of prejudice could perhaps lead to future research to provide solutions for racism among school children in the future. By bringing to light the prejudices that may still exist in schools today, students, parents, and educators may be made more aware of their actions and in turn may take steps to decrease prejudicial acts. Since the curriculum in schools is highly structured, implementing a program to reduce racism is a realistic goal for the future. 6Jessic