Child interethnic prejudice in the Netherlands: social learning from parents and picture books

The aim of this dissertation was to provide insight in interethnic prejudice of children in the Netherlands and attitudes and ideologies that they are exposed to through two socialization agents: parents and children’s books. Specifically attitudes and ideologies based on intergroup contact theories and diversity ideologies were of interest. This dissertation is a first step in examining the basis for applying prejudice-reducing theories based on social learning theory to the specific multi-ethnic Dutch context. Overall, results show that interethnic prejudice is found in various forms among young children in the Netherlands. Furthermore, intergroup contact approaches to improve children’s interethnic attitudes may face some obstacles, as results show that parents might be more or less willing to facilitate interethnic contact with different ethnic groups, intergroup contact effects are not always found, and ethnic diversity and thus indirect contact opportunities in popular books for children are somewhat limited. Furthermore, results show that multiculturalist rather than colorblind diversity approaches can benefit interethnic attitudes of children in dominant ethnic groups, but that the latter are prevailing in popular children’s books. This dissertation can help move both research and the development of practical programs on improving interethnic attitudes among children in the Netherlands forward.The research described in this thesis was supported by a Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VICI grant awarded to Judi Mesman (project number 453-16-008)Global Challenges (FGGA