Adults’ Attitudes Toward Multiracial Children

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2011-03-13 04:11Z by Steven

Adults’ Attitudes Toward Multiracial Children

Journal of Black Psychology
Volume 29, Number 4 (November 2003)
pages 463-480
DOI: 10.1177/0095798403256888

Gayle L. Chesley
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

William G. Wagner

A between-groups experimental design was used to examine adults’ attitudes toward multiracial children of African descent. The purpose was to determine if the races of the respondent,the child, and the child’ s friends are related to adults’ ratings of children’s self-perception and depressive symptoms. A total of 156 undergraduate students (African American = 78, European American = 78) read a vignette in which the race of the target child (European American, African American, or multiracial) and the child’s friends (European American or African American) were experimentally controlled. Participants assessed the child using a revision of Harter’s Self-Perception Profile for Children and a revised version of Kovacs’s Children’s Depression Inventory—Short Form. Ratings of the child’s global self-worth and depressive symptoms were negatively correlated. The results of a 2 × 2 × 3 MANOVA revealed a significant three-way interaction for the races of the child,the respondent, and the child’s friends on adults’ ratings of the child’s peer acceptance. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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