Search

Background: Schools around the world are increasingly diverse in ethnicity. Given the importance of peer acceptance in children's well‐being and development, it is a pressing concern for educators to promote intergroup acceptance in schools. Aims: First, to examine the developmental trends of acceptance of outgroup members in both the ethnic minority and majority students. Second, to investigate how outgroup acceptance is subject to the interplay between perceived norm of prejudice, a risk factor in the macrosystem, and teacher support, a protective factor in the microsystem. Sample: The participants were 3,723 students (ethnic majority: 61%; boys: 51.9%; mean age: 13.7) at Grade 2, 5, 8, and 11 from 24 schools in Hong Kong. Methods: The students were asked to complete a battery of questionnaires regarding their willingness to accept outgroup members in schools, perceived societal norm of prejudice against ethnic minority group, and teacher support they received in schools. Results: It was found that ethnic minority students accepted outgroup members more than ethnic majority students accepted them. The difference was primarily driven by the low outgroup acceptance of ethnic majority students in Grades 2 and 5. The results of multi‐level analysis revealed that outgroup acceptance was associated negatively with perceived norm of prejudice but positively with teacher support. The negative association between outgroup acceptance and perceived norm of prejudice was attenuated in schools with supportive culture. Conclusions: The results point to the need of early intervention and the importance of cultivating school culture with strong social emotional support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The self‐concept of children has an impact on later behavioural development and psychopathology; therefore, evidence of the accurate measurement of self‐concept is important. Harter and Pike's (1984, Child Development, 55, 1969) commonly used measure of self‐concept, the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Children, has demonstrated varying evidence of its construct validity and reliability, particularly with preschool‐ or kindergarten‐aged participants. Aim: To examine the measurement properties of the Acceptance and Competence measures, and to substantiate the measures' adequacy within the latter participant age range. Sample: One hundred and ninety‐seven preschool or kindergarten‐aged children (M = 5.40 years, SD = 0.30) provided data as part of the Animal Fun study over three measurement periods. Methods: The study conducted a pair of Rasch analyses on the Acceptance and Competence measures described prior, with adherence to the assumptions of univariate measurement, item fit, item invariance, and response category adequacy examined as part of these analyses. Results: While the Acceptance measure demonstrated adequate reliability outside of some potentially misfitting items, the study identified several limitations for the Competence measure, including potential gender‐based and verbal IQ‐based response biases. Conclusions: Practitioners and research applications of these subscales may benefit from the response recoding recommendations provided in this study for the Acceptance measure, as they improved the measure's properties. The study provides potential solutions to item adequacy concerns, and avenues for future research, involving these measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]