Social Exclusion of Children

In the past decade, an increasing volume of psychological research has been conducted on social exclusion by social and developmental psychologists. The very best of this new body of work is showcased in this volume, providing an understanding of how children experience, evaluate, and understand exclusion as well as inclusion. For interventions to be effective, programs designed to ameliorate social problems associated with exclusion need to be based on an understanding of how, why, and under what conditions, social groups make decisions to exclude others, how children experience this exclusion, and how this originates and changes over the course of the lifespan. This volume draws together and foregrounds social and developmental psychological research to show its central relevance to the social exclusion of children.

INTRODUCTION

Social Exclusion of Children: Developmental Origins of Prejudice
Dominic Abrams and Melanie Killen 1

SECTION I: PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION

Peer Group Rejection in Childhood: Effects of Rejection Ambiguity, Rejection Sensitivity, and Social Acumen
Drew Nesdale, Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck, and Natalie Roxburgh 11

When Do Children Dislike Ingroup Members?: Resource Allocation from Individual and Group Perspectives
Kelly Lynn Mulvey, Aline Hitti, Adam Rutland, Dominic Abrams, and Melanie Killen 28

Does Moral and Social Conventional Reasoning Predict British Young People’s Judgments About the Rights of Asylum Seeker Youth?
Martin D. Ruck and Harriet R. Tenenbaum 46

Do Adolescents’ Evaluations of Exclusion Differ Based on Gender Expression and Sexual Orientation?
Justin E. Heinze and Stacey S. Horn 62

SECTION II: REVEALING AND CHALLENGING EXCLUSION NORMS

Of Affect and Ambiguity: The Emergence of Preference for Arbitrary Ingroups
Yarrow Dunham and Jason Emory 80

How Young Children Evaluate People With and Without Disabilities
Lauren K. Huckstadt and Kristin Shutts 98

Can Fostering Children’s Ability to Challenge Sexism Improve Critical Analysis, Internalization, and Enactment of Inclusive, Egalitarian Peer Relationships?
Erin Pahlke, Rebecca S. Bigler, and Carol Lynn Martin 113

Ethnic Classroom Composition and Peer Victimization: The Moderating Role of Classroom Attitudes
Jochem Thijs, Maykel Verkuyten, and Malin Grundel 132

How Peer Norms of Inclusion and Exclusion Predict Children’s Interest in Cross-Ethnic Friendships
Linda R. Tropp, Thomas C. O’Brien, and Katya Migacheva 149

What Makes a Young Assertive Bystander? The Effect of Intergroup Contact, Empathy, Cultural Openness, and In-Group Bias on Assertive Bystander Intervention Intentions
Nicola Abbott and Lindsey Cameron 165

SECTION III: COMMENTARY

Intergroup Social Exclusion in Childhood: Forms, Norms, Context, and Social Identity
Mark Bennett 181

Dominic Abrams is Professor of Social Psychology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent at Canterbury. His research expertise includes social identity and intergroup relations (e.g., the contact hypothesis, nationalism, collective protest, contemporary aspects of prejudice), deviance (particularly the subjective group dynamics model) and social identity in organizational contexts. He is the President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, co-editor of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, and co-editor of The Social Psychology of Inclusion and Exclusion (2005) with M.A. Hogg and J. M. Marques.

Melanie Killen is Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, Professor of Psychology (Affiliate), and the Associate Director for the Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture at the University of Maryland. Her research expertise includes the development of social inclusion and exclusion, moral reasoning, intergroup attitudes, prejudice, and bias in peer groups, peer interactions and social relationships in childhood and adolescence. She is Associate Editor of the journal Child Development, co-author of Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice and Group Identity (2011) with Adam Rutland, and Editor of the Handbook on Moral Development (2006, 2014) with Judith Smetana.