The effects of group stereotypes on adolescents' reasoning about peer retribution

Addressing the "Myth" of Racial Trauma: Developmental and Ecological Considerations for Youth of Color

Trauma is prevalent among children and adolescents, with youth of color generally reporting greater exposure compared to White youth. One factor that may account for this difference is racial stress, which can manifest into trauma symptoms. Although racial stress and trauma (RST) significantly impacts youth of color, most of the research to date has focused on adult populations. In addition, little attention has been given to the impact of the ecological context in how youth encounter and cope with RST. As such, we propose the Developmental and Ecological Model of Youth Racial Trauma (DEMYth-RT), a conceptual model of how racial stressors manifest to influence the trauma symptomatology of children and adolescents of color. Within developmental periods, we explore how individual, family, and community processes influence youth's symptoms and coping. We also discuss challenges to identifying racial trauma in young populations according to clinician limitations and the post-traumatic stress disorder framework within the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-fifth edition (DSM-5). The article concludes with implications on applying DEMYth-RT in clinical and research settings to address RST for youth of color.

"Special needs" is an ineffective euphemism

Although euphemisms are intended to put a more positive spin on the words they replace, some euphemisms are ineffective. Our study examined the effectiveness of a popular euphemism for persons with disabilities, special needs. Most style guides prescribe against using the euphemism special needs and recommend instead using the non-euphemized term disability; disability advocates argue adamantly against the euphemism special needs, which they find offensive. In contrast, many parents of children with disabilities prefer to use special needs rather than disability. But no empirical study has examined whether special needs is more or less positive than the term it replaces. Therefore, we gathered a sample of adult participants from the general population (N = 530) and created a set of vignettes that allowed us to measure how positively children, college students, and middle-age adults are viewed when they are described as having special needs, having a disability, having a certain disability (e.g., is blind, has Down syndrome), or with no label at all. We predicted and observed that persons are viewed more negatively when described as having special needs than when described as having a disability or having a certain disability, indicating that special needs is an ineffective euphemism. Even for members of the general population who have a personal connection to disability (e.g., as parents of children with disabilities), the euphemism special needs is no more effective than the non-euphemized term disability. We also collected free associations to the terms special needs and disability and found that special needs is associated with more negativity; special needs conjures up more associations with developmental disabilities (such as intellectual disability) whereas disability is associated with a more inclusive set of disabilities; and special needs evokes more unanswered questions. These findings recommend against using the euphemism special needs.

Effects of Teacher Avoidance of School Policies on Student Victimization

The present study examines relations between school policy, teacher responses to violence and students' victimization outcomes as reported by teachers in a nationally representative sample of schools in Israel. Data were analysed using Structural Equations Modeling for the full sample of teachers, as well as group comparisons by school level, gender and ethnic groups. Across all models, violence prevention as a school priority was significantly related to less staff/ teacher avoidance of dealing with violence. In turn, teacher avoidance of student violence related strongly to elevated rates of reported student victimization. The findings indicate that School Violence Prevention (as a policy on its own), does not necessarily translate to less student victimization. It is through the indirect impact on staff/teacher response that student victimization was less likely. This study highlights the importance of school policy in its relation to teachers' actions and student behaviour.

A Superhumanization Bias in Whites’ Perceptions of Blacks

The present research provides the first systematic empirical investigation into superhumanization, the attribution of supernatural, extrasensory, and magical mental and physical qualities to humans. Five studies test and support the hypothesis that White Americans superhumanize Black people relative to White people. Studies 1–2b demonstrate this phenomenon at an implicit level, showing that Whites preferentially associate Blacks versus Whites with superhuman versus human words on an implicit association test and on a categorization task. Studies 3–4 demonstrate this phenomenon at an explicit level, showing that Whites preferentially attribute superhuman capacities to Blacks versus Whites, and Study 4 specifically shows that superhumanization of Blacks predicts denial of pain to Black versus White targets. Together, these studies demonstrate a novel and potentially detrimental process through which Whites perceive Blacks.

Putting context into a cultural perspective: examining Arab and Jewish adolescents' judgments and reasoning about spousal retribution

In this study, we examined what contextual factors influence adolescents' judgments and reasoning about spousal retribution. Adolescents were drawn from Central and Northern Israel and consisted of 2,324 Arab and Jewish students (Grades 7-11). The study was set up in a 2 (Arab/Jewish respondent) × 2 (spousal retribution scenarios) factorial design. Our findings suggest that societal and cultural norms may be more powerful contextual variables than group stereotypes in influencing Arab and Jewish adolescents' evaluations of spousal retribution. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The development of stereotyping and exclusion

This article reviews the developmental science literature on stereotyping and exclusion, with a focus on gender, race, and ethnicity. Stereotyping of others, which is defined as the attribution of traits to individuals based on group membership, is often used to justify exclusion of others in social group contexts. This review includes a focus on the links between these two constructs. Research on stereotyping and exclusion has drawn on several theoretical traditions, including social domain theory, social identity developmental theory, and subjective group dynamics theory, which are also discussed in the context of the research findings. Key findings on stereotyping include categorization and classification in relationship with decreased in-group bias, and the role of stereotypes in encoding information. Findings on exclusion include the use of available information to make judgments, preferences for in-group members who are normative and out-group members who are deviant, the increased importance, with age, of group functioning in exclusion decisions, and decreased negative evaluation of in-group members who partake in exclusionary behaviors. Though little research has explicitly studied the links between stereotyping and exclusion from groups, this review describes the current literature in both areas and suggests future directions for research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

The Perpetration of School Violence in Taiwan

Using a nationally representative sample in Taiwan, this study aims to describe the prevalence of perpetration of school violence in Taiwan. The study explores how gender, age and school type relate to students’ perpetration of violence in an Asian culture context. The sample included 14,022 students from elementary to high schools in grades 4 to 12. Students were given an anonymous questionnaire to report their violent behaviour in schools. The findings presented in this study provide insight on why perpetrators commit violent acts against their peers. Findings suggest the prevalence of perpetration may vary from setting to setting but the influences of age, gender and school type on violence tend to be similar in Taiwan to what theories expect based on studies done in Western cultures. A majority of perpetrators reported engaging in violence stemming from rough and tumble play or from situations where they were initially having fun. Findings suggest that promoting the quality of peer interactions could be a major violence prevention strategy.