The Development of Racial Awareness: a Study with Spanish Children from 3 to 5 Years of Age

According to the Socio-Cognitive theory the development of prejudice during childhood is related to, and dependent on, the development of cognitive abilities: Prejudice in childhood should be conceptualized more as a developmental outcome than as a personality trait. Several tasks were designed to measure the different aspects that conform children's racial awareness: Perception of similarities and differences between racial groups, Comprehension of the social labels that designate different social groups, and Membership selfidentification. We also assessed children's early racial attitudes by traditional tasks of preferences and rejections. The results showed that racial awareness increased dramatically between three to four years of age: During these critical ages children become more realise that color of skin is a relevant social cue. The preferences towards ingroup were stronger than the rejections towards outgroups. The rejections and the membership identification were the two aspects that conform racial awareness more related to the cognitive level of the child.