Mixed Race Studies

Between Two Worlds: Consequences of Dual-Group Membership among Children

University of Texas, Austin
May 2008
98 pages

Katherine Vera Aumer-Ryan

Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Increasing numbers of individuals are simultaneously members of two or more social categories. To investigate the effects of single- versus dual-identity status on children’s group views and intergroup attitudes, elementary-school-age children (N = 91) attending a summer school program were assigned to novel color groups that included single-identity (“blue” and “red”) and dual-identity (“bicolored,” or half red and half blue) members. The degree to which dual-identity status was verified by the authority members was also manipulated: teachers in some classrooms were instructed to label and make use of three social groups (“blues,” “reds,” “bicolors”) to organize their classrooms, whereas teachers in other classrooms were instructed to label and make use of only the two “mono-colored” groups (“blues” and “reds”). After several weeks in their classrooms, children’s (a) views of group membership (i.e., importance, satisfaction, perceived similarity, group preference), (b) intergroup attitudes (i.e., traits ratings, group evaluations, peer preferences), and (c) categorization complexity (i.e., tendency to sort individuals along multiple dimensions simultaneously) were assessed. Results varied across measures but, in general, indicated that dual-identity status affected children’s views of their ingroup. Specifically, dual-identity children in classrooms in which their status was not verified were more likely to (a) perceive themselves as similar to other ingroup members (i.e., bicolored children), (b) want to keep their shirt color, and (c) assume that a new student would want their shirt color more than their single-identity peers. They also showed higher levels of ingroup bias in their competency ratings of groups than their single-identity peers, and demonstrated greater cognitive flexibility when thinking about social categories than their single-identity peers. Overall, these results suggest that dual-identity children experience identity issues differently than their single-identity peers and that additional theories are needed to address the complexities of social membership and bias among children with dual memberships.

Table of Contents

• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Chapter One: Introduction and Literature Review
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical Background
  • Single- Versus Dual-Group Identity
  • Contextual, Individual Differences and Developmental Factors
• Chapter Two: Method
  • Participants
  • Overview of Procedure
  • Experimental Conditions
  • Posttest Measures
  • Views of Group Membership
  • Categorization Complexity
  • Conformity
• Chapter Three: Results
  • Overview
  • Effects of Identity Status and Condition on Views of Group Membership
  • Effects of Identity Status on Intergroup Attitudes
  • Categorization Task
  • Individual and Developmental Differences
• Chapter Four: Discussion
• Figure
• Tables
• Appendices
  • Appendix A: Intergroup Outcome Measures
  • Appendix B: Conformity
  • Appendix C: Sample of Presidential Poster
  • Appendix D: Novel Categorization Stimuli
• References
• Vita

List of Figures

• Figure 1: Average Scores of Similarity to a Child’s In-Group Across Conditions and Identities

List of Tables

• Table 1: Participant Characteristics Across Conditions
• Table 2: Means (and Standard Deviations) for Posttest Measures Across Conditions and Identities
• Table 3: HLM Results for the Predictors of Children’s Ratings for Group Importance, Happiness, and Similarity
• Table 4: HLM Results for the Interactions of Predictors of Children’s Ratings of Similarity
• Table 5: HLM Results for Predictors of Children’s Ratings for Peer Preferences and Traits
• Table 6: HLM Results for Predictors of Children’s Ratings of Group Competencies
• Table 7: HLM Results for Predictors of Children’s Novel Categorization Task
• Table 8: Percentage of Children who Desired to Change their Shirt to Red, Blue, or Bicolored Across Identities
• Table 9: Percentage of Children who Desired to Change their Shirt to Red, Blue, or Bicolored Across Conditions
• Table 10: Percentage of Children Wanting to Keep their Group Membership
• Table 11: Percentage of Children Wanting to Keep their Group Membership Across Conditions
• Table 12: Percentage of Children Predicting a New Student’s Preference of Shirt Color Across Identities
• Table 13: Percentage of Children by Condition Predicting a New Student’s Preference of Shirt Color Across Conditions
• Table 14: Percentage of Children Predicting a New Student’s Preference of Shirt Color Across Conditions and Identities
• Table 15 Means and Standard Errors of Self-Group Similarity Across Identity
• Table 16: Means and Standard Errors of In-Group Peer Preference Across Conditions
• Table 17: Intergroup Correlation Matrix
• Table 18: Betas of Age, Conformity, and Manipulation on Dependent Variables

Read the entire dissertation here.