Elementary School Children’s Understanding of Disproportionate Discipline

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

In the U.S. children of color, especially Black boys, receive more out of school punishments, are punished more frequently, and are punished for more subjective behaviors, than their White peers (Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002). This phenomenon is referred to as disproportionate discipline and is an early precursor to the disproportionate number of Black men and boys incarcerated in the U.S. Furthermore, disproportionate discipline begins as early as preschool, and continues throughout elementary, middle, and high school (Gregory & Fergus, 2017). Perceptions of discrimination greatly impact children’s school involvement, school belonging, and educational outcomes (Brown, 2017, for review). However, little is known about elementary children’s perceptions of discriminatory discipline practices.

In the current study, we investigated elementary school children’s (6-11 years old; Mage = 7.75; SD = 1.31) perceptions of disproportionate discipline. Participants (current n = 63; anticipated n = 200, due to COVID-19 delay; 63.5% White, 6.4% Latinx, 9.5% Black; 6.3% Asian, 14.3% another race/ethnicity ) were shown four vignettes describing different misbehavior of children and a teacher punishing them. In each vignette, whereas the teacher was always White, the race of the child was counterbalanced to be White or Black. Participants then answered questions regarding (a) attributions for the child’s misbehavior, (b) fairness of the punishment received, and (c) attributions for the teacher’s actions. Children’s racial attitudes, ethnic identity, exposure to racial diversity, and cognitive development were also assessed.

Preliminary results (based on the current n) suggest that perceptions of the child in trouble depend on the race of the child described and whether the behavior is objectively wrong (e.g. breaking something) or subjectively wrong (e.g. disrupting the class). Specifically, ratings of internal attributions differed between Black and White children only when the misbehavior was subjective, F (1,45) = 45.00; p <.001. Additionally, when asked why the teacher expelled the student, participants endorsed discriminatory attributions for the teacher’s actions (e.g. “because the teacher thinks kids like him are troublemakers”) more than non-discriminatory attributions (e.g. “because the teacher was having a bad day”), F (1,45) = 6.21; p =.016. Participants were also asked about their perceptions of children at their school. No participants selected Black children or Latinx children as the prototypical “good student”, but 20.9% selected Black and Latinx students as the prototypical students who “get into trouble.”

Due to COVID-19 and the closing of schools, recruitment was paused partway through the study. However, analysis will be updated once anticipated n is reached, and we anticipate all data collection will be complete by February 2021. Final analyses will also investigate children’s cognitive development, racial attitudes, and experiences with discrimination as moderators. It is hypothesized that (1) participants who are more cognitively advanced will be more likely to attribute the discipline of Black children to discrimination, (2) those who report past experiences with discrimination will be more likely to attribute the discipline of Black children to discrimination, and (3) participants who have higher anti-Black bias will be less likely to attribute the discipline of Black children to discrimination.

Authors

• Sharla Dawn Biefeld, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Christia Spears Brown, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author