“Not so sure”: U.S. Parents’ Comfort with their Children’s Intergroup Peer Interactions Differs by Gender, Race, and Social Class

• In Event: Facilitators or Gatekeepers: The Roles of Parents and Teachers in Children’s and Adolescents’ Intergroup Interactions

Abstract

To form intergroup friendships, children need social environments where they can interact cooperatively with the support of authority figures (Davies et al., 2011). Parents may be one such supportive authority figure, as they create opportunities for their children to meet peers and monitor their adolescents’ peer relationships (Ladd & Parke, 2021). However, to date, most of what is known about parents’ attitudes regarding their children’s intergroup interactions comes from youth themselves, who often report that their parents are uncomfortable with outgroup peers (Hitti et al., 2020). This is concerning, as youth who perceive outgroup negativity from their parents are more likely to forego opportunities for intergroup interactions (Brenick & Romano, 2016). Yet, developmental scientists currently know little about parents’ actual attitudes in this area.

To address this question, this study tested how and why U.S. parents’ comfort with their children’s intergroup peer interactions differed by child and peer gender (boy or girl), race (Black or White), and subjective social status (SSS: lower, middle, or higher), three social group memberships around which many friendships are formed. We further tested how comfort differed for parents of children ages 8-10, 11-13, and 14-16 years, to investigate changes in attitudes over the transition from childhood to adolescence. In an online survey, parents (N = 570) viewed pre-tested photos of age-matched groups of peers representing all twelve combinations of gender, race, and SSS. Parents rated their comfort with their child hanging out with each group, decided which groups they would be most and least comfortable with, and explained why. Predictions drew on the crossed categorization model from social identity theory (Crisp et al., 2001) and a new integrative stereotyping framework (Abele et al., 2020).

When asked to choose, many parents were most comfortable with their child’s gender-race-SSS ingroup and least comfortable with one or more of their child’s gender-race-SSS outgroups. However, when rating groups on a scale, attitudes did not fall exclusively along in/outgroup lines. Rather, three clear patterns emerged (see Figure 1). Gender was a strong dividing criteria. However, parents of girls were more uncomfortable with boys, based on assumptions about difference (e.g., “They would have nothing in common”), than parents of boys were uncomfortable with girls. Race was an important factor. Yet, parents of Black children were more uncomfortable with White children, citing concerns about discrimination (e.g., “Bad things will happen if it’s just her with White girls”), than parents of White children were uncomfortable with Black children. SSS operated differently. Parents consistently favored middle class gender-race ingroups and often disfavored specific gender-race-SSS outgroups for stereotypic reasons (e.g., poor White boys are “troublemakers”, rich White girls are “snobs”). All group memberships mattered for parents’ decisions with no consistent differences across age groups.

Thus, as youth perceive (Hitti et al., 2020), parents are sometimes uncomfortable with their children interacting with outgroup peers. However, this study provides new evidence of which parents are concerned about which peers and why, advancing developmental scientists’ understanding of parents’ roles as potential gatekeepers of their children’s intergroup peer interactions.

Authors

• Laura Elenbaas, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Aline Hitti, University of San Francisco

• Ellen Kneeskern, University of Rochester

• Amanda Ackerman, University of Rochester

• Kayla Fisher, University of Rochester