Who’s to blame? How subtle negative messages about outgroups contribute to ethnic prejudice development in middle to late childhood

Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that parents’ and children’s ethnic prejudice are related to one another. However, little is known about the specific parental practices that facilitate the intergenerational transmission of prejudice. Using a novel measure, we examined how everyday parent-child conversations about the ambiguous behaviors of others (e.g. behaviors open to multiple interpretations) may contribute to children’s ethnic prejudice development. The sample consisted of 249 pairs of mothers and children (aged 6 to 10 years) from the Netherlands with ethnically diverse backgrounds. In line with previous developmental findings, our results reveal that older children exhibit lower ethnic prejudice. Noticeably, however, we find that higher mothers’ subtle negative messages about outgroup members’ behaviors are significantly related to children’s higher ethnic prejudice. These findings did not differ by ethnic background. These results highlight the importance of examining how seemingly innocuous conversations may contribute to children’s ethnic prejudice development.