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1. The effect of group status on children's hierarchy‐reinforcing beliefs

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13393  

   Rizzo, Michael T. ; Roberts, Steven O. ; Rhodes, Marjorie ( November 2023 , Developmental Science)

   Members of advantaged groups are more likely than members of disadvantaged groups to think, feel, and behave in ways that reinforce their group's position within the hierarchy. This study examined how children's status within a group‐based hierarchy shapes their beliefs about the hierarchy and the groups that comprise it in ways that reinforce the hierarchy. To do this, we randomly assigned children (4–8 years;N = 123; 75 female, 48 male; 21 Asian, 9 Black, 21 Latino/a, 1 Middle‐Eastern/North‐African, 14 multiracial, 41 White, 16 not‐specified) to novel groups that differed in social status (advantaged, disadvantaged, neutral third‐party) and assessed their beliefs about the hierarchy. Across five separate assessments, advantaged‐group children were more likely to judge the hierarchy to be fair, generalizable, and wrong to challenge and were more likely to hold biased intergroup attitudes and exclude disadvantaged group members. In addition, with age, children in both the advantaged‐ and disadvantaged‐groups became more likely to see membership in their own group as inherited, while at the same time expecting group‐relevant behaviors to be determined more by the environment. With age, children also judged the hierarchy to be more unfair and expected the hierarchy to generalize across contexts. These findings provide novel insights into how children's position within hierarchies can contribute to the formation of hierarchy‐reinforcing beliefs.

   A total of 123 4–8‐year‐olds were assigned to advantaged, disadvantaged, and third‐party groups within a hierarchy and were assessed on seven hierarchy‐reinforcing beliefs about the hierarchy.

   Advantaged children were more likely to say the hierarchy was fair, generalizable, and wrong to challenge and to hold intergroup biases favoring advantaged group members.

   With age, advantaged‐ and disadvantaged‐group children held more essentialist beliefs about membership in their own group, but not the behaviors associated with their group.

   Results suggest that advantaged group status can shape how children perceive and respond to the hierarchies they are embedded within.

    

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2. “You need to be super smart to do well in math!” Young children's field‐specific ability beliefs

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13429  

   Jenifer, Jalisha B. ; Jaxon, Jilana ; Levine, Susan C. ; Cimpian, Andrei ( July 2023 , Developmental Science)

   Success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is often believed to require intellectual talent (“brilliance”). Given that many cultures associate men more than women with brilliance, this belief poses an obstacle to women's STEM pursuits. Here, we investigated the developmental roots of this phenomenon, focusing specifically on young children's beliefs about math (N = 174 U.S. students in Grades 1–4; 93 girls, 81 boys; 52% White, 17% Asian, 13% Hispanic/Latinx). We found that field‐specific ability beliefs (FABs) that associate success in math (vs. reading/writing) with brilliance are already present in early elementary school. We also found that brilliance‐oriented FABs about math are negatively associated with elementary school students’ (and particularly girls’) math motivation—specifically, their math self‐efficacy and interest. The early emergence of brilliance‐oriented FABs about math and the negative relation between FABs and math motivation underscore the need to understand the sources and long‐term effects of these beliefs.

   Field‐specific ability beliefs (FABs) are beliefs about the extent to which intellectual talent (or “brilliance”) is required for success in a particular field or context.

   Among adults, brilliance‐oriented FABs are an obstacle to diversity in science and technology, but the childhood antecedents of these beliefs are not well understood.

   The present study (N = 174) found that FABs that associate success in math (vs. reading/writing) with brilliance were already present in Grades 1−4.

   Brilliance‐oriented FABs about math were negatively associated with elementary school students’ (and particularly girls’) math motivation—specifically, their math self‐efficacy and interest.

    

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3. Emotion regulation as a complex system: A multi‐contextual and multi‐ level approach to understanding emotion expression and cortisol reactivity among Chinese and US preschoolers

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13446  

   Ip, Ka I. ; Miller, Alison L. ; Wang, Li ; Felt, Barbara ; Olson, Sheryl L. ; Tardif, Twila ( September 2023 , Developmental Science)

   Are children from “Eastern” cultures less emotionally expressive and reactive than children from “Western” cultures? To answer this, we used a multi‐level and multi‐contextual approach to understand variations in emotion displays and cortisol reactivity among preschoolers living in China and the United States. One hundred two preschoolers from China (N = 58; 55% males) and the United States (N = 44, 48% males) completed three (i.e., control, interpersonal‐related, and achievement‐related) emotion‐challenging paradigms over 3 days. Behavioral emotion expressions were coded, and salivary cortisol was sampled 30 minutes before and across 90 minutes post‐task. Without considering context, Chinese preschoolers displayed fewer levels of positive and negative emotion expressions relative to their United States counterparts. However, Chinese preschoolers displayed similar levels of expressions as their United States counterparts during an achievement‐related challenge that is more salient to their sociocultural emphases and showed higher negative emotion expressions in this challenge, relative to other contexts. Moreover, only the achievement‐related challenge elicited increased cortisol levels among Chinese preschoolers, and this was correlated with higher levels of negative expressions. For US preschoolers, no cortisol increase was observed in any challenging paradigms, nor was cortisol associated with emotional expressions. Findings counter prior notions that East Asian children are generally less emotionally expressive. Instead, an achievement‐related challenge elicited higher emotion expression and cortisol reactivity among Chinese preschoolers, suggesting that children's emotion expression and biological reactivity may be most responsive to contexts salient to their socio‐cultural environments. We discuss the importance of considering cultural contexts when studying emotion regulation.

   Chinese preschoolers displayed lower overall positive and negative expressions relative to their US counterparts without considering situational contexts.

   Chinese preschoolers displayed similar levels of emotion expressions as their US counterparts during an achievement‐related challenge salient to their social‐cultural environment.

   Chinese preschoolers are particularly responsive to achievement‐related challenges, relative to other emotion‐challenging situations that are less culturally salient.

   No cortisol increase was observed in any of the emotion‐challenging paradigms among US preschoolers.

   Children's emotion expression and biological reactivity may be most responsive to challenges relevant to their socio‐cultural environments.

    

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4. Children can represent complex social status hierarchies: Evidence from Indonesia

   https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13951  

   Amemiya, Jamie ; Widjanarko, Kiara ; Chung, Irene ; Bian, Lin ; Heyman, Gail D. ( June 2023 , Child Development)

   Children's ethnicity‐status associations are often studied in societies where one ethnic group possesses status across multiple dimensions, such as political influence and wealth. This study examined children's (6–12 years) and adults' representations of more complex hierarchies in Indonesia (N = 341; 38% Native Indonesian, 33% Chinese Indonesian, and 27% other ethnicities; 55% female, 36% male; 2021–2022), a society where ethnic groups hold distinct forms of status (on average, Native Indonesians have political influence; Chinese Indonesians have wealth). By 6.5 years, children associated Native Indonesians with political influence and Chinese Indonesians with wealth. Intersectional analyses indicated that ethnicity‐status associations were stronger for male than female targets. Children of all ethnicities preferred Chinese Indonesians and preferences were predicted by wealth judgments.

    

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5. Developing cognitions about race: White 5‐ to 10‐year‐olds' perceptions of hardship and pain

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2323  

   Dore, Rebecca A. ; Hoffman, Kelly M. ; Lillard, Angeline S. ; Trawalter, Sophie ( October 2017 , European Journal of Social Psychology)

   White American adults assume that Blacks feel less pain than do Whites, but only if they believe that Blacks have faced greater economic hardship than Whites. The current study investigates when in development children first recognize racial group differences in economic hardship and examines whether perceptions of hardship inform children's racial bias in pain perception. Five‐ to 10‐year‐olds (N = 178) guessed which of two items (low versus high value) belonged to a Black and a White child and rated the amount of pain a Black and a White child would feel in 10 painful situations. By age 5, White American children attributed lower‐value possessions to Blacks than Whites, indicating a recognition of racial group differences in economic hardship. The results also replicated the emergence of a racial bias in pain perception between 5 and 10. However, unlike adults', children's perceptions of hardship do not account for racial bias in pain perception.

    

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