Citation

Leman PJ, Lam VL. Child Dev. 2008; 79(5): 1329-1343.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01191.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The present study examined the influence of race and gender on children’s conversations and friendship choices. Four hundred and twenty-eight children (M age = 7.5 years, SD = 0.34) from 2 racial minority groups (i.e., African Caribbean and South Asian) and the racial majority group (i.e., European) chose a picture of a playmate together with a peer. Race influenced the levels of assertion and affiliation in children’s conversations. The effects of race on conversation also varied according to the gender of the children involved in interaction. Same-race pairs tended to choose in-group playmates, but same-race minority pairs showed less marked in-group preference. Cross-race pairs selected a majority-group child as a playmate most often.