How Children and Adolescents Evaluate Gender and Racial Exclusion

Exclusion from social groups is a source of conflict, stress, and tension in social life around the globe. How do children and adolescents evaluate exclusion based on group membership? This monograph is the report of an investigation of social exclusion in the contexts of friendship, peer groups, and school. Guided by social-cognitive domain theory, social psychological, and developmental theories on intergroup relationships, children and adolescents from four different ethnic groups were interviewed. The findings revealed that gender exclusion was more readily condoned than racial exclusion, and that exclusion in the friendship and peer group contexts were judged to be more legitimate than exclusion in the school context. There were also significant differences depending on the gender, age, and ethnicity of the participants. The results support the proposal that exclusion is multifaceted, involving a range of social and moral considerations.