The Measurement of Children's Racial Attitudes in the Early School Years.

WILLIAMS, JOHN E.; BEST, DEBORAH L.; and BOSWELL, DONNA A. The Measurement of Children's Racial Attitudes in the Early School Years. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 494-500. The Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II (PRAM II) is a procedure for assessing the attitudes of preliterate children toward light-skinned (Euro-American) and dark-skinned (Afro-American) human figures. Although designed for research with preschool children, it is also appropriate to the test-taking ability of children in the early school grades. In the main, developmental, study 483 children in the first 4 grades of a single, integrated, public school were administered PRAM II by Euroand Afro-American examiners. Among Euro-American children, it was found that pro-Euro/anti-Afro (E +/A-) bias reached a peak at the second-grade level and subsequently declined. Afro-American children also were found to display evidence of E +/ A bias, but to a lesser degree, and with no appreciable age trends being observed. Evidence regarding race-of-examiner effects was inconclusive. A second study established the representative nature of the data in the developmental study by a comparison of the PRAM II scores of the second-grade children in the developmental study with the mean scores of other groups of second graders (N = 255) in other geographical locations.