A Reexamination of the Relationship Between Self Concept and Race Attitudes of Young Black Children / Harriette Pipes McAdoo.

Relationships between race attitudes and self-concept were examined in black preschool children in three demographic areas: (1) a Mississippi rural town, (2) a Michigan urban setting, and (3) a mid-Atlantic urban setting. Data were collected on racial attitude, self-concept, and educational aspiration. The children were retested one year later in the mid-Atlantic sample and five years later in the two other areas. Positive self-concepts were found in all groups, and self-concepts became more positive over time. The children were all able to make correct self racial identifications. The racial attitude responses indicated a moderate majority group preference at the first testing but at the end of five years, the children had markedly (.01) modified their race attitudes and were own-group oriented. The northern children had the greatest change in attitude toward their own racial group. There was agreement in the occupational aspirations held by the children, their parents, and their teachers in the southern sample but not in the northern sample. A linear relationship between self-concept and racial attitude was not found, providing support for discarding the self-hatred hypothesis that implies that white-orientation in black children is significantly related to self-hatred. (Author/JMB)

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