Tell Kids a Story, Stop Segregation

Ivanhoe Newswire
Monday, September 18, 2006; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Look around any schoolyard and it's likely you'll see small groups of kids clumped together. Those with obvious differences -- ethnicity, disability -- are sometimes left without a group of their own. New research reveals children's books with messages about kids with differences being friends with each other may break down the isolation of stigmatized groups.

Researchers from the University of Kent in Canterbury and the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, report when kids read stories with messages of friendship between English children and refugees -- a group of kids often stigmatized -- actually improved the attitudes of the English children toward the refugee children.

The researchers call it the extended contact effect -- the idea that knowledge of children being friends with members of an outsider group could reduce bias. They read stories to 253 white British children between 5 and 11 years old. The children were placed in small groups and participated in story reading once a week for six weeks.

Children who read the stories were more likely to say they would enjoy playing with the refugees and had a more positive image of the refugees than kids who did not participate in the storytelling.

Past research showed "extended contact effect" to be effective in older children and adults, but this is the first time its success has been confirmed in young children.

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SOURCE: Child Development, 2006;77