Developing Inclusive Youth - How to Reduce Social Exclusion and Foster Equality and Equity in Childhood

Oct 15, 2026

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This article explains how social stratification and persistent bias—including prejudice, stereotypes, and harassment—undermine children’s physical, emotional, and academic development. Drawing on research from the University of Maryland, it presents an intervention for elementary classrooms, Developing Inclusive Youth, using a web-based curriculum tool and teacher-led discussions. It also outlines how explicit and implicit biases form early, why schools are key settings for change, and which intervention components reduce prejudice and promote fair, inclusive peer relationships.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Developing Inclusive Youth

Understanding Bias among Children

Social and Moral Development

Developing Inclusive Youth How to Reduce Social Exclusion and Foster Equality and Equity in Childhood ILLUSTRATIONS BY LIZA FLORES By Melanie Killen I n the past two decades, psychologists, educators, and economists have shown that social stratification creates social inequalities that have long-term detrimental effects on children’s physical, emotional, and academic development.1 The segregation of social networks, as well as experiences of social inequality in the form of prejudice and bias, contributes to negative developmental outcomes for children over and above unequal access to material resources.2 Unfortunately, hate and bias crimes have increased significantly over the past decade, turning the clock back on progress toward just and fair treatment of individuals.3 For the past 25 years, my colleagues and I atthe University of Maryland have researched the emergence of children’s conceptions of fairness and equality, their experiences of prejudice, and children’s likelihood to perpetuate bias, to help us understand how to improve children’s lives.4 We have learned a number of lessons about what helps to reduce prejudice and to foster an understanding of the need to treat others fairly and equally. Based on our extensive research findings over the past two decades, we developed an intervention program forelementary school classrooms, Developing Inclusive Youth, which includes Melanie Killenis a professor of human development and quantitative methodology, and the director of the human development doctoral program, in the College of Education atthe University of Maryland. The author of Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice, and Group Identity, and more than 200 publications, she researches children’sand adolescents’ social and moral reasoning, peer relationships, the origins of prejudice and bias, and the role of school contexts for promoting positive social development. a web-based curriculum tooland teacher-led discussions, to reduce prejudice and social exclusion, support socioemotional well-being, promote friendships among children from diverse groups, and increase children’s motivation to succeed academically.5 Understanding Bias among Children According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, K–12 schools are the most cited locations for discrimination and bias-related harassment.6 Most commonly, children discriminate against and harass other children because of their race/ethnicity, gender, immigration status, or religion.7 These reports are consistent with extensive developmental research that has shown that children are both the recipients and perpetrators of prejudicial attitudes.8 Implicit and explicit biases emerge as early asthe preschool period and become more pervasive by late elementary school.9 Explicit biases refer to stereotypes and generalizations about individuals based solely on group memberships. Implicit biases refer to negative attitudes toward other social groups that thebeholder is unaware of, such as subconscious or automatic responses.* Considering how prevalent bias-based harassment is among children, it is crucial that educators better understand how children develop these biases and how these biases can be reduced.10 The high rates of bias among children underscore the importance of schools as settings for changes in attitude and behavior, and elementary *For more on what educators should know about implicit bias, see “Understanding Implicit Bias” in the Winter 2015–2016 issue of American Educator, [available at www.aft.org/ae/](available at www.aft.org/ae/)[ ](available at www.aft.org/ae/)[winter2015-2016/staats.](winter2015-2016/staats.) 8 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | FALL 2019 school classrooms asthe most developmentally appropriate venues for leveraging change among young children to reduce prejudice in adulthood. The consequences forchildren who experience discrimination (e.g., name-calling, bullying, exclusion, relational aggression) asa result of prejudice

FAQs

What causes social inequalities to persistently affect children’s development?

Social stratification produces inequalities with long-term negative effects on children’s physical, emotional, and academic development, including through segregation of social networks and experiences of prejudice and bias.

How do explicit and implicit biases differ in children?

Explicit biases are stereotypes and generalizations made consciously based on group membership. Implicit biases are negative attitudes the child may not be aware of, operating through subconscious or automatic responses.

What elements should interventions include to reduce prejudice in childhood?

Effective interventions should support (1) social and moral reasoning about intergroup relationships, (2) positive experiences of intergroup friendships, and (3) adult-child discussions about the unfairness of social exclusion and prejudicial attitudes.

Oct 15, 2026

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