CHANGES IN ATTITUDES TOWARD NEGROES OF WHITE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS AFTER USE OF MULTIETHNIC READERS

Investigated the effect of curriculum materials which portray Negroes in a way which is contradictory to prevailing prejudices and stereotypes upon the attitudes toward Negroes of white 2nd-grade school children in a Midwestern city. A pretest-posttest design controlling for the teacher, the classroom, the school, and the reading ability of Ss was used. The 34 children in the experimental groups used a multiethnic reader which included characters from several different racial and ethnic groups for 4 mo., while the 34 children in the control groups used the regular reader which included only whites. Use of the multiethnic reader resulted in marked positive change in Ss' attitudes toward Negroes, supporting the counter-conditioning hypothesis. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.