Person Perception, Self-Identity, and Ethnic Group Preference in Anglo, Black, and Chicano Preschool and Third-Grade Children

Seventy-two preschool and 68 third-grade Anglo, Black, and Chicano children were shown color photographs of young male adults from the same three ethnic groups as Ss. All children were able to discriminate between the photographs of the white and Black males, but the preschool Ss were unable to make the finer discrimination between the Anglo and Chicano photographs. All pools of Ss indicated the appropriate photograph when asked which looked most like them. Among the preschool Ss neither the Blacks nor the Chicanos expressed a significant preference for their own ethnic group, while a significant number of the Anglo Ss selected the Anglo photograph as the one they liked the most. At the third-grade level, only the Chicano Ss displayed a strong preference for their own ethnic group.