Childrens identification with the group and their acquisition of self-relevant knowledge: the case of the nation

Poster presented at the 9th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Spetses, Greece, August 1999.

Mark Bennett University of Dundee

Evanthia Lyons University of Surrey

Fabio Sani University of Dundee

Martyn Barrett University of Surrey

Mark Bennett and Fabio Sani, Department of Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland; Martyn Barrett and Evanthia Lyons, Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, England. Sincere thanks are conveyed to all the teachers and children who participated in our research. We are extremely grateful to Mariangela Bati, Sian French, Nick Messing, Katie Neale, Sarah Scott, Dawn Taylor and Sophie Whitehouse for their assistance in data collection and extend our warm thanks to them. The research reported in this paper was supported by a grant received from the Commission of the European Communities DGXII Human Capital and Mobility (Networks) Programme (Grant No. CHRX-CT94-0687). We are greatly indebted to our colleagues who contributed to the design of this research: Luciano Arcuri, Almudena Gimenez de la Pena, Annamaria Silvana de Rosa and Ignasi Vila. Correspondence should be directed to Mark Bennett, Department of Psychology, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland (electronic mail, M.Bennett@Dundee.ac.uk)

Childrens identification with the group and their acquisition of self-relevant knowledge: the case of the nation

Abstract

Much previous research has shown that children's gender self-categorization as male or female plays an important role in guiding the acquisition of self-relevant information. The present study seeks to establish whether this reflects a general phenomenon in identity development and looks at an abstract and relatively less salient aspect of identity than gender, viz. nationality. Subjective identification with the national group and knowledge of one's own and other national groups were examined in 459 children between 6 and 15 years. Data are presented which indicate that even with a level of identity which is highly abstract and not chronically salient, identification with the group is strongly associated with increased acquisition of selfrelevant information.

Introduction Within developmental psychology, research concerned with the self has been largely descriptive, focusing for example on the acquisition and development of children's self-conceptions. Although much is known about the developmental course of the self-concept (Damon & Hart, Livesley & Bromley, 1973; McGuire McGuire, 1987; Peevers, 1987), relatively less is understood about the cognitive consequences of variations in children's self-concepts. In short, little work has examined processrelated issues. Thus far, such research, guided by social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), has shown how children's self-conceptions influence their in- and outgroup evaluations (Bennett, Lyons, Sani & Barrett, in press; Bigler, Jones & Lobliner, 1997; Powlishta, 1994; Yee & Brown, 1992). However, the role of selfprocesses in children's acquisition of social information has been little-explored by developmental psychologists. It is this latter issue which the present study addresses. Within social psychology, cognitive approaches to the self have given prominence to self-schemas, that is, "cognitive generalizations about the self derived from past experience that organize and guide the processing of self-related information" (Markus, 1977, p. 63). There now exists a substantial body of research which demonstrates that self-schemas are implicated in various forms of informationprocessing (e.g., Markus, Crane, Bernstein, Siladi,1982). Markus (1977) has shown that individuals who are schematic on particular personality dimensions, such as independence, are able to make more rapid self-related judgments on those dimension than on other dimensions. Self-schemas also guide judgment about others, so that for example the "independence schematic" would be more likely to invoke this dimension in the perception of others than would someone aschematic for that dimension (Park & Hahn, 1988; Shapiro, 1988). For the present purposes, it is particularly important to note that self-schemas play a role in the encoding and storage of information. Thus, the independence schematic is much more likely than the aschematic to have a set of memories of his or her behaviors which exemplify that dimension (Markus, 1977). Similarly, "weight schematics" will typically acquire greater knowledge about dieting, the caloric values of different foods, etc., than will aschematics (Fong & Markus, 1982). Within developmental psychology, the major theory which has drawn attention to the consequences of self-conceptions for information-processing is gender schematic processing theory (Martin & Halverson, 1981). This theory proposes that children's sex-typing begins with the mere categorization of the self as male or female. Following this, and as a direct consequence of categorization of the self, children are increasingly oriented towards socially available information with which to elaborate their gender schema. Following an initial period of establishing rudimentary characteristics of both male and female behavior, Martin and Halverson propose that children focus increasingly upon information relevant to their own sex, thereby becoming more expert with respect to what is considered appropriate to that category. This theory has been well supported empirically (e.g. see Durkin (1995) for a summary) and can account for a broad range of phenomena, such as self-evaluation in the light of gender stereotypes about behavior (Cramer & Skidd, 1992), toy and activity preferences based on gender-typed labeling ("this is for boys/girls") (Masters et al, 1979), distortions in the assimilation of counter-stereotyped information (e.g. taking a female doctor to be a nurse; Carter & Levy, 1988; Liben & Signorella, 1993), and the finding that children who learn gender labels early in life know more about

what is appropriate for their sex than do those who learn labels later (Fagot, Leinbach & O'Boyle, 1992). Martin and Halverson explicitly present the theory as a domain-specific account, that is, they do not make general claims about the role of identity schemas in children's information processing. Arguably, however, the theory's basic assumptions are applicable to other domains; children's self-categorization with respect to a particular group may encourage the acquisition of knowledge relevant to that group. The extent to which the theory's assumptions may be generally applicable may nevertheless be circumscribed by the particular characteristics of different categories, especially their abstractness. We propose that categorization at the level of gender may be an optimal level in terms of demonstrating the role of schemas in the acquisition of new information; other types of identity schema may not facilitate this process to anything like the same extent. This possibility is suggested on the basis of three principal considerations, which we now outline. Martin and Halverson note that schemas differ in their salience and suggest that gender schemas are likely to be particularly salient: "Gender is an obvious and stable human characteristic. Other types of self-defining groupings such as national origin are not so apparent" (p.1127). We contend that the central point here is that, as a highly abstract and inclusive category, nationality has significantly lower utility than does gender. Whereas gender is an effective basis for distinguishing between persons within one's typical social contexts, the same is not true of nationality since the overwhelming majority of one's peers, relatives, teachers, et. al. are likely to be of the same nationality as oneself. As a basis for distinguishing others in one's everyday contexts, then, nationality has very low utility indeed. Moreover, understanding of one's national identity is relatively late-appearing, undergoing substantial development between six and ten years (Lambert & Klineberg, 1967). Thus, nationality schemas are unlikely to be as chronically salient as gender schemas and may not therefore play as important a role in guiding cognition (1). In view of this difference it seems plausible to argue, from a purely cognitive perspective, that the role of self-schemas in information acquisition may be a function of categories' utility; categories of low utility may play a less significant role in this respect than those of high utility. Apart from cognitive considerations, it is important too to consider social factors, since the cognitive processes associated with sex-typing are likely to be supported and augmented by social processes (Maccoby, 1988). Thus, early self-labeling as a girl or a boy, and subsequent sex-typed behavior, will be reinforced by agents of socialization; similarly, sex-inappropriate behaviors will frequently be punished (Fagot & Hagan, 1992). Although this general point is almost certainly true for all socially significant categories, we suggest that it is particularly pertinent for gender categories, since, as Banaji & Prentice (1994) have argued, gender is "the most fundamental of human categories" (p. 315). To illustrate the point, consider the case of a boy who fails to make sex-typed discriminations in play, for example between dolls and airplanes. We suggest that such a child is much more likely to be subject to censure than is the child who fails to make nationality-typed discriminations, perhaps between pretending to be both Prime Minister Blair and President Clinton. That is, norms surrounding gender are particularly potent, prescribing very strongly what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior for category members (Bem, 1981). Such prescriptions at the level of nationality are much less clearcut. Thus, we suggest that in terms of adult demands upon children, those pertaining to gender are likely to be more significant and frequent than those related to nationality (at least in the absence

of serious international conflicts). This bolsters our previous point and supports our contention that gender schemas are likely to be more available than many others, and, as such, that Martin and Halverson may have identified an optimal context for the demonstration of the role that self-processes might have in the acquisition of knowledge. Finally, "unlike many other types of self-defining categories, gender categories are... dichotomous. Information about either group can be used in defining the self" (Martin & Halverson, 1981, p.1127). Thus, unlike a system of categorization based on nationality, which involves a multiplicity of groups (and groups within groups, e.g. England, Scotland and Wales as parts of Britain), that based on gender is both simple and, potentially at least, directly informative with respect to the self. All these considerations suggest that, in terms of guiding information-processing, gender identification may differ from more abstract and inclusive forms of categorization, such as at the level of nationality. We suggest that the generality of this phenomenon in children's development should therefore be subject to empirical study. Conceivably, this phenomenon may be limited to highly salient categories which discriminate between others within one's immediate social sphere. Thus, the study that follows examines the generality of the application of cognitive approaches to the development of the self, looking at the extent to which children's knowledge of the national group is a function of their identification of themselves as groupmembers. In particular, it aims to determine whether children identifying with their national group are more knowledgeable about their group than those not identifying with it; and whether their knowledge is particular to the ingroup rather than outgroups, as would be expected under Martin and Halverson's account. The study thus addresses the issue of whether children's subjective identification as members of their national group has a bearing on the acquisition of various types information relevant to the group. Method Participants: The sample comprised 459 predominantly white British children drawn from schools in the London and Dundee areas. Participants were divided into four age-groups: 6-, 9-, 12- and 15-year-olds. There were 108 6-year-olds (M = 78 months, SD= 2.8; 51 boys & 57 girls), 110 9-year-olds (M = 113, SD= 2.9; 59 boys and 51 girls), 122 12-year-olds (M = 149 SD= 3.4; 62 boys and 60 girls) and 119 15year-olds (M = 184, SD = 3.3; 61 boys and 58 girls). Children's names were drawn randomly from class registers. The only criteria for inclusion in the sample were that the children were British (either by birth, parentage or passport held) Procedure: Children were seen individually as part of a broader study concerned with children's beliefs and feelings about their own and other national groups. For the purpose of the present study, two types of measure were employed, those concerned with subjective identification with the group, and those examining knowledge of national groups. Subjective identification Children were provided with two measures of subjective identification with the national group, one open-ended, the other forced-choice. The former always preceded the latter. Open-ended task. Children were presented with 15 cards, each with a potential self- descriptor on it: British, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Scottish, English,
4

Dundonian, Londoner, girl, boy, 6-years-old, 9-years-old, 12-years-old and 15-yearsold. The cards were spread, in a randomized order, on a table in front of the child. The child's task was to identify only those cards which might be used to describe the self. The interviewer instructed him or her to Have a look at these cards. All these words can be used to describe people. Which ones do you think could be used to describe you, which ones do you think are you? You can choose as many as you like. (And in the case of 6- and 9-year-olds) Shall I help you to read them? When the child had made his or her selection, the remaining cards were removed. He or she was then asked to place all the selected cards on the table. The interviewer then asked the child, If you had to choose just one of these cards because it was the most important to you, which would you choose? The selected card was then removed from the table and the procedure repeated until only one card remained. Scoring for this task was in two stages, as follows. First of all, the first-ranked card was assigned a score of one, the second 2, and so on. The value assigned to each of the cards not chosen from the total set of 15 cards was the average of the remaining ranks up to rank 15. For example, in the case of a child who had selected only 4 cards, ranks 5 to 15 would remain. The average of these ranks is established as follows: (5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15) / 11 = 10. The rank assigned to the British card was then used as a basis for creating a factor reflecting the important of British identity: Ranks 1 and 2 were taken as indicating that British identity was very important; ranks 3-6 fairly important; less than 6 (i.e. in practice, unranked) unimportant. The conversion of these ranks to a factor with three levels was to enable comparison with data resulting from the forced-choice task. Forced-choice task. In order to assess the degree of children's identification with the category British, they were presented with the following four cards, placed in front of them, from left to right: very British; little bit British; not at all British; don't know. The interviewer asked, Which one do you think best describes you? Are you (pointing to the cards) very British, a little bit British, not at all British, or don't you know? Answers were recorded in terms of the response options indicated above. To enable comparison with the previous variable, we combined those children who denied being group members with those who expressed ignorance of group membership. This decision was guided by social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), the main assumption of which is that to define the self in terms of the group, that is, at a social categorical rather than personal, idiosyncratic level, is the psychological process responsible for group behavior. Thus, the two response types (denial and ignorance of group membership) are theoretically equivalent in that they both indicate a lack of subjective identification with the group and therefore both imply the absence of group-relevant cognitions and behavior. To establish the extent of convergence between the two measures, a test of association was conducted on responses to the open-ended and forced choice tasks. Rankings of the British card were found to be highly associated with responses to the question about the extent of Britishness: Cramers V = .227, p< .0001. Thus, children who ranked the British card highly were likely to respond that they felt very British; those who did not rank the card, or who gave it a low ranking, were likely to respond that they did not feel very British. Knowledge of national groups Children's knowledge of the following five European countries was assessed: Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. For each country, three distinct types of

knowledge were examined: geographical knowledge, knowledge of significant symbols, and knowledge of famous people. Geographical knowledge Children were presented with an A3-sized outline map of Europe indicating national boundaries. For each of the five countries (which were considered in a random order), they were asked (in the following order): a) to point to the named country. Responses were recorded as either correct or incorrect. ('Don't know' responses were recorded as incorrect.) b) to name the capital of the country. Again, responses were recorded as either correct or incorrect. c) to mark with a cross where they thought the capital of the country was. Only those responses within a 30-mile radius of the capital were accepted as correct. For each country, responses from each of these questions were summed to give a measure of children's geographical knowledge. Knowledge of symbols Children were presented with a set of cards, each of which depicted what a group of 15 adults had judged to be the most prototypical exemplars for each country under the following headings: buildings (e.g. for Britain, Tower Bridge; for France, the Eiffel Tower), food (e.g. for Britain, an English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages, etc; for Spain, paella), scene (e.g. for Britain, a thatched cottage in a rural village; for Italy, a hilltown in the countryside of Tuscany) and event (e.g. for Britain, the Changing of the Guards; for Germany, the Oktoberfest). To this set was added the national flag for each of the countries. Children were presented with the total card set (n = 25) in a random order and were asked to place each picture into one of five boxes representing each of the countries (i.e. the boxes were labeled Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain). There was also a further box marked "Don't know". For each country children were assigned a score between 0 and 5, depending on the number of correct responses given. Knowledge of famous people For each country, children were asked to provide the names of as many famous people as they could. Although the names given were typically familiar to interviewers (usually being heads of state, royals, pop stars, or soccer players), problematic cases where the interviewer had no knowledge of named person (less than 5% of the total) were referred to at least two colleagues in an attempt to determine whether it was appropriate to record them as correct responses. For each country, frequencies of between 0 and 5 correct responses were recorded. Few children gave more than 4 or 5 names per country; where the number exceeded 5, this was often the result of the names of entire soccer teams being given. To avoid artificially inflating means with these outliers, it was thus decided to limit the highest score to 5. Results Three principal sets of analyses will be addressed. First of all, attention will be given to the relationship between age and level of identification with the national group. Next, age and level of knowledge about each of the countries will be considered. Since these initial analyses are not of central importance in the present context, they will be covered relatively briefly as important precursors to our examination of the relationship between level of identification and knowledge. In particular, these initial

analyses demonstrate the highly significant effect of age on both identification and knowledge, and guide the form of statistical analysis employed to investigate the hypothesized relationship between identification and knowledge. Age and identification Both measures of identification were found to be highly age-related. For the openended measure, a Kruskal Wallis test was conducted on the rankings of the British card. Older children ranked this card more highly than did younger children: X2 (3) = 26.12, p<0.001 (6-year-olds mean rank = 8.87 (i.e., unranked); 9-year-olds, 7.22 (i.e., unranked); 12-year-olds, 6.2; 15-year-olds, 6.2). For the fixed-choice question, age was significantly associated with the level of identification: X2 (6) = 158.6, p<0.0001. As can be seen from Table 1, whereas many of the youngest children failed to identify with the national group, this was rare amongst the older children, who typically identified with the group. It should be noted however that 12-year-olds identified more strongly than did 15-year-olds: X(2) 2 = 6.3, p<0.05. Table 1 about here Age and knowledge A multivariate analysis of variance for scores from the three knowledge measures, over each of the countries, showed significant effects of age for every variable (p<0.001). A summary of means, over age-groups, along with univariate F values for every variable, is given in Table 2. Post hoc testing (Tukey's critical distance - CD) showed that there were significant differences between all age groups (p<.05) for all variables except geographical knowledge of Italy (where there were no differences between 12- & 15-year-olds); knowledge of famous people with respect to France, Italy and Germany, where there were no differences between 6- and 9-year-olds' knowledge of famous people; and for knowledge of famous Spaniards, where there were differences only between the two older and younger groups. Table 2 about here Identification and knowledge Since age is so strongly related to both identification and knowledge, it is not included as a factor in the following analyses. Rather, the relationship between identification and knowledge is examined by means of analysis of covariance, with age entered as a covariate. To permit comparability between the findings from the open-ended and fixed-choice measures, the rankings from the open-ended task were converted to a factor, where rankings of 1 or 2 were taken as indicating 'very British', rankings 3-6 as 'a little bit British' and less than 6 as 'not at all British' (since no children used more than 6 cards in the self-description task this would indicate that the British card had not been selected). Univariate F tests were conducted on each of the variables under the three knowledge types. Knowledge of the ingroup was found to be strongly related to identification with the ingroup. Thus, significant effects of British identification on knowledge about Britain were found for both the open-ended and fixed-choice measures of identification with respect to geographical knowledge, knowledge of symbols, and knowledge of famous people (see Tables 3, 4 & 5 for means and F values). Level of identification was not found to have consistent effects on knowledge of countries other than Britain. Exceptions, however, were: knowledge of French and Italian geography, which were found to be related to identification under both measures; knowledge of Italian symbols under both measures; knowledge of French symbols under the fixed choice measure; knowledge of famous Italians under the

open-ended measure, and knowledge of famous Germans when using the fixed choice measure. Tables 3, 4 & 5 about here Post hoc testing showed that in all cases but one, where there was a significant effect of level of identification, differences were between children not identifying with the category "British" and those who identified with it to a greater or lesser degree. (p<.05). The exception was with respect to knowledge of famous Germans, where, when considering the fixed-choice measure of identification, it was found that those children who described themselves as "a little bit British" typically knew more names than did those who described themselves as "very British"(p<.05). Discussion The results of this study indicate that knowledge of the ingroup is related to identification with the ingroup, even where that group is a highly abstract one, as in the case of the nation. Thus, significant effects of national identification (as measured by two independent techniques) on knowledge about one's nation were found for three different types of knowledge: geographical knowledge, knowledge of symbols, and knowledge of famous people. In each case, children identifying with the national group knew more than those not identifying (though degree of identification appeared not to be important). Moreover, as would be expected under a schematic account of identity-relevant information-processing (e.g. Martin & Halverson, 1981), identification was not found to have consistent effects on knowledge of countries other than one's own. In view of the fact that age was confounded with both knowledge and identification with the national group, it was not possible to enter it as a variable in the principal analyses of this study. Despite this, we suggest that developmentally the import of the present findings is that subjective identification can be accorded an important role in guiding the course of nascent identities: Identifying oneself as a group member would appear to play a part in assembling the body of knowledge that adult group members may be expected to have. This contention is made in the light of the fact that our findings are consistent with a schematic account of identity development even under the most stringent of circumstances (i.e. involving a highly abstract type of identity), and using both production and recognition measures. Given thess findings, it is suggested that future research on identity development should assign the process of subjective identification a major role, especially in view of the fact that, elsewhere, too, studies have shown how this process plays a fundamental role in children's intergroup cognitions (e.g., Powlishta's (1995) work on perceptions of outgroup homogeneity). Although identification with the group was consistently related to knowledge of one's one group, it is noteworthy that it appears also to be related to geographical knowledge of other countries. Thus, under both measures of identification it was found that children who identified themselves as British were more knowledgeable about French and Italian geography than those not identifying. Why should national identification be related to geographical knowledge but not other types of knowledge? One possibility is that geographical knowledge is intrinsically relational. Knowledge about symbols and famous people, however, clearly is not. One cannot identify one's own country on a map without being able to locate it in relation to other countries; however it is possible to know of the symbols and famous people of one's country whilst knowing nothing of others. Although at a general level this account appears

plausible, it leaves unaddressed the issue of why identification was found to be related to geographical knowledge of France and Italy in particular. On this matter we are less confident, but speculate that France is likely to be significant because of its proximity as a neighbor to Britain; and Italy, because of distinctive shape, may provide a notable cue to organizing knowledge of European geography. Although a number of findings emerged which suggested that ingroup identification may be related to knowledge pertaining to groups other than one's own, for only one was this effect consistent over both measures of identification: knowledge of Italian symbols. We are unable to provide a plausible account for this. An important objection that might be leveled at our conclusion about the relationship between ingroup identification and knowledge is that it assumes a particular causal relation: that identifying with the group leads to acquisition of information relevant to one's group. However, an alternative interpretation is that knowledge of one's group may drive identity development: As one acquires more knowledge of the group, so identification with the group is heightened. Evidence contradicting this latter account is that 12-year-olds identify significantly more strongly with the national group than do 15-year-olds. Over all three knowledge measures, however, they fare significantly less well than 15-year-olds. Thus, it appears unlikely that identification with the group is determined by knowledge of it. However, there must remain some uncertainty over this issue given that, in order to test the theory formally, it would be necessary to perform experimental manipulations of gender and other forms of identity, which is clearly an impossibility. Previous research concerned with children's identity development has taken a discrete view of identities. For example, one either recognizes that one is a boy or girl, or one does not. In this study, identification was conceived as graded, so that one might identify with one's national group very strongly, somewhat, or not at all. A secondary aim of the study was thus to attempt to determine whether the extent of identification may be related to the extent of knowledge. Our data indicate that the crucial distinction is between identifying and not identifying with the group: It was not the case that differences in knowledge emerged between children strongly and moderately identifying with the group, but between these children and those who failed to identify with the group. It would therefore appear to be defensible for future research to adopt a straightforward approach which treats children's identities discretely.

Footnote 1. Consistent with social identity theory, we take the view that the salience of an identity is not unchanging but contextually variable. There are clearly circumstances under which national identity can be chronically salient, as in cases of prolonged international conflict, such as wars. However, during the lives of the children studied here, Britain has not been involved in a major and sustained international conflict. Given this, it seems defensible to argue that national identity will not have been chronically salient.

References Bem, S.L. (1981) Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 88, 354-64. Bennett, M., Lyons, E., Sani, F., & Barrett, M. (In press) Children's subjective identification with the group and ingroup favoritism. Developmental Psychology Bigler, R.S., Jones, L.C., & Lobliner, D.B. (1997) Social categorization and the formation of intergroup attitudes in children. Child Development, 68, 530-543. Bigler, R.S., Jones, L.C., & Lobliner, D.B. (1997) Social categorization and the formation of intergroup attitudes in children. Child Development, 68, 530-543. Carter, D.B. & Levy, G.D. (1988) Cognitive aspects of early sex role development: the influence of gender schemas on prescholers' memories and preferences for sextyped toys and activities. Child Development, 59, 782- 92. Cramer, P., & Skidd, J.E. (1992) Correlates of self-worth in pre-schoolers: the role of gender stereotyped styles of behavior. Sex Roles, 26, 369-390. Damon, W. & Hart D (1988) Self-understanding in Childhood & Adolescence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Durkin K. (1995) Developmental Social Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell. Fagot, B.L., Leinbach, M.D. & O'Boyle C. (19992) Gender labeling, gender stereotyping and parenting behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 28, 225-230. Fagot, B.L., & Hagan, R. (1991) Observations of parent reactions to sexstereotyped behaviors: Age and sex effects. Child Development, 62, 1617-28. Fong G.T., & Markus, H. (1982 ) Self-schemas and judgments about others. Social Cognition, 1, 191-205. Fiske, S.T., & Taylor, S.E. (1991) Social Cognition. New York: McGraw Hill. Lambert, W., & Klineberg, O. (1967) Children's views of foreign people. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts Meredith. Liben L.S. & Signorella, M.L. (1993) Gender schematic processing in children: the role of initial interpretations of stimuli. Developmental Psychology, 29, 141-9 Livesley, W.J. & Bromley, D.B. (1973). Person Perception in Childhood and Adolescence. London: Wiley Maccoby, E.E. (1988) Gender as a social category. Developmental Psychology, 24, 755-765. Markus, H. (1977) Self-schemata and processing information about the self. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 35, 63-78. Markus, H. ,Crane, M., Bernstein, S., & Siladi, M. (1982) Self-schemas and gender. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 38-50. Martin, C.L. & Halverson, C.F. (1981) A schematice processing model of sex typing and stereoptyping in children. Child Development, 52, 1119-34. Masters, J.C., Ford, M.E., Arend, R., Grotevant, H.D., & Clarke, L.V. (1979) Modeling and labeling as integrated determinants of children's sex-typed imitative behavior. Child Development, 50, 364-71. McGuire, W.J., & McGuire, C.V. (1987) Developmental trends and gender differences in the subjective experience of the self. In T. Honess & K. Yardley (Eds.) Self and identity: Perspectives across the lifespan. New York: Routledge. Park, B. & Hahn, S. 91988) Sex role identity and the perception of others. Social Cognition, 6, 61-87. Peevers, B.H. (1987) The self as observer of self: A developmental analysis of the subjective self In T.Honess & K. Yardley (eds) Self & Identity: Perspectives across the Lifespan. London: Routledge.

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Powlishta, K.K., (1995) Intergroup processes in childhood: Social categorization and sex role development. Developmental Psychology, 31, 781-88. Shapiro, J.P. (1988) Relationships between dimensions of depressive experience and evaluative beliefs about people in general. Personality & social Psychology Bulletin, 14, 388-400. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J.C. (1986) The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S.Worchel & W.G. Austin (Eds.) The Psychology of Intergroup Relations (Vol. 2). New York: Nelson Hall. Yee, M.D, & Brown, R (1994) The development of gender differentiation in young children. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 183-96.

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Table 1

Children's degree of subjective identification as British over age-groups

Self-reported importance of 'Britishness' Age-group 6-year-olds 9-year-olds 12-year-olds 15-year-olds Not at all/DK 81 34 7 18 A little bit 7 23 52 51 Very 20 52 63 50

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Table 2 Extent of children's knowledge over age-groups, countries and types of knowledge

Type of knowledge & country 6-yr-olds 9-yr-olds 12-yr-olds 15-yr-olds

F value (df = 3, 458), p<.0001 in all cases

Geographical knowledge

Britain France Germany Italy Spain

.21 .15 .00 .02 .06

1.32 .67 .22 .52 .53

1.90 1.48 .85 1.42 1.65

2.32 1.82 1.21 1.56 2.00

119.8 128.6 82.82 108.56 105.26

Symbol knowledge Britain France Germany Italy Spain Knowledge Britain France Germany Italy Spain 1.43 .82 .70 .75 .91 of famous .28 .03 .00 .00 .00 3.01 1.51 1.15 1.48 1.31 people .92 .07 .09 .16 .05 2.29 .47 .72 .57 .17 3.1 1.01 1.11 .92 .26 77.07 47.67 60.58 28.38 10.05 3.82 2.51 1.83 2.63 2.12 4.32 2.82 2.50 2.82 2.45 139.5 96.56 68.11 137.00 58.91

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Table 3 Children's geographical knowledge over level of national identification, countries and measures

Country

Measure (fixedchoice vs. openended)

Level 1 (not at all British)

of tion Identifica 2 3 (a little bit (very British) British)

F value (Df = 2, 453

probability

Britain

fc oe fc oe fc oe fc oe fc oe

.57 1.10 .40 .75 .25 .43 .31 .67 .41 .82

1.95 1.95 1.49 1.47 .92 .81 1.41 1.30 1.66 1.49

1.82 2.07 1.25 1.49 .62 .82 1.01 1.10 1.22 1.47

19.8 10.92 9.17 10.41 2.5 .56 8.5 3.7 4.04 1.35

.001 .001 .001 .001 ns ns .001 .05 .01 ns

France

Germany

Italy

Spain

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Table 4 Children's symbol knowledge over level of national identification, countries and measures

Country

Measure (fixedchoice vs. openended)

Level of Identific 1 (not at all British) 2 (a little bit British)

ation 3 (very British)

F value (Df = 2, 453)

probability

Britain

fc oe fc oe fc oe fc oe fc oe

1.94 2.71 1.17 1.64 1.00 1.36 1.11 1.61 1.21 1.49

3.69 3.82 2.36 2.37 1.96 1.84 2.50 2.51 2.00 2.01

3.80 4.00 2.24 2.40 1.74 1.96 2.21 2.29 1.90 2.10

31.7 10.91 5.84 2.77 .69 .42 9.31 6.81 .68 1.47

.001 .001 .01 ns ns ns .001 .001 ns ns

France

Germany

Italy

Spain

15

Table 5 Children's knowledge of famous people over level of national identification countries and measures

Country

Measure (fixedchoicevs openended)

Level 1 (not at all British)

of Identific ation 2 (a little bit British) 3 (very British)

F value (Df = 2, 453)

probability

Britain

fc oe fc oe fc oe. fc oe fc oe

.62 1.23 .15 .29 .17 .34 .17 .28 .06 .09

2.36 2.35 .62 .64 .83 .73 .65 .70 .19 .17

2.03 2.31 .45 .45 .51 .68 .46 .44 .12 .16

3.92 3.47 .20 2.42 3.06 1.16 .53 3.29 .66 .06

.05 .05 ns ns .05 ns ns .05 ns ns

France

Germany

Italy

Spain

16