This study examined the relationship between child rearing
practices and ethnic identity in interracial and Yoruba children
in Nigeria. An in-depth study of 20 interracial and 20 Yoruba
families was conducted. Three methods of measuring ethnic
identity (a doll choice technique, Draw-A-Person and 'Tell me about yourself') were administered to 20 interracial and 20
Yoruba children (aged 6-9 years) in the home environment. A
questionnaire was administered to the mother in each family to
measure the extent of use of 'elite' Yoruba child rearing
practices. A separate questionnaire was'also administered to
fathers. The mothers' questionnaire responses were correlated
with the children's test-results.
The doll choice technique and Draw-A-Person were found to be
more successful than 'Tell me about yourself'. However, an
additional 'food preference' measure was extracted from 'Tell me
about yourself'. The results indicated that Yoruba children
showed a stronger Yoruba identity than interracial children and
that the majority of children in both groups showed correct owngroup
identification. As expected, Yoruba mothers were found to
use more Yoruba child rearing, practices than interracial mothers.
A significant relationship between child rearing practices and
ethnic identity was found in the interracial group but not in the
Yoruba group. Correlations between doll play, Draw-A-Person and
the food preference measure were generally low. Race of experimenter
(white and Yoruba) did not affect children's test results.
Results were interpreted within a family interactions framework and with considerations given to the social and cultural
background of the subjects. It was suggested that socialization
may be important for the development of ethnic identity in the
'minority' interracial children but not in the 'majority' Yoruba
children. The implications of this finding for interracial
children in other societies and for other ethnic minority groups
was discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/3874 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Creators | Pfeffer, Karen |
| Contributors | Verma, Gajendra K. |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Postgraduate School of Studies in Psychology |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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