Chapter 24

Intergroup Processes in Children and Adolescents

Where Are They Heading?

First published: 27 January 2017

Summary

This conclusion chapter presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book reviews prejudice and discrimination. It presents the considerable progress that has been made toward understanding and managing the development of intergroup phenomena in young people. Children and adolescents grapple with context-dependent ways of gauging desirable outcomes, with the result that people see developmental changes in the extent to which children may cite fairness as a consideration in the course of intergroup dynamics. Many contributions to the book illuminate different aspects of the basic reality that, somehow, social identities have to be encoded and expressed. This can be achieved through various means, but primary among them are language and non-verbal communication. Powerful processes within the adolescent peer community may make them a particularly resistant target for interventions. Language and communication are so fundamental to human co-existence that people often overlook them.

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