Understanding the development and structure of people's concepts of national groups can contribute to an understanding of their behavior in the political arena, including perhaps the recent rise in nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment. Here, we provide a developmental investigation of concepts of national groups in a sample of 5- to 8-year-old Canadian children (N = 79). Using an extensive battery of measures, we assessed the extent to which children conceive of national groups as socially constructed versus as having deeper, perhaps biological, "essences" that shape their members' physical and psychological makeup. At younger ages, Canadian children tended to essentialize national groups, including in a biological sense. At older ages, the biological conception of national groups subsided, but children continued to view these groups as meaningful and informative. A statistical comparison with 5- to 8-year-old American children's responses to the same measures (N = 70; using data from Hussak & Cimpian, 2019) revealed a great degree of overlap, despite substantial differences between the two countries in how national identity is conceived and described. These findings add an important piece to our understanding of the development of concepts of national groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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加拿大儿童对民族群体的概念：与美国儿童的比较。

了解人们对民族群体概念的发展和结构有助于了解他们在政治领域的行为，包括最近民族主义和反移民情绪的兴起。在这里，我们对 5 至 8 岁的加拿大儿童（N = 79）样本中的民族群体概念进行了发展调查。使用一系列广泛的措施，我们评估了儿童在多大程度上将民族群体视为社会建构的，而不是具有更深层次的，也许是生物学的“本质”，这些“本质”塑造了其成员的身体和心理构成。在年龄较小的时候，加拿大儿童倾向于将民族群体本质化，包括在生物学意义上。随着年龄的增长，民族群体的生物学观念消退了，但是孩子们继续认为这些团体是有意义的和信息丰富的。与 5 至 8 岁美国儿童对相同措施（N = 70；使用 Hussak & Cimpian，2019 年的数据）的反应进行的统计比较显示，尽管两国在国家层面上存在很大差异，但仍存在很大程度的重叠。身份被构思和描述。这些发现为我们理解民族群体概念的发展增添了重要意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。尽管两国在如何构思和描述民族认同方面存在巨大差异。这些发现为我们理解民族群体概念的发展增添了重要意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。尽管两国在如何构思和描述民族认同方面存在巨大差异。这些发现为我们理解民族群体概念的发展增添了重要意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。