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This paper focuses on the literature related to the formation of stereotypical racial attitudes in children and then organizes and reviews strategies for modification and prevention of such stereotypes. Racial attitudes of preschool and early school age Anglo, Black, and Chicano children towards themselves and each other are included. A brief overview of the evidence suggests that racial awareness is formed by ages three-four, and that by the age of five children hold prejudicial attitudes towards members of other races. The paper addresses and evaluates efforts to modify such attitudes in children, divided into what is labeled curriculum approaches and reinforcement procedure approaches. Six curriculum programs are reviewed which variously use multi-ethnic readers, stories portraying minorities in favorable positions and statuses, black consciousness curriculum, films, art activities, and other experimental curriculum activities involving skin color. Seven reinforcement based modification studies, which attempted to change children's responses to white and black stimuli are evaluated. As a whole these strategies have not been effective, although they have shown that children's racial responses are malleable in the short run. Studies with the longest involvement of time, integrated curriculum classroom approaches, and highly dedicated models are the most likely to reach success. This literature suggests that an approach geared to giving children early positive identification of various racial groupings and configurations is a potentially useful preventive strategy with preschool children. (Author/BMW)

The 1908 publication of "A Mind That Found Itself" by Clifford Beers initiated the mental hygiene movement and a concern for the prevention of mental disorders. Primary prevention movements of the early 1900's recognized the need to deinstitutionalize mental health by bringing services and intervention to the community, recognized the influences of environmental and societal factors, and focused on the young as targets for intervention. The Child Guidance Movement grew and child guidance clinics proliferated. The eugenics movement advocated the prohibition of marriages between the handicapped, the feeble-minded, and between cousins in efforts to prevent insanity, and twentieth century writers have suggested combining eugenics with mental hygiene principles. The federal government became officially involved in prevention in 1930, and the National Mental Health Act was passed in 1946. Studies in the 1950's explored the relationship of environmental factors to mental disorders; the literature on primary prevention expanded in the 1960's and 1970's. A critical sense emerged and standards began to be questioned. A cyclical interest in prevention has occurred throughout the century and progress has been hindered by several recurrent and interacting factors. Contemporary researchers need to establish and follow consistent evaluation strategies. (NRB)