Ethnic Cognition and Affect of British-Born Chinese Children

Little research has explored the ethnic cognition and affect of ethnic Chinese children from Britain and Europe, contrasting the established literature from North America. The present paper reports research which tested these developmental aspects among British-born ethnic Chinese children aged 5 to 10 years from London attending a Chinese supplementary language school. Children were given measures on categorisation skills, self- and other identifications, target matching (by gender and ethnicity), own preference and rejection, inferred preference and rejection of mothers, and trait attributions. Results showed that age was associated with categorisation skills and target matching, but not self- or other ethnic identifications on which children exhibited high performance. The majority of children preferred Chinese peers and rejected non-Chinese peers and inferred their mothers to do the same, and own and inferred mothers’ rejection choices were related to each other. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research findings from other ethnic minority children including British Chinese children and ethnic Chinese children from elsewhere, and the theoretical and contextual factors that may impact British Chinese children’s ethnic identity and attitudes.