Developing Inclusive Youth at the Killen Laboratory: Social and Moral Development at UMD

Presenter: Alexander Fernandes, Psychology , Global Public Health Scholars

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I worked as a research assistant in the Moral and Social Development Lab at the University of Maryland through the college of Behavioral and Social Sciences. My duties consisted of creating transcripts and collecting data for the Developing Inclusive Youth Intervention. Through this intervention, we looked to tackle the issue of out-group inclusivity and diversity, or the lack therof in children between the grades of 3 and 5. We evaluated the social inclusion and exlcusion among children and implemented a program that would allow children to explore intergroup biases and prejudices in different made-up scenarios. Through this intervention, we looked to evaluate firstly how morality in the context of inclusion and exclusion is developed in children, and secondly how we as teachers and leaders can decrease outgroup and stereotyped-based exclusion.