https://www.fcd-us.org/early-childhood-development-is-not-apolitical-so-how-does-ideology-affect-young-children/
The idea that context matters in shaping individuals’ thriving and development is a core tenet across the social sciences. But for too long, social scientists concerned with child development have not considered one powerful context: political ideologies.
Political ideologies are systems of values that aim to influence the social and political order, serving either to reduce or perpetuate inequality in society. As societal-level “macro” forces, political ideologies influence “micro” forces like family and peer socialization, as work by Onnie Rogers and Niobe Way has shown.
We call on our fellow social scientists to study the influence of political ideology on young children and contribute to the early childhood sector’s potential to counter ideologies that increase inequality.
A child-development lens could advance our understanding of ideology in several ways.
- First, it would emphasize how these broader societal forces become embedded in the immediate contexts and experiences of children. Although we have learned much from research about how societal forces like racism or xenophobia become embedded in young children’s home, peer, and community contexts, we know virtually nothing about how political ideologies also influence early development.
- Second, social scientists can uncover important insights about systemic inequalities in young children’s access to political information and opportunities for civic participation across time and settings.
- Third, acknowledging the role of ideology in influencing young children also allows a deeper understanding of how children may respond to or challenge ideologies that perpetuate or worsen inequality. Research exploring young children’s collective agency in acting with and on behalf of others illuminates an often-overlooked capacity for civic engagement. Leveraging these capacities, social scientists could uncover pathways for the early childhood field to more powerfully reduce societal inequality.
Christian Nationalism: A Current Example
Christian nationalism is one example of a political ideology with societal implications that is currently influencing educational systems and family life. Defined as a set of beliefs that posits that the USA is a society defined by Christianity and cisgender, heterosexual norms, Christian nationalism endorses prayer in public schools, religious symbols in public spaces, and the federal government not only supporting religious values but declaring the United States a Christian nation.
As the sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead have shown, higher support for these beliefs predicts support for restricting instruction related to race, gender, and sexuality in public schools; restrictions in access to abortion, voting rights, and gun control; restrictive immigration policies; and opposition to climate science. In these and a host of other policy positions, Christian nationalism goes above and beyond political party affiliation. It also is an outlier among the religious: Perry and Whitehead find that, after accounting for support for Christian nationalism, greater religiosity predicts more inclusive, not less inclusive, attitudes toward racial and religious minorities.
How might Christian nationalism influence young children in the United States? Our research suggests two broad sets of mechanisms: through master narratives and the spaces where young people learn, and through political forces and social movements.
Master Narratives
Ideology, as a dominant cultural story or “master narrative,” provides a unifying framework for understanding what it means to be an American. Through this cultural story, adherents are able to make sense of their everyday lives and routines, as well as interpret major national events and crises. For example, adherents may invoke this master narrative to frame elections, disasters, or even public health emergencies as part of a divine plan for the country, rather than acknowledging the complex historical, political, and social factors at play. As a dominant cultural story, this ideology permeates spaces of young people’s learning and development (or “activity settings”), validating and reinforcing certain groups’ power and belonging, while marginalizing or “othering” those who do not fit this narrow vision.
Historical narratives about race, gender, and sexuality could be both driving and perpetuated by Christian nationalism. And Christian nationalism as its own master narrative may similarly infuse the experiences of young children exposed to it. We know that racial and gender socialization happens very early. Children as young as age 5 show ingroup favoritism with respect to skin color, and by ages 5 to 7 show hostility to outgroups when they are perceived as threatening their ingroup. Gender stereotypes are reflected in children’s preferences and behaviors robustly by preschool age across a range of racial and ethnic groups. Parents’ more traditional gender attitudes during middle childhood predicted, in one 15-year study, sons’ more gender-stereotyped occupations.
Yet, mere exposure to the master narrative does not equate to passively internalizing it as personal identity; rather, certain developmental and ecological affordances may lead some young people to actively interrogate this narrative. Future research should illuminate what affordances shape attitudinal differences, for whom and under what conditions.
Political Forces and Social Movements
Christian nationalism might also influence young children through political forces and social movements. The beliefs central to Christian nationalism are strongly or somewhat endorsed by 29% of adults in national samples. They have come to influence party politics and legislation in many states.
Florida, as many are aware, banned teaching about African American history, “critical race theory,” or “social justice,” as well as banned content about sexuality, in public K-12 schools. Those violating these rules are subject to loss of their teaching licenses. Any resident of Florida can question a book’s content and instigate review by the public education system of its appropriateness — leading to many book bans in the state.
These major laws and regulations were driven by social movements, including Moms for Liberty, an organization founded in Florida in 2021 to press for restrictions in instruction about race, gender identity, and sexuality.
A majority of public-school teachers in a 2023 nationwide study reported opposing the kinds of content restrictions implemented in Florida. One-third live in states that have passed restrictions on how teachers can talk to students about race and gender. Yet 55% of teachers not living in states with restrictions said they were limiting such discussions in their classrooms. Thus, preferences by a minority of residents have influenced public education for all children in Florida and beyond.
A Two-Part Research and Action Agenda
- Understand how political ideologies influence young children and their communities
Social scientists can explore how political ideologies influence young children’s civic lives. How does political ideology influence the everyday language, beliefs, and perceptions of young children? Research could explore how adherence to Christian nationalist ideologies link with early racial and gender socialization experiences and peer influences to shape children’s emerging beliefs and behaviors around diversity, inclusion, and social exclusion.
- Understand how resistance to ideologies that increase inequality occurs across settings and communities
Resistance to ideologies that increase inequality could include a variety of community, social movement, and early schooling efforts. Mimi Arbeit and colleagues recently put forward a call for developmental scholars to utilize critical perspectives, support collective care practices to mitigate harm, and partner with community organizers to combat the influence of harmful ideologies.
Research grounded in a participatory and empowerment ethos could amplify the voices, needs, and agency of young people as they innovate “bottom-up” strategies to counter exclusionary ideologies. For example:
- In response to Florida’s ban on teaching Black history, students there developed and disseminated their own culturally responsive Black history curriculum outside of formal school settings.
- Communities have expanded Freedom Schools that introduce students to their cultural history, pushing back on the encroachment of Christian nationalist narratives in educational spaces.
- Congregations and interfaith coalitions have developed community-based curricular toolkits in response to Christian nationalist organizing.
Research could focus on such collective resistance in “third spaces”: as community-driven initiatives that can encourage both identity exploration and civic engagement, including among young children. Collective research and action are needed too, to reveal how Christian nationalism works across dimensions of race, ethnicity, immigration, sexuality, and gender identity as well as across education, justice, welfare, and health systems.
The field of early childhood development is not apolitical. It is therefore not free from ideologies that may serve to perpetuate or exacerbate inequality. Only by exploring the role of ideology in influencing young children and their everyday settings can we ensure that the field is contributing to a thriving, multiracial democracy.
This is the 10th blog in the Foundation’s Social Justice for Young Children Conversation Series exploring what it means to pursue social justice for young children and their families.
About the Authors
Dr. Hirokazu Yoshikawa is the Courtney Sale Ross Professor of Globalization and Education at NYU Steinhardt and a University Professor at NYU. From 2014 to 2024, he was founding Co-Director of the Global TIES for Children at NYU.
He is a community and developmental psychologist who studies the effects of public policies and programs related to immigration, early childhood, sexuality, and poverty reduction on child and youth development. He is also an elected fellow of the National Academy of Education, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He currently serves on the U.S. National Board on Education Sciences, the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel, and as a trustee of the William T. Grant Foundation. He has previously served as a trustee of the Foundation for Child Development and the Russell Sage Foundation. In the fall of 2024, he will be the Margaret Olivia Sage Scholar in residence at the Russell Sage Foundation.
Dr. Andrew Nalani is assistant professor of Human and Organizational Development who studies who studies how cultural/political ideologies and organizational dynamics shape youth engagement and positive development across both open youth spaces and more structured institutional settings. His interdisciplinary scholarship, drawing on community psychology, developmental science and organizational studies, aims to enhance organizations’ capacity to initiate and sustain young people’s active participation in their own growth and well-being, and meaningful contribution to their communities.
With over a decade of experience as a group facilitator, Nalani’s intervention research examines the link between organizational learning and change strategies that reduce inequality and support healing and thriving for youths and communities furthest from opportunity.
In recognition of his scholarship, Nalani received the 2022 Social Policy Article Publication Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence and holds an appointment as a 2023-2026 Research Scholar with the Society for Community Research and Action. In 2018, he was honored as a youth development advocate at the inaugural Gates Foundation Goalkeepers event to accelerate progress towards the sustainable development goals. Nalani earned his Ph.D. in applied psychology from New York University in 2023.