Cross‐group contact predicts positive beliefs about girls’ and Black peers’ STEM abilities and occupational prospects

High-quality forms of contact, such as cross-group play and friendships, have been identified as particularly effective for promoting positive beliefs toward outgroup peers. Relations between children's cross-group play experiences and their beliefs about peers' math and science competencies and high-status occupational prospects have not yet been examined. Understanding these relations is important given that children from minoritized groups continue to face exclusion and bias in these domains. The present study examined the associations between children's (<i>N</i> = 983, <i>M</i> _age = 9.64, <i>SD</i> _age = .89) reported cross-group play experiences and their math and science competency beliefs and high-status occupation expectations about girls and Black peers. Results revealed that, for majority group participants (i.e., boys and White children), higher levels of cross-group play were associated with significantly higher beliefs and expectations for girls and Black peers. Further, results demonstrated contexts in which higher levels of cross-group play were positively associated with girls' and Black children's beliefs and expectations for their own groups. Together, these findings advance theory and research on the benefits of cross-group contact in childhood by highlighting novel outcomes to which cross-group contact is positively related, as well as by showing that children from both minoritized and majority status groups stand to benefit from cross-group contact.