scholarly journals School Matters: The Effects of School Experiences on Youth’s Attitudes toward Immigrants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Eckstein ◽  
Marta Miklikowska ◽  
Peter Noack
Keyword(s):  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Peer Relations ◽  
Classroom Climate ◽  
School Experiences ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Democratic Classroom ◽  
Multilevel Studies ◽  
Classroom Level

AbstractAlthough schools have been described as an important socialization context for the development of intergroup attitudes, longitudinal multilevel studies are still rare within this field. This 3-wave study (with annual assessments) of German adolescents (N = 1292; Mage = 13.86; 51.8% female) examined the role of school experiences (perceived multicultural education, supportive peer relations in class, democratic classroom climate) in the development of youth’s negative attitudes toward immigrants. Longitudinal multilevel analyses revealed that a democratic classroom climate predicted youth’s attitudes at the individual level. At the classroom level class-average perceptions of a democratic classroom climate, supportive peer relations in class, and multicultural education (the latter solely among male, higher track students) were associated with less negative attitudes toward immigrants. In addition, age moderated the effect of school experiences on attitudes, showing that perceptions of a democratic climate at the classroom level mattered in particular among older adolescents. The findings suggest that school experiences are related to youth’s negative attitudes toward immigrants and can therefore help to reduce the risk of prejudice development.

scholarly journals Does In-Group Consolidation Polarize Attitudes Toward Immigrants?

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172199892
Author(s):  
Mikko Leino ◽  
Juha Ylisalo
Keyword(s):  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Using Data ◽  
People’S Attitudes

Scholars have identified a host of individual-level and contextual factors associated with variation in people’s attitudes toward immigrants. In this article, we argue that individual traits that are conducive to a positive or negative attitude toward immigrants tend to be more strongly connected to attitudes the larger the share of people with similar traits in the individual’s immediate living environment. This is because interacting with like-minded people is likely to strengthen one’s pre-existing views. We test this reasoning using data on more than 3000 individuals nested within more than 100 neighborhoods in the city of Turku, Finland. We find that the attitudes of young adults tend to be more positive the more people with characteristics predicting a positive attitude there are in their neighborhood, while their attitudes tend to be more negative the more people there are with a low level of education, a strong predictor of negative attitudes.

scholarly journals Facing Cultural Diversity

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Fasel ◽  
Eva G. T. Green ◽  
Oriane Sarrasin
Keyword(s):  
Political Psychology ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Interaction Approach ◽  
Shared Norms

Negative attitudes toward immigrants are widespread in Western societies, and research has repeatedly attempted to explain such attitudes with the presence of cultural diversity arising from a high number of immigrants. Highlighting how political psychology integrates individual and contextual levels of explanation, the present paper aims to overview research that reaches beyond this narrow focus of diversity (i.e., immigrant proportion) to understand anti-immigrant attitudes in culturally diverse societies. First, we present research that reconciles two opposing intergroup mechanisms – contact and threat – both triggered by a high proportion of immigrants. Second, emphasis is placed on ideological climates, a novel contextual antecedent of anti-immigrant attitudes understood as collectively shared norms and values permeating all spheres of social life. Ideological climates influence anti-immigrant attitudes beyond individual characteristics and further shape individuals’ responses to cultural diversity. Third, the paper extends existing research on a Person × Context interaction approach to anti-immigrant attitudes and suggests how cultural diversity and ideological climates differentially impact the link between individual-level ideologies and anti-immigrant attitudes. The growing field of multilevel research on anti-immigrant attitudes is overviewed and empirical illustrations of our recent research in Switzerland are provided. We conclude by discussing the benefits and further challenges of integrating individual and contextual antecedents in political psychology and beyond.

Protecting America’s borders: Christian nationalism, threat, and attitudes toward immigrants in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022097829
Author(s):  
Rosemary L. Al-Kire ◽  
Michael H. Pasek ◽  
Jo-Ann Tsang ◽  
Joseph Leman ◽  
Wade C. Rowatt
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
The Us ◽  
Immigrant Policies ◽  
Christian Nationalism

Attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policies are divisive issues in American politics. These attitudes are influenced by factors such as political orientation and religiousness, with religious and conservative individuals demonstrating higher prejudice toward immigrants and refugees, and endorsing stricter immigration policies. Christian nationalism, an ideology marked by the belief that America is a Christian nation, may help explain how religious nationalist identity influences negative attitudes toward immigrants. The current research addresses this through four studies among participants in the US. Across studies, our results showed that Christian nationalism was a significant and consistent predictor of anti-immigrant stereotypes, prejudice, dehumanization, and support for anti-immigrant policies. These effects were robust to inclusion of other sources of anti-immigrant attitudes, including religious fundamentalism, nationalism, and political ideology. Further, perceived threats from immigrants mediated the relationship between Christian nationalism and dehumanization of immigrants, and attitudes toward immigration policies. These findings have implications for our understanding of the relations between religious nationalism and attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the US, as well as in other contexts.

Interpersonal Disgust, Ideological Orientations, and Dehumanization as Predictors of Intergroup Attitudes

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 691-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Hodson ◽  
Kimberly Costello
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Group Representations ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism

Disgust is a basic emotion characterized by revulsion and rejection, yet it is relatively unexamined in the literature on prejudice. In the present investigation, interpersonal-disgust sensitivity (e.g., not wanting to wear clean used clothes or to sit on a warm seat vacated by a stranger) in particular predicted negative attitudes toward immigrants, foreigners, and socially deviant groups, even after controlling for concerns with contracting disease. The mechanisms underlying the link between interpersonal disgust and attitudes toward immigrants were explored using a path model. As predicted, the effect of interpersonal-disgust sensitivity on group attitudes was indirect, mediated by ideological orientations (social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism) and dehumanizing perceptions of the out-group. The effects of social dominance orientation on group attitudes were both direct and indirect, via dehumanization. These results establish a link between disgust sensitivity and prejudice that is not accounted for by fear of infection, but rather is mediated by ideological orientations and dehumanizing group representations. Implications for understanding and reducing prejudice are discussed.

Winning hearts & minds (!)

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 819-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efe Tokdemir
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual

Foreign aid is a policy tool implemented with the purpose of fostering both hard and soft power abroad. Yet, previous research has not probed the effects of US foreign aid on public attitudes toward the US in the recipient countries. In this article, I argue that US foreign aid may actually feed anti-Americanism: aid indirectly creates winners and losers in the recipient countries, such that politically discontented people may blame the US for the survival of the prevailing regime. Drawing on Pew Research for Global Attitudes and on USAID Greenbook datasets, I focus on determining both the conditions under which foreign aid exacerbates anti-Americanism and the type of aid most likely to do this. The findings reveal that political losers of the recipient countries are more likely to express negative attitudes toward the USA as the amount of US aid increases, whereas political winners enjoy the results of US aid and view the USA positively accordingly. Moreover, the effect of US aid on attitudes toward the USA is also conditional on the regime type. While US aid increases the likelihood of anti-American attitudes among the losers in non-democratic countries, it decreases the likelihood of anti-Americanism among the losers in democratic ones. This article has important implications for policy in terms of determining how and to whom to provide aid in the context of the possible ramifications of providing aid at the individual level.

scholarly journals Educational attainment, political sophistication and anti-immigrant attitudes

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 600-616
Author(s):  
Eva van der Heijden ◽  
Maykel Verkuyten
Keyword(s):  
National Sample ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
Social Conformity ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee ◽  
Negative Feelings

Among a national sample of Dutch respondents (N = 1,155), this study examined whether the belief configuration of personal political orientation differs for individual level of education, and how it is related to negative attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and refugee policies. In agreement with the ideological sophistication perspective, the endorsement of social conformity and the acceptance of group-based inequality were found to be more strongly part of the political orientation of higher compared to the lower educated participants. Furthermore, the endorsement of social conformity and acceptance of group-based inequality were associated with more negative feelings toward immigrants and more negative attitudes toward policies in relation to refugees. These findings add to the existing literature that has predominantly examined education and political orientation as two independent correlates of anti-immigrant and refugee attitudes.

North American Attitudes toward Immigrants and Immigration in the Time of COVID-19: The Role of National Attachment and Threat

2021 ◽  
Vol 697 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-173
Author(s):  
Victoria M. Esses ◽  
Alina Sutter ◽  
Joanie Bouchard ◽  
Kate H. Choi ◽  
Patrick Denice
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Country Level ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Immigration Attitudes ◽  
National Attachment ◽  
National Representative Survey

Using a cross-national representative survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, we examine predictors of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration in Canada and the United States, including general and COVID-related nationalism, patriotism, and perceived personal and national economic and health threats. In both countries, nationalism, particularly COVID-related nationalism, predicted perceptions that immigration levels were too high and negative attitudes toward immigrants. Patriotism predicted negative immigration attitudes in the United States but not in Canada, where support for immigration and multiculturalism are part of national identity. Conversely, personal and national economic threat predicted negative immigration attitudes in Canada more than in the United States. In both countries, national health threat predicted more favorable views of immigration levels and attitudes toward immigrants, perhaps because many immigrants have provided frontline health care during the pandemic. Country-level cognition in context drives immigration attitudes and informs strategies for supporting more positive views of immigrants and immigration.

Prejudice toward immigrants in student and community samples

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 290-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily F. Wood ◽  
Monica K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Community Sample ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Causes Of Crime ◽  
Attributional Complexity ◽  
Prejudicial Attitudes

Purpose The number of immigrants in the USA has increased steadily in recent decades. Two studies investigated individual differences that relate to attitudes toward immigrants in student and community samples. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach US university students and a community sampler were surveyed. Findings In both samples, higher scores on attributional complexity were associated with more positive attitudes toward immigrants and individuals who make dispositional attributions for the causes of crime and/or who are higher in faith in intuition tended to have more negative attitudes. Political orientation was a significant predictor in both samples; being more liberal and identifying as a Democrat compared to a Republican was related to more positive attitudes. Higher need for cognition scores were associated with more positive attitudes and higher legal authoritarianism scores were associated with more negative attitudes; however these were only significant predictors in the community sample. Originality/value Prejudicial attitudes toward immigrants can have adverse effects on immigrants in the realms of the legal system, workplace, healthcare, and education.

Associations Between Classroom Normative Climate and the Perpetration of Teen Dating Violence Among Secondary School Students

2019 ◽  
pp. 088626051988820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Beckmann ◽  
Marie Christine Bergmann ◽  
Yvonne Krieg ◽  
Sören Kliem
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Dating Violence ◽  
Teen Dating Violence ◽  
Lower Saxony ◽  
School Students ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Teen Dating ◽  
Ninth Grade Students ◽  
Classroom Level

The aim of this study was to investigate how classroom normative climate regarding the perpetration of teen dating violence (TDV) was related to adolescents’ self-reported perpetration of (verbal/emotional, threatening, relational, physical, and sexual) violence within romantic relationships in the previous 12 months. Based on Theory of Normative Conduct, we hypothesized that higher classroom levels of TDV perpetration were associated with a higher likelihood of individual TDV perpetration. Data were drawn from a large survey of ninth-grade students conducted in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany ( n = 10,638). From this sample, an analysis sample of n = 4,351 students at risk was drawn (mean age: 15.0, SD: 0.76; 46.6% male). More than half (54.8%) of the at-risk sample reported engagement in any form of TDV within the previous 12 months, whereby rates varied considerably by the dimension of TDV. Controlling for a range of risk factors on the classroom level (proportion of students dependent on social welfare, proportion of students with migration background) and individual level (exposure to family violence, sociodemographic characteristics, TDV victimization, and peer- and school-related factors), regression analyses showed that higher rates of classroom-level TDV perpetration were positively related to individual verbal/emotional TDV perpetration. This pattern of results was observable across all dimensions of TDV. Furthermore, gender-specific patterns of TDV perpetration were observable: Girls were more affected by classroom levels of verbal/emotional and physical TDV than boys, while boys were more affected by classroom levels of relational and sexual TDV. Results highlight the role of the wider peer context in shaping adolescent dating experiences and specifically point to the relevance of the classroom ecology for the socialization of dating violence in adolescents.

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