scholarly journals Intergroup Relations in Integrated Schools: A Glimpse Inside Interdistrict Magnet Schools

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bifulco ◽  
Christian Buerger ◽  
Casey Cobb

The frequency and quality of intergroup contact within racially and ethnically diverse schools has potentially important implications for the achievement of desegregation goals. The analyses presented here use survey data to assess intergroup contact within a sample of ten interdistrict magnet schools in Connecticut. Findings indicate frequent intergroup interactions within interdistrict magnet schools, but also that the perceived quality of intergroup relations differs across racial groups and both the frequency and quality of intergroup contact varies considerably across schools. Students who report higher quality intergroup relations in their school also tend to report more positive academic environments and more positive attitudes towards other groups. Together these findings indicate that attention must be paid to intergroup relations within diverse schools if the goals of integrated schooling are to be realized.

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Moyer-Gusé ◽  
Katherine R. Dale ◽  
Michelle Ortiz

Abstract. Recent extensions to the contact hypothesis reveal that different forms of contact, such as mediated intergroup contact, can reduce intergroup anxiety and improve attitudes toward the outgroup. This study draws on existing research to further consider the role of identification with an ingroup character within a narrative depicting intergroup contact between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans. Results reveal that identification with the non-Muslim (ingroup) model facilitated liking the Muslim (outgroup) model, which reduced prejudice toward Muslims more generally. Identification with the ingroup model also increased conversational self-efficacy and reduced anxiety about future intergroup interactions – both important aspects of improving intergroup relations.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Mulak ◽  
Mikołaj Henryk Winiewski

This paper examines intergroup contact hypothesis in interactions in video games to conceptualize how intergroup contact with characters in games may relate to attitudes toward minorities. Intergroup contact hypothesis states that intergroup contact leads to more positive attitudes and stereotype reduction. It also specifies situational factors that promote or hinder such an outcome. In an online survey a sample of 1627 gamers stated games they played the most and filled out a questionnaire measuring their attitudes toward minorities. Independent judges assessed games that were played by most participants (N = 44 games). A multilevel regression analysis revealed that average quality of contact with minorities in a game (measured at game-level, as a characteristic of a game) was associated with higher acceptance of minorities of the players (measured at individual level). Diversity of the game world generated by fictional races had no significant connection to attitudes. Game-level predictors largely increased fit to the data showing that game worlds were significant for the acceptance of minorities. The results supply preliminary evidence for the validity of the intergroup contact hypothesis for the interactions with characters in video games.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soraya E. Shamloo ◽  
Andrea Carnaghi ◽  
Carlo Fantoni

Recent research has shown that a brief, casual touch administered by an outgroup member reduces prejudice towards the group to which the toucher belongs. In this study, we take the research on physical contact and prejudice a step further by addressing the relation between individuals’ amount of Experienced Intergroup Physical Contact (EIPC), across distinct contexts and involving different body parts, and attitudes towards foreign people. Specifically, we hypothesized that the amount of EIPC would be positively associated with both quantity and quality of intergroup contact, but that only quality would mediate the relationship between the amount of EIPC and outgroup attitudes, quality being more directly linked to the evaluative component of outgroup attitudes. To attain this aim, we asked participants to self-report the amount of EIPC, the quantity and quality of their intergroup contact and their attitudes towards foreign people. Consistent with our hypothesis: (1) as EIPC increased, positive attitudes towards foreign people increased; (2) higher levels of EIPC were associated with better quality and higher quantity of intergroup contact; (3) only quality of intergroup contact mediated the relationship between the amount of EIPC and attitudes towards foreign people. Results were discussed in relation to research on intergroup contact and physical contact.


Author(s):  
Mark R. Hoffarth ◽  
Gordon Hodson

Intergroup relations and contact between groups has historically been considered a mechanism to promote support for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights. However, LGBT identities are often concealable, and stigma discourages members of the LGBT community from disclosing that they are LGBT, which may prevent contact. Some subsets of the LGBT population make up a small percentage of the overall population, which may also decrease the quantity of contact. As such, the process of coming out to friends, relatives, and coworkers has been a common strategy of the modern LGBT movement. The strategy could be effective because the intergroup contact literature has found support for intergroup contact decreasing prejudice in meta-analyses. At the same time, researchers have challenged the assertion that intergroup contact promotes social change because intergroup contact is sometimes negative, or may be impractical or avoided, positive attitudes can coincide with acceptance of inequality, and intergroup contact may have unintended negative side effects. Research has generally found support for the notion that intergroup relations are more positive when there is greater contact. For LGBT people greater contact has been associated with decreasing anti-LGBT prejudice and increasing support for LGBT rights. However, similar to other domains of contact, the influence of LGBT contact is contextually sensitive, and a combination of psychological and structural barriers can decrease or prevent the positive effects of intergroup contact. There are strategies which may overcome these limitations, through policies (e.g., protection against discrimination), promoting types of contact that promote social change as opposed to merely positive attitudes, secondary transfer of contact effects, imagined contact, indirect forms of contact, and positive media representations of LGBT people. Gaps in the literature include a relative lack of research on contact with members of the LGBT community other than gays and lesbians (particularly non-cisgender people), intergroup contact between members of different subsets of the LGBT community, and a need for experimental and/or intervention-based research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-100
Author(s):  
Rocco Servidio ◽  
Isabella Giammusso ◽  
Stefano Boca ◽  
Alberto Mirisola

Abstract. This study explored the relationship between the ability to talk to others in more than one language and ethnic prejudice, considering the quality and quantity of intergroup contact. A structural equation model analysis was carried out on a sample of 631 Italian citizens. The results showed that multilingualism led to an increase of acceptance of intergroup differences and positive attitudes toward Moroccans and that the quality (but not quantity) of intergroup contact-mediated those relationships. The mediating role of the quality of intergroup contact extends previous results on the relationship between multilingualism and positive attitudes toward ethnic out-groups. These findings are important from a scientific point of view, as they enrich the conditions of the intergroup contact hypothesis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 221 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Horenczyk ◽  
Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti ◽  
David L. Sam ◽  
Paul Vedder

This paper focuses on processes and consequences of intergroup interactions in plural societies, focusing primarily on majority-minority mutuality in acculturation orientations. We examine commonalities and differences among conceptualizations and models addressing issues of mutuality. Our review includes the mutual acculturation model ( Berry, 1997 ), the Interactive Acculturation Model (IAM – Bourhis et al., 1997 ), the Concordance Model of Acculturation (CMA – Piontkowski et al., 2002 ); the Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM – Navas et al., 2005 ), and the work on acculturation discrepancies conducted by Horenczyk (1996 , 2000 ). We also describe a trend toward convergence of acculturation research and the socio-psychological study of intergroup relations addressing issues of mutuality in attitudes, perceptions, and expectations. Our review has the potential to enrich the conceptual and methodological toolbox needed for understanding and investigating acculturation in complex modern societies, where majorities and minorities, immigrants and nationals, are engaged in continuous mutual contact and interaction, affecting each other’s acculturative choices and acculturative expectations.


2012 ◽  
pp. 24-47
Author(s):  
V. Gimpelson ◽  
G. Monusova

Using different cross-country data sets and simple econometric techniques we study public attitudes towards the police. More positive attitudes are more likely to emerge in the countries that have better functioning democratic institutions, less prone to corruption but enjoy more transparent and accountable police activity. This has a stronger impact on the public opinion (trust and attitudes) than objective crime rates or density of policemen. Citizens tend to trust more in those (policemen) with whom they share common values and can have some control over. The latter is a function of democracy. In authoritarian countries — “police states” — this tendency may not work directly. When we move from semi-authoritarian countries to openly authoritarian ones the trust in the police measured by surveys can also rise. As a result, the trust appears to be U-shaped along the quality of government axis. This phenomenon can be explained with two simple facts. First, publicly spread information concerning police activity in authoritarian countries is strongly controlled; second, the police itself is better controlled by authoritarian regimes which are afraid of dangerous (for them) erosion of this institution.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Urbanek

The aspiration to keep the synergy in relations between majorities and minorities repeatedly emerges as the cause of conflicts in social relations. It is also a subject of the interest of the multicultural education, particularly in countries of Eastern Europe, building contacts with the culturally and ethnically diverse groups to a wider scale. Relations in culturally, religiously and ethnic diverse societies, are becoming more and more related to the personal attitudes and a given policy. These issues acquire in the prison circumstances even greater significance, as given moods and personal attitudes of the prison staff create the pragmatic aspects of the professional activities addressed to the sentenced. Additionally, the key role is played by the quality of the penitentiary policy and the legal culture. The article presents the comparative analysis of the research carried out in 2016 amongst the prison staff in Poland. The subject of the research concerned attitudes that influence the decisive processes. The personal relations have been analyzed in the context of the relation with the sentenced Muslims. The aim of the research was not only to reveal the quality of the decisions concerning the sentenced Muslims, but also the sources of such decisions. The latter, in consequence, may shift, as the research results prove, towards synergy or discrimination. The diversification of the discrimination was one of the intriguing aspects, disclosed at various levels that not always explicitly concerned the discrimination of the minority.


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