Fostering Cross-Group Friendship and Inclusion in Schools: Recent Findings from the Friendship Project - A Multilevel Intergroup Intervention

• In Event: Facilitators or Gatekeepers: The Roles of Parents and Teachers in Children’s and Adolescents’ Intergroup Interactions

Abstract

Positive group dynamics are important predictors of children’s mental health and identity development. However, classroom dynamics often cluster around social categories, whereby children are more likely to select friends based on similarity in social group membership, such as academic achievement or nationality (Leszczensky et al., 2019). Moreover, children from social minority groups face a higher risk for social exclusion in their class, receiving fewer nominations by their peers with regards to popularity or friendship and reporting more negative peer experiences (Juvonen et al., 2019). While it is undoubtedly important to address children’s underlying group biases (Skinner & Meltzoff, 2019), relatively little is known regarding effects of educational programs on classroom dynamics.

The current study examined effects of a comprehensive intervention targeting teachers’ knowledge about classroom dynamics as well as children’s understanding of stereotypes, group functioning, and moral considerations. The intervention combines approaches on peer ecologies (Farmer et al., 2019) with the theoretical model “promoting confidence in contact” (Turner & Cameron, 2016) and recent knowledge on moral development (Killen et al., 2022). The intervention includes a specifically designed child book in which emerging cross-group friendships (multiple aspects of diversity: migration background, intellectual disability) are modelled. This book was read to students over a period of 4 weeks, followed by classroom discussions that aim to promote empathy and children’s understanding of group dynamics. After the discussion, children participated in cooperative group exercises in which teachers actively guided peer dynamics.

The intervention was examined in a randomized control trial including 67 school classes of grades 3 to 6 in Switzerland (N = 1019, Mage = 11.15, 51% female, 22% non-Swiss, 29% with special educational needs; SEN) of which 34 classes were part of the intervention group (N = 492). The student questionnaires included various aspects (preregistered hypotheses), whereby the current analyses focus on friendship nominations and perceived loneliness. A subsample of 320 students of the intervention group additionally filled out weekly group diaries in which the child book characters representing different social groups were rated regarding perceived identification, intended inclusion and likeability.

Results from longitudinal multilevel social network analyses (see Table 1) showed that students of non-Swiss nationality received fewer friendship nominations than students with Swiss nationality in the control, but not the intervention group. Moreover, friendship relations clustered with regards to students’ special needs status in the control, but not in the intervention group. In the intervention group, students with SEN received fewer nominations for friendships; however, follow-up analyses showed that students with SEN were more likely to nominate more friends over time. Accordingly, students’ with SEN reported lower loneliness in the intervention as compared to the control group.

Moreover, the analyses of the weekly group diaries showed increasing group identification with the two book characters that either have a migration background or SEN, and an increasing likeability and intention to include characters with migration background (while the character with SEN had stable high levels). We will present additional findings on children’s social and intergroup perceptions from an ongoing longitudinal follow-up study.

Authors

• Jeanine Grütter, University of Konstanz
  Presenting Author

• Carmen Barth, University of Konstanz

• Zoran Kovacevic