Prevention of prejudices through intergroup contact with refugee and native children

• In Event: 3-139 - Peer Ethnic Aggression and Victimization in Preadolescence and Adolescence

Integrative Statement

Introduction: In the context of prevalent refugee movements, European societies become more and more culturally and ethnically diverse. This can enrich host societies with intercultural friendships and exchange, however, a positive integration of individuals which experienced forced migration depends on a successful process of psycho-social adjustment and intercultural openness of the host society. Because childhood is a crucial stage for the development ethnic prejudices (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011), several intervention programs aim this age group to reduce prejudices and increase tolerance towards immigrants (Ülger, Dette-Hagemeyer, Reichle & Gaertner, 2017; van Zalk & Kerr, 2014). Intergroup contact can be a powerful tool to reach these goals for both, majority and minority status groups (Tropp & Pettigrew, 2005), when combined with training of social competencies and intergroup knowledge (Beelmann & Heidemann, 2014). Further, some schools organize specialized classes for refugee children, especially to support their language development. However, argued from contact theory an inclusive education should be associated with less prejudices than separated education.
Study population: A training program with contact between native and refugee school students (nnative = 42, nrefugee = 16, Ntotal = 58) between 10 and 13 years had either contact and social competence training (Experimental Group, EG 1), contact, social competence and knowledge training (EG 2), only social competence and knowledge training (Control Group, CG 1), or no intervention (CG 2).
Methods: Participants filled in questionnaires about cognitive (Kinket & Verkuyten, 1999), affective (Griffith & Nesdale, 2006), and behavioral levels of ethnic prejudices (i.e., behavioral intentions to reject the outgroup; Cameron, Rutland, Brown & Douch, 2006) as well as interpersonal tolerance (Beelmann, Sauer, Schulze & Ziegler, 2006) before the 8-week-intervention (t1), immediately after the intervention (t2) and two months later (t3). Repeated-measure ANOVAs tested effects for the following hypotheses.
Hypotheses: 1) Intergroup contact reduces prejudices and increases interpersonal tolerance in both, native and refugee children, 2) A combination of intergroup contact, social competence and knowledge training (EG 2) shows most favorable outcomes (reduced prejudices, increased tolerance), 3) Intergroup contact reduces prejudices against native children especially in refugee children from separated education settings.
Results: Native children in EG 2 reported less cognitive and affective prejudices (but not behavioral intentions) and more interpersonal tolerance compared to the no-intervention control group (CG 2) after the contact (t2). However, this effect diminished until t3.
For refugee children in EG 1, cognitive and affective prejudices decreased slightly, but did not change significantly. However, these participants reported significantly less behavioral intentions and a bigger increase in interpersonal tolerance compared to no-intervention refugee children after the contact (t2) and two months later (t3). Prejudices against native children among refugee children were reduced especially among refugee children from separated education (EG 1) compared to refugee children from inclusive education.
In sum, intergroup contact combined with social competence training leaded to favorable outcomes among both, native children (less prejudices, more tolerance) and refugee children (less behavioral intentions, more tolerance). Structured opportunities of interethnic contact seem to be a powerful tool in culturally diverse schools.

Authors

• Jan Pfetsch, Institute of Education, Technische Universität Berlin
  Presenting Author

• Laura M. Neumann, Technische Universität Berlin
  Non-Presenting Author