This study investigates students' social networks and mental health before and at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, using longitudinal data collected since 2018. We analyze change on multiple dimensions of social networks (interaction, friendship, social support, co-studying) and mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness) within two cohorts of Swiss undergraduate students experiencing the crisis (N = 212), and make additional comparisons to an earlier cohort which did not experience the crisis (N = 54). In within-person comparisons we find that interaction and co-studying networks had become sparser, and more students were studying alone. Furthermore, students' levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and depressive symptoms got worse, compared to measures before the crisis. Stressors shifted from fears of missing out on social life to worries about health, family, friends, and their future. Exploratory analyses suggest that COVID-19 specific worries, isolation in social networks, lack of interaction and emotional support, and physical isolation were associated with negative mental health trajectories. Female students appeared to have worse mental health trajectories when controlling for different levels of social integration and COVID-19 related stressors. As universities and researchers discuss future strategies on how to combine on-site teaching with online courses, our results indicate the importance of considering social contacts in students' mental health and offer starting points to identify and support students at higher risk of social isolation and negative psychological effects during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigates students’ social networks and mental health before and at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020 in Switzerland, using longitudinal data collected since 2018. We analyze change on multiple dimensions of social networks(interaction, friendship, social support, co-studying) and mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness) within two cohorts of Swiss undergraduatestudents experiencing the crisis (N=212), and make additional comparisons to an earlier cohort which did not experience the crisis (N=54). In within-person comparisons we find that interaction and co-studying networks had become sparser, and more students were studying alone. Furthermore, students’ levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and depressive symptoms got worse, compared to measures before the crisis. Stressors shifted from fears of missing out on social life to worries about health, family, friends, and their future. Exploratory analyses suggest that COVID-19 specific worries, isolation in social networks, lack of interaction and emotional support, and physical isolation were associated with negative mental health trajectories. Female students appeared to have worse mental health trajectories when controlling for different levels of social integration and COVID-19 related stressors. As universities and researchers discuss future strategies on how to combine on-site teaching with online courses, our results indicate the importance of considering social contacts in students’ mental health and offer starting points to identify and support students at higher risk of social isolation and negative psychological effects during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immigration leads to strong and polarized public and political debates in Europe and the Western world more generally. In some of these debates, migrants are described as either having little choice but to migrate (involuntary) or as migrating out of their own free choice (voluntary). In two studies and using a social psychological perspective, native Dutch respondents were asked about their support for policies aimed at cultural rights and public assistance to perceived voluntary and involuntary migrants. Study 1 showed that stronger agreement with migration being voluntary was associated with lower policy support, while agreement with migration being involuntary was independently associated with higher support. In Study 2 the degree of support was examined as a consequence of feelings of empathy and anger. Perceived involuntariness of migration elicited feelings of empathy and therefore higher support for newcomers. In contrast, perceived voluntariness elicited stronger anger and therefore less support.

Increased cultural diversity has led to considerable debate on how to best promote intergroup harmony within pluralistic nations. In the current research, we consider the nature of interculturalism, a new diversity ideology extensively discussed by political philosophers and policy‐makers in Europe and beyond. Interculturalism consists of three interrelated components of dialogue, unity, and identity flexibility. Using data (N = 2,364) from three national surveys in two ethnically diverse nations (Netherlands and USA), we test a new measure of interculturalism and establish its independence from multiculturalism and assimilation. We then demonstrate that interculturalism predicts positive intergroup outcomes, over and above multiculturalism, and is in a theoretically meaningful way related to various criterion measures. Collectively, these studies establish the uniqueness of interculturalism from multiculturalism and demonstrate its promise for improving intergroup relations in culturally diverse nations.

In this research, we systematically study multilingualism as a predictor of acceptance of ethnic out-groups. It is argued that people who speak more languages are more cognitively flexible, that is, they have an enhanced flexibility in understanding and representing information. Higher cognitive flexibility is in turn expected to be related to higher deprovincialization: a reevaluation of one’s ethnocentric worldview. Deprovincialization is then expected to result in more openness toward ethnic out-groups, evidenced by a more inclusive notion of the national identity and reduced out-group dislike. Cross-sectional survey data among a representative sample of native Dutch participants from the Netherlands (N = 792) provide convincing support for these hypotheses and show that multilingualism is an important yet understudied factor in social–psychological research on prejudice reduction.