Cross-border friendships and collective European identity: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Cross-border mobility has long been seen as a mechanism to promote a collective political identity; however, the results of empirical studies on young people have been inconsistent. The present work extends previous research on the effect of cross-border mobility by considering the effect of cross-border friendships drawing on the intergroup contact theory of Allport as well as the common ingroup identity model of Gaertner and Dovidio. This longitudinal study examines the role of cross-border friendships in the development of a sense of transnational political community that transcends national boundaries, i.e. the European Union. The results rely on a two-wave sample of 1294 Italian adolescents and young adults. Cross-border friendships significantly predicted identification as European, attitudes toward the European Union, political beliefs about the European Union, trust in the European Union, (negatively) political alienation, and political participation at the European level and intention to vote at the next European Parliament elections, even after including baseline levels of outcomes as well as relevant socio-demographic factors (i.e. gender, age, majority/minority status, educational qualification, parents' education level, family income, and socioeconomic status) in the model.

Evaluation of an Active Citizenship Intervention Based on Youth-Led Participatory Action Research

“…We used a three-item scale of identification as European derived from previous research among youth populations (e.g., Mazzoni et al, 2018; Prati et al, 2019): “I feel strong ties toward Europe,” “Being European gives me self-confidence,” and “I am proud to be European.” Response options ranged from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). Good internal consistency was found both at pretest (α = .79) and posttest (α = .83).…”

“…We used a semantic differential scale derived from previous research among youth populations (e.g., Prati et al, 2019). We asked participants to choose where their position lies concerning the EU, on a scale of five points, between each of the following bipolar adjectives: competent/incompetent, efficient/inefficient, warm/cold, friendly/unfriendly, just/unjust, and fair/unfair.…”

Longitudinal Predictors of Perceived Climate Change Importance and Worry among Italian Youths: A Machine Learning Approach

“…In the European context, the idea of Europe can provide a superordinate identity that is potentially able to transcend traditional national identities. The emergence of a European identity is strongly interconnected with the systematic construction of national identity [57,58]. National identities and European identity become salient in relation to climate change issues [59].…”

Can participation in learning abroad mobility support pro-European Union attitudes among youth?

“…Over the last 30 years, more than ten million people have participated in the Erasmus+ Program and its predecessors (EC, 2020). Such an increase in the number of young people participating in learning abroad programs across Europe has encouraged several researchers to examine the impact of youth mobility on European integration (King and Ruiz-Gelices, 2003; Kuhn, 2012; Mazzoni et al, 2018; Méndez García et al, 2021; Mitchell, 2012; Oborune, 2013; Prati et al, 2019; Sigalas, 2010; Stoeckel, 2016; Van Mol, 2013, 2018; Wilson, 2011).…”

“…Additionally, both short-term and long-term mobility showed a significant indirect effect on positive attitudes toward the EU. Prati et al (2019) focus on cross-border friendships rather than mobility. They measured the attitudes toward the EU, based on whether the participants’ position lies between certain adjectives; namely, “competent/incompetent, efficient/inefficient, warm/cold, friendly/unfriendly, just/unjust, and fair/unfair.” Their study demonstrates that cross-border friendships longitudinally predict positive attitudes toward the EU between 2016 and 2017.…”