Developmental Dynamics of Intergroup Contact and Intergroup Attitudes: Long‐Term Effects in Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Abstract

Intergroup contact represents a powerful way to improve intergroup attitudes and to overcome prejudice and discrimination. However, long-term effects of intergroup contact that consider social network dynamics have rarely been studied at a young age. Study 1 validated an optimized social network approach to investigate intergroup contact (N = 6,457; Mage = 14.91 years). Study 2 explored the developmental trajectories of intergroup contact by applying this validated network approach in a cross-sequential design (four-cohort-four-wave; N = 3,815; 13-26 years). Accelerated growth curve models showed that contact predicts the development of attitudes in adolescence, whereas acquired attitudes buffer against decreasing contact in adulthood. Findings highlight the potential of social network analysis and the developmental importance of early intergroup contact experiences.

Intergroup Contact Attitudes Across Peer Networks in School: Selection, Influence, and Implications for Cross‐Group Friendships

“…In particular, students’ ICA tended to remain or become more like those of their friends over time (influence effect). Although past research has found that peers influence one another's public regard (Santos et al., ) and that intergroup contact influences intergroup attitudes over time (Wölfer, Schmid, Hewstone, & van Zalk, ), the results for ICA are new and represent an extremely important finding.…”

Consequences of Diversity for Social Cohesion and Prejudice: The Missing Dimension of Intergroup Contact

“…We then averaged the ingroup friends’ self‐reported outgroup contact. We followed this procedure using data collected as part of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU) project (Wölfer, Schmid, Hewstone, & van Zalk, under review). We then conducted multilevel analyses (within‐level: students, between‐level: classes), separately for majority and minority students, in order to predict outgroup attitudes, while controlling for the ethnic density of the school, direct contact, number of ingroup friends, density, and reciprocity in network data.…”

Efficacy of Cyberbullying Prevention on Somatic Symptoms—Randomized Controlled Trial Applying a Reasoned Action Approach

“…Its suggested constructs are particularly relevant in adolescence due to fundamental cognitive and psychosocial changes that occur during this period and affect the development of attitudes and subjective norms. In line with the impressionable years hypothesis (Krosnick & Alwin, 1989), the literature repeatedly demonstrates that attitudes are formed during a period of mental plasticity in adolescence, before they tend to crystallize in adulthood and remain relatively stable afterward (e.g., W€ olfer, Schmid, Hewstone, & van Zalk, 2016). Moreover, adolescence is well known for the increasing impact of peers on adolescents' social development (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011;LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010), whose influence, in turn, increases the salience of social norms.…”