Timely study looks at the social influences possibly shaping teenagers ’ prejudice towards immigrants

By Christian Jarrett Some would say that the political events currently convulsing the globe have been driven, at least in part, by widespread prejudice towards immigrants. To begin healing divisions, it would help if we understood more about how such prejudices can be passed from one generation to the next, so that we might intervene to stop this happening. To that end, a new study in the British Journal of Psychology has tracked the immigrant attitudes of over 500 Swedish teenagers over a six year period, to see how their attitudes changed over time, and if and how they might be related to the prejudices held by their parents and friends. Marta Miklikowska first surveyed the immigrant attitudes, friendships and empathy levels of the teenagers in 2010 when their average age was 13, and then measured their attitudes toward immigrants again in 2012 and 2014. At the start of the study only, she also surveyed the immigrant attitudes of the teenagers’ parents and peers. The survey included items like, “Immigrants often come here just to take advantage of welfare in Sweden” and participants rated how strongly they agreed or disagreed. Overall, Miklikowska found that the teenagers’ prejudice towards immigrants increased in early adolescence, and then reduced in mid adolescence. The results suggested that parental prejudice may have a particularly lasting influence: teens with more prejudiced parents were more likely to display increasing negat...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Political Social Source Type: blogs