Trajectories of Interethnic Contact and Prejudice in a Four-Waves Study of Romanian Teenager–Parent Pairs
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Forthcoming
Posted: 13 Jan 2017
Date Written: December 21, 2016
Abstract
This article investigated negatively valenced contact and the relationship between parental and teenagers’ outgroup negativity in a context of interethnic conflict based on the latent trajectory analysis of a four-wave study of teenager–parent pairs (N = 234). The analyses revealed that negative outgroup information prevailed both intra- and inter-generationally. On one hand, ascending trends of negative contact correlated positively and significantly with ascending trends of outgroup negativity and this relationship was stronger than the opposite association between change in positive contact and change in outgroup negativity. On the other hand, parental increases in outgroup negativity were associated with similar increases among teenagers, but there were no significant relationships between parental change in positive contact and teenagers’ positive contact and prejudice. The discussion focuses on the implications of the results for the positive–negative contact asymmetry and on the importance of social communication in conflicting contexts.
Keywords: intergroup contact, negative contact, prejudice, inter-generational relationships, ethnic conflict
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