Page 183 - Ana Kozina and Nora Wiium, eds. ▪︎ Positive Youth Development in Contexts. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2021. Digital Library, Dissertationes (Scientific Monographs), 42.
P. 183
contact-based interventions to reduce ethnic prejudice ...
contact supposes that observing positive intergroup relations among mem-
bers of the ingroup and outgroup leads to an improved attitude towards the
outgroup. It has mostly been implemented as story-reading about friend-
ships among the members of different ethnic groups (e.g. Cocco et al.,
2021). Extended intergroup contact assumes that mere information about
an ingroup member’s close relationship with an outgroup member can lead
to an improved attitude towards the outgroup, which has similarly been
implemented as story-reading, although the story mainly focused on the
relatable ingroup character having a close friendship with a member of the
stigmatised group (e.g. Cameron & Rutland, 2006). Imagined intergroup
contact is the newest empirically proven type of contact-based interven-
tion (Miles & Crisp, 2013) and proposes that mere thinking about positive
intergroup contact leads to an improved attitude towards the outgroup. In
the school context, imagined contact has mostly been implemented as re-
searcher-administered visualisation exercises (e.g. Cameron et al., 2011).
In recent years, scientists have started researching new ways to tackle
ethnic prejudice given that ethnic diversity in school classes is ever grow-
ing due to mass migration and the civil wars in the Middle East. The focus
had shifted from reducing prejudice against African and Latino Americans
in the USA (Brewer, 1999) to tackling the stigmatisation of migrants and
refugees moving from the Middle East to ethnically homogenous countries
in Europe and elsewhere around the world. The context of reducing prej-
udice against migrants is different, as ethnic majority children typically
have no former experience with this ethnic group. This also applies to eth-
nic minorities in countries with a high level of segregation, such as Israel
where Palestinians and Israeli Jews live in highly homogenous and ethni-
cally segregated areas, thus leaving them without many opportunities for
intergroup contact (Falah, 1996). This issue is especially pressing for mi-
grant and refugee youth as they are an especially vulnerable group, hav-
ing no knowledge of the language and cultural features of the host country.
Therefore, a review of the current literature, focusing on preventing preju-
dice against migrants, refugees, and ethnic minorities living in highly seg-
regated areas, is in order.
Past reviews mostly focused on direct contact-based interventions to
reduce prejudice in general (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006), interventions to re-
duce ethnic prejudice of children below 8 years of age (Aboud et al., 2012), in-
terventions to reduce the prejudice of children and adolescents (Beelmann
183
contact supposes that observing positive intergroup relations among mem-
bers of the ingroup and outgroup leads to an improved attitude towards the
outgroup. It has mostly been implemented as story-reading about friend-
ships among the members of different ethnic groups (e.g. Cocco et al.,
2021). Extended intergroup contact assumes that mere information about
an ingroup member’s close relationship with an outgroup member can lead
to an improved attitude towards the outgroup, which has similarly been
implemented as story-reading, although the story mainly focused on the
relatable ingroup character having a close friendship with a member of the
stigmatised group (e.g. Cameron & Rutland, 2006). Imagined intergroup
contact is the newest empirically proven type of contact-based interven-
tion (Miles & Crisp, 2013) and proposes that mere thinking about positive
intergroup contact leads to an improved attitude towards the outgroup. In
the school context, imagined contact has mostly been implemented as re-
searcher-administered visualisation exercises (e.g. Cameron et al., 2011).
In recent years, scientists have started researching new ways to tackle
ethnic prejudice given that ethnic diversity in school classes is ever grow-
ing due to mass migration and the civil wars in the Middle East. The focus
had shifted from reducing prejudice against African and Latino Americans
in the USA (Brewer, 1999) to tackling the stigmatisation of migrants and
refugees moving from the Middle East to ethnically homogenous countries
in Europe and elsewhere around the world. The context of reducing prej-
udice against migrants is different, as ethnic majority children typically
have no former experience with this ethnic group. This also applies to eth-
nic minorities in countries with a high level of segregation, such as Israel
where Palestinians and Israeli Jews live in highly homogenous and ethni-
cally segregated areas, thus leaving them without many opportunities for
intergroup contact (Falah, 1996). This issue is especially pressing for mi-
grant and refugee youth as they are an especially vulnerable group, hav-
ing no knowledge of the language and cultural features of the host country.
Therefore, a review of the current literature, focusing on preventing preju-
dice against migrants, refugees, and ethnic minorities living in highly seg-
regated areas, is in order.
Past reviews mostly focused on direct contact-based interventions to
reduce prejudice in general (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006), interventions to re-
duce ethnic prejudice of children below 8 years of age (Aboud et al., 2012), in-
terventions to reduce the prejudice of children and adolescents (Beelmann
183
