Page 199 - Ana Kozina and Nora Wiium, eds. ▪︎ Positive Youth Development in Contexts. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2021. Digital Library, Dissertationes (Scientific Monographs), 42.
P. 199
contact-based interventions to reduce ethnic prejudice ...
behaviour. Just one study (Vezzali et al., 2011) measured implicit attitudes
towards an outgroup. Findings show that prejudicial attitudes become
more implicit with age (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011), thus measures of implic-
it prejudice should be used more often in future studies, especially those
with older children and adolescents.
Conclusions and practical implications
In the present paper, we reviewed ten studies that conducted contact-based
interventions to reduce ethnic prejudice against migrants in the school
context. Our study is among the first to consider the recent shift in preju-
dice prevention research that specifically focuses on the current issue of re-
ducing prejudice to facilitate the integration of migrants, refugees and oth-
er ethnic minorities into existing communities. This review is also one the
first to address differences in effectiveness depending on the type of indi-
rect contact. Given that indirect contact interventions are much less logisti-
cally demanding and can be carried out preventively in schools even before
migrants are included in the educational process, our findings hold impor-
tant implications for the widespread implementation of indirect contact in-
terventions in European schools.
The review findings provide valuable suggestions for conducting an
effective prejudice-reducing intervention in the school context. The deci-
sion on whether to perform a direct or indirect contact-based intervention
should be based on opportunities to include members of the ethnic minor-
ity and the type of outcomes intended to be achieved. A direct contact in-
tervention is appropriate if migrants and ethnic minority students are al-
ready enrolled in an educational institution and there is a need to reduce
negative feelings associated with an outgroup (e.g. fear of the outgroup) and
to create long-lasting behaviour change (e.g. intergroup friendships, reduc-
tion of discrimination). An indirect contact intervention is appropriate
when gathering enough ethnic minority students is impossible and there
is a need to reduce negative beliefs and stereotypes in ethnic majority chil-
dren before the initiation of intergroup contact. Extended and vicarious
contact should only be implemented in highly controlled and standardised
interventions since their effectiveness relies on certain conditions that may
prove hard to achieve (e.g. perceived typicality of ethnic group members in
a story) (Liebkind et al., 2013). Imagined contact interventions have fewer
requirements that are typically easier to fulfil (e.g. variability in imagined
scenarios to generalise the effect) (Miles & Crisp, 2013), which makes them
199
behaviour. Just one study (Vezzali et al., 2011) measured implicit attitudes
towards an outgroup. Findings show that prejudicial attitudes become
more implicit with age (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011), thus measures of implic-
it prejudice should be used more often in future studies, especially those
with older children and adolescents.
Conclusions and practical implications
In the present paper, we reviewed ten studies that conducted contact-based
interventions to reduce ethnic prejudice against migrants in the school
context. Our study is among the first to consider the recent shift in preju-
dice prevention research that specifically focuses on the current issue of re-
ducing prejudice to facilitate the integration of migrants, refugees and oth-
er ethnic minorities into existing communities. This review is also one the
first to address differences in effectiveness depending on the type of indi-
rect contact. Given that indirect contact interventions are much less logisti-
cally demanding and can be carried out preventively in schools even before
migrants are included in the educational process, our findings hold impor-
tant implications for the widespread implementation of indirect contact in-
terventions in European schools.
The review findings provide valuable suggestions for conducting an
effective prejudice-reducing intervention in the school context. The deci-
sion on whether to perform a direct or indirect contact-based intervention
should be based on opportunities to include members of the ethnic minor-
ity and the type of outcomes intended to be achieved. A direct contact in-
tervention is appropriate if migrants and ethnic minority students are al-
ready enrolled in an educational institution and there is a need to reduce
negative feelings associated with an outgroup (e.g. fear of the outgroup) and
to create long-lasting behaviour change (e.g. intergroup friendships, reduc-
tion of discrimination). An indirect contact intervention is appropriate
when gathering enough ethnic minority students is impossible and there
is a need to reduce negative beliefs and stereotypes in ethnic majority chil-
dren before the initiation of intergroup contact. Extended and vicarious
contact should only be implemented in highly controlled and standardised
interventions since their effectiveness relies on certain conditions that may
prove hard to achieve (e.g. perceived typicality of ethnic group members in
a story) (Liebkind et al., 2013). Imagined contact interventions have fewer
requirements that are typically easier to fulfil (e.g. variability in imagined
scenarios to generalise the effect) (Miles & Crisp, 2013), which makes them
199
