Abstract
This study examined short- and long-term effects of ethnic classroom diversity for intergroup relations in adolescence. Using a five-year panel of Swedish majority youth ( MageT1 = 13.40, MageT5 = 17.30), we found only limited direct effects of classroom diversity on anti-immigrant attitudes. However, classroom diversity increased the likelihood of cross-ethnic friendships, which in turn was associated with lower levels of anti-immigrant attitudes. Moreover, we found that the effect of classroom diversity on friendships remained also after adolescents transitioned to new schools. The findings highlight the importance of longitudinal analyses and contribute to a deeper understanding of how intergroup relations develop during adolescence. It brings new insights related to the longevity of classroom effects and to cross-ethnic friendships’ ability to mediate the diversity–attitudes relationship.
Highlights
This study examined short- and long-term effects of ethnic classroom diversity for intergroup relations in adolescence
Inspection of diversity effects at every time point revealed that classroom diversity was only significantly and negatively related to prejudice at T2, an effect which disappeared at T3
While previous research has brought valuable insights into the role of classroom diversity in the formation of anti-immigrant attitudes and cross-ethnic friendships in adolescence, the lack of longitudinal studies implied a limited knowledge of how these relationships play out over time, including whether any effects remain after students have left the classroom
Summary
This study examined short- and long-term effects of ethnic classroom diversity for intergroup relations in adolescence. There is a growing literature focusing on how classroom composition affects intergroup relations both in terms of cross-ethnic friendships (Bagci et al, 2014; Bellmore et al, 2007) and prejudice (Dejaeghere et al, 2012; Thijs & Verkuyten, 2014) These studies, are rarely longitudinal, which means that there is limited knowledge about how the effects of classroom composition play out over time, including if any effects persist after students leave the classrooms. This is unfortunate as it may explain why some studies show that classroom diversity reduces prejudice
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