Abstract
Although research has shown that school context has consequences for intergroup attitudes, few studies have examined the role of teacher qualities, such as teacher support. In addition, previous research has paid limited attention to the mechanisms that could help to explain teacher effects. This 5-wave study (2010–2015) examined the effects of perceived teacher support on the anti-immigrant attitudes of Swedish majority youth (N = 671, M age = 13.41, 50.2% girls, 34 classrooms). It also tested whether social trust would mediate these effects. The results of multilevel analyses showed that perceived teacher support was associated with less prejudice at all levels of analysis. At the within-person level, fluctuations in teacher support were related to fluctuations in youth prejudice: in years when, on average, adolescents perceived their teachers as more supportive, they reported lower prejudice. At the between-person level, adolescents who perceived their teachers as more supportive compared to their peers reported lower prejudice. Similarly, classrooms where students shared an experience of teacher support were lower in prejudice than classrooms with weaker teacher support. The results also showed that social trust explained teacher effects: adolescents who experienced their teachers as more supportive displayed higher levels of trust and, in turn, lower levels of prejudice than youth with less supportive teachers. These findings suggest that teachers can counteract the development of prejudice and facilitate social trust in adolescents by being supportive of them.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1175-1189 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Journal of Youth and Adolescence |
Volume | 48 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 Jun 2019 |
Funding
Acknowledgements This study was made possible by access to data from the Political Socialization Program, a longitudinal research programme at YeS (Youth & Society) at Örebro University, Sweden. Responsible for the planning, implementation, and financing of the collection of data were professors Erik Amnå, Mats Ekström, Margaret Kerr, and Håkan Stattin. The data collection was supported by grants from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used with the permission of Erik Amnå for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Funding This research was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (dnr 2016-04165), the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (dnr P16-0446:1), and the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (dnr 2016-07177).
Keywords
- Adolescence
- Anti-immigrant attitudes
- Attachment
- School context
- Social trust
- Teacher support