Ethnic-Racial Identity and Attitude Change: Assessments of Outgroup and Diversity Attitudes among Adolescents in Sweden

• Published in: Journal of youth and adolescence
• Main Authors: Sandberg, David J, Frisén, Ann, Juang, Linda P, Hwang, C Philip, Syed, Moin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 04.06.2024
• Subjects: Adolescence; Diversity attitudes; Ethnic-racial identity; Intervention; Outgroup attitudes; Psychology; Psykologi; The Identity Project; Intervention; Diversity attitudes; Adolescence; Ethnic-racial identity; Outgroup attitudes; The Identity Project
• ISSN: 0047-2891; 1573-6601; 1573-6601
• DOI: 10.1007/s10964-024-02024-4

Outgroup and diversity attitudes are important components of intercultural understanding and well-being. Despite the potential of ethnic-racial identity development as a means to foster positive outgroup and diversity attitudes, little is known about its effectiveness in rapidly diversifying contexts such as Sweden. This pre-registered study filled this gap by examining if adolescents taking part in an intervention focused on ethnic-racial identity exploration, the Identity Project, also reported change in outgroup and diversity attitudes, and whether migration background, education type, and ethnic-racial identity development predicted such change. Twenty-three tenth-grade classes in Sweden (N = 509; M  = 16.28; SD  = 0.80; 66% female; 51% migration background) participated in the intervention and were assessed in four waves over a period of 26 weeks. Whereas ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution increased for the intervention group, the adolescents reported no change in outgroup and diversity attitudes when compared to a control group. Increases in ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution co-varied with increases in attitudes, but only at Time 3. The results do not provide support for the link between ethnic-racial identity development and positive outgroup and diversity attitudes, and challenge the notion of attitude change as a cascading effect of the Identity Project intervention in non-US sociocultural contexts. All aspects of the study were pre-registered on the Open Science Framework platform ( https://osf.io/f5896 ).