With the increasing diversity of American society, there is growing need for a better understanding of intergroup attitudes as a basis for planning programs to reduce inter-ethnic tension and promote positive intergroup relations. While some intervention programs exist, there is surprisingly little conceptual underpinning for such programs, or evidence to show their effectiveness. In fact, conflicting hypotheses (ethnocentrism and multiculturalism) make quite different predictions about intergroup relations in a pluralistic society. The purpose of the proposed research is to explore these conflicting views by examining the relationship between adolescents' attitudes toward their own ethnic or racial group and toward other groups, and to examine contextual factors that influence these attitudes. These questions will be examined among adolescents from four major American ethnic groups (Asian American, African American, Hispanic, and White), in high school environments that differ in the concentration of each group (homogeneous versus heterogeneous). The first step in this program is to validate measures of intergroup attitudes that are currently under development. These measures, together with existing measures of ethnic attitudes, will be used in a survey of 800 students in 8 high schools which differ in degree of homogeneity and heterogeneity for each of the 4 ethnic groups involved. The survey will permit testing of the conflicting hypotheses in differing school contexts. Follow-up interviews will be carried out with selected subjects to explore in depth the relationships among contexts and attitudes. From the results, a model program will be developed, and an experimental study will be carried out to determine the extent to which attitudes towards own and other groups can be modified. The long term goal is to develop a knowledge base as a foundation for intervention programs to promote positive intergroup relations. Such programs are important because of the adverse consequences to mental health of negative attitudes toward both one's own group and other racial or ethnic groups.
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