This is a study of inter-racial contact and racial attitudes. It uses data from the Monitoring the Future survey, a repeated cross-sectional survey of U.S. high school seniors carried out annually since 1976. Data have been collected each year from approximately 125 public and private high schools using a multi-stage cluster sampling procedure to obtain a nationally representative sample of high school seniors. Data for the years 1976-77, 1981-82, 1986-87, and 1991-92 will be analyzed. Across these years, a sample of roughly 26,000 respondents will be obtained. The research will focus specifically on contact between African Americans and Caucasians since these are the only two racial groups identified in the data available. Log-linear models and structural equation models will be used to estimate the hypothesized relationships. The purpose of the research is to examine the effect of interracial contact on racial attitudes among U.S. high school seniors and determine the conditions under which interracial contact fosters racial tolerance. The research has three objectives: (1) to examine the social structural basis of interracial contact, (2) to examine the effects of different types of interracial contact on the perceived quality of interracial contact, and (3) to examine the effects of interracial contact on racial attitudes and the way in which perceptions of the quality of contact condition these effects. Research on how inter-racial contact and racial attitudes are related tests fundamental sociological theories of social influence and the relationship between attitudes and behavior. In seeking to determine whether interracial contact affects racial attitudes and the ways in which such contact is socially structured, this research will provide new information about the consequences of racial segregation in the United States.
