Open AccessAre Immigrants Scapegoats? The Reciprocal Relationships Between Subjective Well-Being, Political Distrust, and Anti-immigrant Attitudes in Young Adulthood
Author(s) -
Liliia Korol,
Alexander W. Fietzer,
Pieter Bevelander,
Ihor Pasichnyk
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
psychological reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.645
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1558-691X
pISSN - 0033-2941
DOI - 10.1177/00332941211065951
Subject(s) - distrust , immigration , psychology , politics , social psychology , young adult , developmental psychology , political science , law , psychotherapist
This study examined the impact of native youth’s subjective well-being on exclusionary attitudes toward immigrants, seeking to understand the relationship between subjective well-being, political distrust, and anti-immigrant attitudes over time. Using longitudinal data, we followed three cohorts of native young adults ( N = 1352; Mage = 22.72, SD = 3.1) in Sweden over a period of 2 years. The results showed that subjective well-being did not predict an increase in anti-immigrant attitudes among native youth, but anti-immigrant attitudes had a significant impact on subjective well-being. The data also found bidirectional and mutually reinforcing relationships between subjective well-being and political distrust, and between political distrust and anti-immigrant attitudes. These results highlight that improving young adults’ subjective well-being represents an important basis for preventing the development of political distrust, which in turn could reduce native youth’s susceptibility to adopt hostile attitudes toward immigrants.