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Intergroup friendship and children's intentions for social exclusion in integrative classrooms: the moderating role of teachers' diversity beliefs
Author(s) -
Grütter Jeanine,
Meyer Bertolt
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12240
Subject(s) - friendship , psychology , moderation , social psychology , diversity (politics) , multilevel model , social exclusion , developmental psychology , sociology , machine learning , anthropology , computer science , economics , economic growth
We examine children's intentions to socially exclude other children with special educational needs in integrative classrooms. Based on developmental and diversity research, we hypothesize that intergroup friendship leads to lower intentions to socially exclude. We also examine the moderating role of teachers' diversity beliefs on the proposed relationship. We obtained social network and questionnaire measures from 439 primary school pupils from 20 school classes, and analyzed them with multilevel modeling. In support of the moderation hypothesis, results show that intergroup friendship was only associated with lower intentions for social exclusion if teachers saw value in diversity for their class. The results offer important insights into intergroup contact theory and its use for designing implications for integrative education.