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Intergroup relations and precursors of ethnic
identity among immigrant children living in Italy
Ugo Pace – UKE, University Kore Enna – Italy
Nationalism and National Identities Today: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism (CRONEM)
12 – 13 June 2007
ISSUES
WHAT factors can influence both self and others’ descriptions and
the quality of interethnic relationship in a multiethnic society?
HOW ethnic distinctions are employed in the process of adapting to
a multiethnic context?
Developmental and Social Psychologists tasks
Analysis of feelings and attitudes mutually developed by individuals
belonging to different ethnic-cultural groups sharing the same living
space
PRESENT AIMS
In order to answer these questions, it seems important to analyze
how, since childhood, feelings of belonging influence the individual’s
identity, attitudes and social relationships
In this perspective, the present study sought to examine how the
objective ethnic belonging and the emergence of self-ideas wrapped
to an ethnic group membership influence the quality of peer
interethnic relationships
Ethnic Belonging, Ethnicity and Ethnic Identity
Several studies on interethnic relationships in a multicultural society
have focused interest on two constructs referring to people ethnic
belonging:
Ethnicity
Ethnic identity
In the early works, ethnicity was defined as the objective belonging
to an ethnic group
More recently, researchers have stressed the narrow meaning of such
a definition and have underlined that ethnicity can be considered as
something more than the simple ethnic belonging linked to the state
of birth
Strictly related to ethnic belonging is ethnic identity, defined as the
feeling of belonging to an ethnic group or as that part of one’s
thoughts, beliefs, behaviours, attitudes and values which result from
membership of such a group
In the course of development, individuals acquire a wider and more
appropriate awareness and, during adolescence, besides the
achievement of a personal identity, all knowledge about the “Ethnic
Self” becomes part of a generalized representation of the self and
enables the formation of a mature kind of ethnic identity
From an operational viewpoint, studies on influence of ethnicity or
ethnic identity on psychosocial development are very different:
Studies on influence of ethnicity
have stressed the importance of
objective belonging on some
psychological, attitudinal and
social outcomes
Studies on influence of ethnic
identity have stressed the
importance of it as
developmental process, focusing
on its
precursors during infancy
the emergence of children’s ethnic identity can be inferred by
criteria such as the type of self-description (Rotheram & Phinney,
1987), the understanding of ethnic constancy across time and
situations (Aboud, 1984, 1987) and the use of ethnic group behaviors
(Bernal, Knight, Garza, Ocampo & Cota, 1990).
Self-description can be
defined as the ability
to select an attribute,
such as descent or
kinship, nationality,
religion, language,
skin colour or group
name, defining the
membership of an
ethnic group in a
particular manner
Understanding of
constancy concerns
the awareness that
one’s own ethnic
identity is constant
across time and
situations despite
external changes
Use of ethnic group
behaviour such as
values, styles and
customs that reflect
ethnic culture can be
considered initially
determined by
family’s educative
practice and may
begin very early in life
Ethnic Belonging and Intergroup Relationships
Attitudes toward the ethnic in-group are generally positive and
comprise pride in and pleasure, satisfaction and contentment with
one’s own group (Aboud, 1987; Phinney, 1990); they are commonly
defined as preference, ethnocentrism or acceptance – the second
particularly in studies involving Black subjects
?
Attitudes towards other ethnic groups are generally negative and
the term ethnic prejudice is often used to define them. These two
dimensions are independent and are not as the opposite ends of a
continuum where preference for the in-group has, as its automatic
consequence, prejudice towards out-groups (Aboud, 2003; Nesdale,
2004).
Ethnicity and Ethnic Attitudes
How could ethnicity affect ethnic attitudes?
First, belonging to an ethnic group means to share a common set of
beliefs, values and attitudes towards the own and the other ethnic
groups
Moreover, when the focus is directed to immigrant people, belonging
to an ethnic group usually means belonging to a minority group
within a larger culture (Rotheram & Phinney, 1987). The social
status of an ethnic group is an extremely important variable in the
quality of ethnic relationships: belonging to a majority or minority
group significantly influences feelings, beliefs and attitudes towards
one’s own and other ethnic groups
Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Attitudes
What kind of relationships does occur between subjective ethnic
belonging and ethnic attitudes?
Social and developmental psychologists have often related the
expression of this kind of attitudes to self-identification phenomena.
In this way, Social Identity Theory (SIT) explicitly links intergroup
bias to identification with the in-group and to self-categorization
Research examining the relationship between identification with
cultural and ethnic groups and the formation of children and
adolescents’ ethnic attitudes in multiethnic societies has produced
contradictory results (Bennett, Lyons, Sani & Barrett, 1998)
On the one hand, it has been found that national or ethnic
identification can be related to the preference for one’s own group
and to a less favourable attitude towards other groups (Verkuyten,
1998); on the other hand, it has been underlined that identification
with one’s own social group is not always related to children’s
attitudes towards their own or other groups (Barrett, 2004).
Barrett (2004) has provided a possible explanation for these
discrepancies regarding national identity.
Children, daily, have access to socially shared information regarding
social groups. The nature of this information is not neutral, but may
contain evaluations and judgments regarding their own and other
groups. Therefore, in this way, children’s cognitions and attitudes
toward social groups have, to some degree, a social origin, and result
from social influence processes
Accessibility and use of ethnic labels constitute more than an
individual difference variable, but it is also inherent in the culture of
the society (Verkuyten, et al., 1995)
Goals of the Research
The study was aimed at exploring the influence of objective ethnic
belonging (ethnicity) and some precursors of ethnic identity on the
quality of ethnic attitudes of Maghrebian and South-Asian children
living in Italy. Particularly, two kind of ethnic attitudes were
considered: a positive attitude toward the in-group (ethnic
preference) and a negative attitude toward the other groups (ethnic
prejudice).
As regards the influence of objective
ethnic belonging on ethnic preference
and prejudice, on the basis of
previous research performed with
Maghrebian and South-Asian
children living in Sicily (Lo Coco et
al., 2000, 2002), it was predicted that
South-Asian children would show
higher levels of ethnic preference
than Maghrebian children but they
would not differ with regard to the
levels of ethnic prejudice
With regard to ethnic identity, in line
with Social Identity Theory, it was
expected that a strong ethnic identity
would be associated with higher
levels of ethnic preference. Although
results from the studies focused on
this topic are often contradictory,
this prevision is supported by several
recent studies (Davey, 1983; Davey &
Norburn, 1980; Nesdale, 2000;
Verkuyten, 1992; Verkuyten &
Neukee, 1999).
Method
Participants
95-second generation immigrant children (41 boys and 54 girls),
aged from 6 to 10 years old, were tested. The mean age was 8 years
and 4 months. The children belonged to the two larger ethnic groups
leaving in Palermo city (Italy): Maghrebians (including children
from Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) and South-Asians (including
children from India, Sri-Lanka, and Bangladesh). They were drawn
from three elementary schools situated in the historical centre of the
city. Children belonged to intact families with medium-low social
economic status.
Measures
Ethnic Identity
Ethnic Self-Identification. Each child was presented four boxes in
which photographs depicting the different target ethnic groups were
applied, and was asked “In what box would you put your picture?”.
Use of Ethnic Behaviours. Each child was asked six questions about
religion, traditions, language, food, etc.. The child had to say the ownethnic group’s behaviours he/she generally used. The experimenter said
the child “There are things that only a ............. (for example,
Maghrebian) child do, and the other children do not do: which of these
are things that you do?”.
Measures
Ethnic Attitudes
Preference and Rejection toward Partners in Sharing Activities. Each
subject was shown some photographs depicting children (boys and
girls) of the four target ethnic groups and was asked (a) “With
whom would you like ................ ? and (b) “With whom would not
you ever like ................ ? Children had to answer to 4 questions.
Two total scores were obtained:
- preference for ethnic in-group, by summing the positive choices
addressed to the same ethnic group partners and
- rejection towards the ethnic out-groups, by summing the negative
choices towards the partners of ethnic out-groups
Measures
Ethnic Attitudes
Stereotypes Test. In order to assess subjects’ attribution of traits to
children belonging to the four target ethnic groups, each child was
provided five little boxes, four corresponding to the four target
ethnic groups and one named “nobody”. The child was presented
ten cards, each of them showing an adjective (five positives and five
negatives) and was asked to put each of them into one of the boxes
corresponding to the four ethnic groups. If the child thought that
some adjective did not fit any ethnic group, he/she could put the
card in the “nobody” box.
Two scores were obtained:
-positive stereotypes towards the ethnic in-group and
-negative stereotypes towards the ethnic out-groups.
Results
Ethnicity and Intergroup Relationships
Table 1.
Means (and standard deviations) of Maghrebian and South-Asian
children on preference and rejection scores
Preference
in-group
Rejection
out-group
Maghrebians
1.07
(1.25)
3.16
(.89)
South-Asians
1.86
(1.54)
3.22
(1.00)
F
7.38**
.10
** p<.01
South-Asian children preferred to share their activities with same
group partners more than Maghrebians children.
Results
Table 2.
Means (and standard deviations) of Maghrebian and South-Asian
children on stereotypes scores
Positive
stereotypes
in-group
Negative
stereotypes
out-group
Maghrebians
.86
(.82)
South-Asians
1.44
(1.36)
F
5.99**
3.39
(1.20)
3.94
(1.08)
5.53**
** p>.02
South-Asian children showed more positive in-group and more
negative out-group stereotypes than Maghrebians counterparts.
Results
Ethnic Identity and Intergroup Relationships
Children were classified into two extreme groups for ethnic identity
on the basis of their ethnic self-identification and their score at the
Use of Ethnic Behaviours test. Children who choose an “incorrect”
ethnic group in the “Ethnic identification” test and contemporary
scored below the 33th percentile in the “Use of Ethnic Behaviours”
test were classified as “weak ethnic identity subjects”.
Children who choose the “correct”
ethnic group in the “Ethnic
identification” test and contemporary
scored above the 66th percentile in the
“Use of Ethnic Behaviours” test were
classified as “strong ethnic identity
subjects” (N=26)
Children who choose an “incorrect”
ethnic group in the “Ethnic
identification” test and
contemporary scored below the
33th percentile in the “Use of
Ethnic Behaviours” test were
classified as “weak ethnic identity
subjects” (N=21)
Results
Table 3.
Cross-tabulation between ethnic groups and children’ extreme
groups for ethnic identity
Weak ethnic
identity
(N= 21)
Strong ethnic
identity
(N=26)
Maghrebians
(N= 24)
15
9
South-Asians
(N=23)
6
17
X2 = 6.30, df = 1, p<.01
Most of children with a strong ethnic identity were South Asians,
whereas most of children with a weak ethnic identity were
Maghrebians.
Results
Table 4.
Means (and standard deviations) of children’ extreme groups for
ethnic identity on preference and rejection scores
Strong ethnic
identity
(N=26)
F
Preference
in-group
Weak
ethnic
identity
(N= 21)
.86
(1.20)
2.35
(1.44)
14.41***
Rejection
out-group
3.43
(.75)
3.35
(.89)
.11
***p<.001
Subjects with strong ethnic identity preferred partners belonging to
the same ethnic group more significantly than subjects with weak
ethnic identity.
Results
Table 5.
Means (and standard deviations) of children’ extreme groups for
ethnic identity on stereotypes scores
Weak ethnic
identity
(N= 21)
Strong ethnic
identity
(N=26)
F
Positive
stereotypes
in-group
.76
(.77)
1.35
(1.06)
4.50*
Negative
stereotypes
out-group
3.71
(1.01)
3.92
(1.20)
.40
*p<.04
Subjects with strong ethnic identity expressed more positive
stereotypes toward their own ethnic group than subjects with weak
ethnic identity.
Discussion
Ethnicity and Ethnic Attitudes
South-Asian children displayed higher levels of in-group favouritism
and higher levels of negative stereotypes, but not rejection, towards
the ethnic out-groups than Maghrebian peers
Since centuries the relationships between Italian and Maghrebian
people are common and frequent; this tradition of exchanges has
made more and more similar behavioural traits, somatic features,
life styles and the city planning of the two groups.
Growing up in Italy could be a different experience depending on
the ethnic group a child belongs to; particularly in Sicily, being a
Maghrebian seems to be very different from being a South-Asian
Discussion
Ethnicity and Ethnic Attitudes
Differently, South-Asian children seem to prefer to establish
relationships with peers of their own ethnic group
On the one hand these they show a strong attachment to the group
and the ethnic dimension is very salient in their social preferences.
On the other hand South-Asian children probably tend to consider
in a negative fashion individuals who belong to a different ethnic
group
Discussion
Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Attitudes
A strong ethnic identity was evidenced mostly among South-Asian
children than among Maghrebian ones. The clear-cut distinction
between South-Asians and majority group’s cultures, as underlined
above, seems to lead South-Asian children to structure a stronger
identification to their own group
In this sense the social context characterizing the encounter between
minority and majority groups influences not only interethnic
relationships but also that part of personal identity linked to ethnic
belonging
Discussion
Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Attitudes
Children with a strong ethnic identity exhibit high levels of in-group
biases, measured by preference and stereotypes tests
Brewer (1999) has underlined how in-group favouritism could
represent such as an ancestral link that people feel with in-group
membership, due to a real or just perceived relationship, that grants
individuals survival: in a developmental perspective, selfidentification, that is a very young children’s cognition acquired
around 3 years of age, could be the cognitive representation
associated to this feeling.
Discussion
Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Attitudes
Rejection and stereotypes toward out-group are not correlated to the
level of ethnic identity
Different studies have underlined that only in-group attachment
emerges from self-identification process (Brewer, 1999), whereas outgroup prejudice would implicate the ability of children to transform
a visual difference between them and peers from other ethnic groups
into an evaluation (Aboud, 2003)