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Interracial Contact and Racial Attitudes: A Comparative Study of Asian, Black, Latino, and White Youth
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ABSTRACT
The historic Brown v. Board of Education decision rendered de jure racial segregation in
public schools unconstitutional. In the wake of this decision, a nationwide school desegregation movement began with a goal of providing greater opportunities for students of different races and ethnicities to interact. Partially influenced by the contact hypothesis, desegregation proponents believed that close and sustained contact with members of other racial and/or ethnic groups would promote more racial tolerance. Several decades later, however, reviews of research in desegregated schools generally found only mixed support for the contact hypothesis. Given that research investigating the contact hypothesis and adolescents’ racial attitudes is limited, it is difficult to treat these results as definitive. In this paper, we use a nationally representative sample of Asian, Black, Latino, and White adolescents to address this limitation. We also investigate possible mechanisms (i.e., interracial friendship, frequency of contact, and quality of contact) that might mediate the relationship between interracial contact and adolescents’ racial attitudes. Our findings reveal that the opportunity for interracial contact is quite restricted. About two in ten youth nationwide have the opportunity for cross-racial contact. We also find that the effect of interracial contact on racial attitudes is weaker for youth of color than White youth.
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| | Authors: Ebert, Kimberly. |
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1
ABSTRACT
The historic Brown v. Board of Education decision rendered de jure racial segregation in
public schools unconstitutional. In the wake of this decision, a nationwide school desegregation
movement began with a goal of providing greater opportunities for students of different races
and ethnicities to interact. Partially influenced by the contact hypothesis, desegregation
proponents believed that close and sustained contact with members of other racial and/or
ethnic groups would promote more racial tolerance. Several decades later, however, reviews of
research in desegregated schools generally found only mixed support for the contact
hypothesis. Given that research investigating the contact hypothesis and adolescents’ racial
attitudes is limited, it is difficult to treat these results as definitive. In this paper, we use a
nationally representative sample of Asian, Black, Latino, and White adolescents to address this
limitation. We also investigate possible mechanisms (i.e., interracial friendship, frequency of
contact, and quality of contact) that might mediate the relationship between interracial contact
and adolescents’ racial attitudes. Our findings reveal that the opportunity for interracial contact
is quite restricted. About two in ten youth nationwide have the opportunity for cross-racial
contact. We also find that the effect of interracial contact on racial attitudes is weaker for youth
of color than White youth.
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