School ethnic diversity and White students' civic attitudes in England

Soc Sci Res. 2015 Jan:49:97-109. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.07.006. Epub 2014 Jul 27.

Abstract

The current paper focuses on White British students in lower secondary education and investigates the effect of school ethnic diversity on their levels of trust and inclusive attitudes towards immigrants. Use is made of panel data of the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS) to explore these relationships. Ethnic diversity is measured with the proportion of students in a grade identifying with a minority. In agreement with contact theory, the paper initially finds a positive relation between diversity and inclusive attitudes on immigrants. However, this link disappears once controls for social background, gender and prior levels of the outcome are included in the model. This indicates that students with particular pre-enrolment characteristics have self-selected in diverse schools and that inclusive attitudes have stabilized before secondary education. Diversity further appears to have a negative impact on trust, irrespective of the number of controls added to the model.

Keywords: Inclusive attitudes; Longitudinal data; School ethnic diversity; Selection effects; Social trust.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Attitude*
  • Child
  • Cultural Diversity*
  • Emigrants and Immigrants*
  • England
  • Ethnicity*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Minority Groups
  • Schools*
  • Sex Factors
  • Social Discrimination
  • Students*
  • Trust
  • White People*