This chapter brings together research on individual differences and cross-group interactions in promoting positive outgroup orientations among native majority youth. Recent research has begun to shift away from the traditional focus on prejudice reduction and gravitate towards understanding processes that prompt individuals to have positive feelings and intentions towards different ethnic and cultural outgroups. Extending this emerging line of research, this chapter reviews the findings on the role of individual differences in multicultural personality and cross-group friendships in generating positive outgroup attitudes (i.e., ethnic tolerance and allophilia) among young people. It concludes by discussing the practical implications of promoting young people's positive outgroup attitudes as well as fostering more positive and pro-social outgroup orientations towards representatives of different ethnic and cultural groups. 

Much prior research relies on the idea that antipathy towards immigrants is primarily driven by natives' perceptions of the threat that immigrants represent to their economic, cultural or national well-being. Yet little is known about whether subjective well-being affects attitudes toward immigrants. This study aimed to examine whether life satisfaction would foster tolerance towards immigrants over time via the indirect influence of political satisfaction and social trust. The sample comprised young native adults (N = 1352; M age = 22.72; SD = 3.1) in Sweden. The results revealed that young adults who were satisfied with important life domains were more likely to extend their satisfaction towards the political system, which consequently resulted in a generalised expectation of trustworthiness and a widening of their circles of trusted others. This then translates into more positive attitudes toward immigrants. The findings provide evidence that it is the causal relationship between political satisfaction and social trust (rather than social trust in itself) which promotes the positive impact of life satisfaction on tolerance towards immigrants. The study highlights that fostering political satisfaction and social trust may play an important role in shaping young people's positive attitudes towards immigrants.

Background The existing literature suggests that positive parenting might serve as a protective factor against immigrant adolescents' engagement in externalizing difficulties when they are exposed to negative experiences of ethnic derogation. To date, little is known, however, about whether different dimensions of positive parenting may moderate the detrimental impact of ethnic harassment at school on immigrant youth's antisocial behavior. Objective This study aimed to investigate which specific dimensions of positive parenting may act as a buffer against the detrimental impact of ethnic harassment at school on immigrant adolescents' antisocial behavior (i.e., delinquency and violence). Method Using longitudinal data, we followed first- and second-generation immigrant adolescents (N = 365; Mage = 13.93, SD = .80; 46% girls; 37% first-generation) in Sweden over a period of one year. Data collection at Time 1 (T1) was completed in the spring semester of the school year, and Time 2 (T2) assessments took place a year after the first data collection. We ran a series of regressions analyses via the SPSS PROCESS macro for each dimension of positive parenting behavior and each type of antisocial behavior. Results We found that ethnically harassed immigrant adolescents who received parental warmth, perceived their influence on family decisions and whose parents were aware of their children's daily activities were less likely to engage in delinquency and violence one year later. In addition, we saw that immigrant youth whose parents actively sought information about their offsprings' lives were less prone to display violence in the face of ethnic harassment. Conclusions The results suggest that parents are important in overriding the noxious effects of negative peer interactions targeting their children's ethnic background, even during an adolescence marked by significant changes in child-parent and child-peer relationships. These findings might inform the development of intervention components for testing in interventions studies aimed at preventing immigrant youths' antisocial behavior and future involvement in violent criminal offences.

Much prior research has focused on understanding how host nationals’ negative opinions of the impact of migration and arriving communities affect their attitudes towards newcomers. Yet, the role of host nationals’ positive opinions has remained largely underinvestigated. The present study aims to move beyond the negative intergroup paradigm and contribute to the literature by examining whether positive opinions of refugees’ impact on the host society are related to host nationals’ positive behavioural intentions towards them. Specifically, the study investigated (1) the mediating role of social proximity in the relationship between positive opinions of refugees’ impact and readiness to assist them and (2) symbolic and realistic threats as potential moderators that might influence this direct/indirect relationship. The results provide initial evidence of the important role of positive opinions of refugees’ impact on the host community in promoting positive behavioural intentions towards newcomers via indirect association with closer social proximity. Moreover, our findings suggest that this relationship might be particularly beneficial for host nationals who perceive immigrants as imposing a realistic threat to their lives and to society as a whole—individuals who tend to be amongst the most prejudice-prone and resistant to change. 

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.

This study aimed to analyze affiliations with violent peers as an underlying mechanism that associates ethnic harassment with violent behaviors among immigrant youth (N= 365;M-age= 13.93,SD= 0.80), and also identify the risk factors in this relation. The results revealed that identification with an immigrant peer crowd at school made ethnically harassed immigrant adolescents more inclined to associate with violent peers and, in turn, engage in violent behaviors over time. Immigrant youth's orientation toward the mainstream culture was not found to either elevate or buffer the effect of ethnic harassment on youth's affiliation with violent peers. Yet, ethnically harassed immigrant adolescents were shown to be more prone to violent behaviors over time when they were less orientated toward Swedish culture. The findings suggest that preventing ethnicity-based harassment and diversifying adolescents' peer groups at schools may be a way to prevent immigrant adolescents' involvement in violent behaviors.

This study examined the political interest of young adults who over two years moved in or out of a romantic relationship or had a romantic partner at both ages. The sample comprised young adults in Sweden (n = 1335; M-age = 22.75, SD = 3.01). Among those who entered a romantic relationship, the partners seemed to adjust to each other's political interest, but when separations occurred, the influence of the former partner vanished. Attending to similarities and dissimilarities in both partners' levels of political interest, we hypothesized that in relations where both partners had high political interest, their political discussions would occur frequently, and they were likely to reinforce each other's search for information about society more than in other romantic relationships. This hypothesis was confirmed. We also examined if partners with different political interest had lower partner commitments and later become singles more often than couples with similar political interests. We found few differences. Overall, both variable- and person-oriented analyses showed that romantic partners can both thwart and increase the political interest of young adults. Apparently, young adults' romantic partners play a significant role for their political interest.