Projekt IRCiS
Znanstveni radovi
Imagining a better world: assessing the immediate and delayed effects of imagined contact on attitudes toward refugees in elementary school
Introduction: Preparing host-society children for contact with refugees coming into their classes poses a new and important challenge for countries with little prior experience in integration. Imagined contact is a prejudice-reduction intervention that can be particularly useful in this context. However, its long-term effects and potential age-related variations in its efficacy among primary school children remain understudied.
Methods: This study investigated the short-term and long-term effects of an imagined contact school intervention on the change in attitudes and contact intentions of 1,544 children aged 7–15. Of these, 827 participated in a four-session-long intervention delivered by their teachers within their regular classes, while 717 served as a comparison group. Short-term effects were assessed approximately one week after the last intervention session, with long-term effects evaluated around two and a half months later.
Results: Our findings indicate that the imagined contact intervention instigates positive changes in intergroup attitudes and contact intentions in both the short term and long term, but only for the children in the lower grades of primary school.
Discussion: While the durability of these effects among younger participants holds promise for future use of imagined contact in schools, we also scrutinize potential developmental and methodological explanations of the absence of expected intervention effects among older children.
Vrdoljak, A., Čorkalo Biruški, D., Stanković, N., Fasel, R. Butera, F. & Jelić, M. (2024). Imagining a better world: assessing the immediate and delayed effects of imagined contact on attitudes toward refugees in elementary school. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1294208
“We would love to, but…”—needs in school integration from the perspective of refugee children, their parents, peers, and school staff
Existing research on the education of refugee children has been conducted in countries with a longstanding tradition of refugee integration. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the integration process of refugee children in Croatian schools. Croatia is a small EU country with limited experience in refugee integration. The phenomenological approach was used to examine the experiences and perspectives of the relevant actors. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with refugee children (N = 15), their parents (N = 5), classmates (N = 50), and school staff (N = 54) from six elementary schools in Zagreb. Data analyses suggested three general needs: educational, language, and social, each of them connected to more specific needs, challenges, and suggestions. The results of the study are discussed within the Schachner et al. (2017) framework of immigrant adolescents’ acculturation.
Keywords: Refugee childrenschool integration
Vrdoljak, A., Stanković, N., Čorkalo Biruški, D., Jelić, M., Fasel, R. & Butera, F. (2022). “We would love to, but…” — needs in school integration from the perspective of refugee children, their parents, peers, and school staff. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2022.2061732
Objavljen je i rad nastao o okviru spin-off projekta hrvatskog tima koji nam je bio važan temelj za osmišljavanje i pripremu radionica zamišljenog kontakta:
Efficacy of imagined contact intervention with children and adolescents in reducing negative intergroup outcomes: A systematic review
Due to its efficacy shown in early research with children, imagined contact has often been proposed as a school prejudice-reduction intervention. Nevertheless, some of the more recent studies have not been able to replicate the expected effects. This review presents the first systematic examination of the effect of imagined contact interventions conducted with children and adolescents from 2007 onwards. An extensive database search identified a total of 30 interventions across 25 separate studies of imagined contact effects (total N = 3462). The results suggest mixed support for the effectiveness of imagined contact. Furthermore, imagined contact most often leads to improvement on the measures of intended and real intergroup behaviour, followed by the measures of intergroup attitudes. The effects on the measures of emotions are rarely measured and observed. Additionally, significant intervention effects are more often found in younger children, as well as for interventions that are researcher-led (as opposed to teacher-led) and conducted individually or in small groups. Finally, interventions incorporating modified (vs. standard) scenarios, reinforcement techniques other than writing, and multiple (vs. single) sessions tend to be more beneficial in changing intergroup bias. These findings could prove useful in planning future imagined contact school interventions.
Vrdoljak, A., Jelić, M., Čorkalo Biruški, D. & Stanković, N. (2023). Efficacy of imagined contact intervention with children and adolescents in reducing negative intergroup outcomes: A systematic review. Social Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-023-09869-w