The Comparative Association of Personal Characteristics and Civic Activities with Socio-Economic Differences in Adolescents’ Attitudes Toward Immigrants in 21 European Educational Systems

Among many other factors, the formation of adolescents’ attitudes toward immigrants is related to multiple socio-economic, personal, and educational factors, yet little is known about their relative importance across educational systems. This study examined the relative contribution of students’ socio-economic background, personal characteristics, civic activities at school, and civic activities outside school to attitudes toward immigrants using nationally representative data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2022, including almost 70,000 participating eighth-grade students from 21 European educational systems. A series of regression models examined the extent to which different blocks of variables attenuated the association between socio-economic background and positive attitudes toward immigrants. Across the 21 educational systems, higher socio-economic background was generally associated with more positive attitudes. Among the examined predictor blocks, the inclusion of students’ personal characteristics attenuated the most of these associations, followed by civic activities at school, whereas civic activities outside school contributed relatively little. The overall pattern of findings was remarkably consistent across the participating educational systems. These findings highlight the central role of adolescents’ personal civic dispositions in explaining their attitudes toward immigrants and suggest that schools can promote more inclusive attitudes by fostering students’ civic development alongside opportunities for meaningful civic participation.