Intergroup friendship and children's intentions for social exclusion in integrative classrooms: the moderating role of teachers' diversity beliefs

Abstract

We examine children's intentions to socially exclude other children with special educational needs in integrative classrooms. Based on developmental and diversity research, we hypothesize that intergroup friendship leads to lower intentions to socially exclude. We also examine the moderating role of teachers' diversity beliefs on the proposed relationship. We obtained social network and questionnaire measures from 439 primary school pupils from 20 school classes, and analyzed them with multilevel modeling. In support of the moderation hypothesis, results show that intergroup friendship was only associated with lower intentions for social exclusion if teachers saw value in diversity for their class. The results offer important insights into intergroup contact theory and its use for designing implications for integrative education.