The Effects of Desegregation on Prejudice. Final Report.

The study described in this report investigated the effect of the classroom structure and climate of a recently desegregated school on the outgroup friendships and ethnic attitudes of white, black, and Mexican American fourth grade students in Dallas, Texas. A path analysis that charted the interethnic attitudes and attitude changes from fourth to fifth grade found that: (1) the higher the percentage of outgroup members in a class, the more outgroup friends the white and Mexican American students had; (2) the more the outgroup members displayed hostility toward the ingroup, the more negative were the ingroups' attitudes toward the outgroup among blacks and whites in general; (3) the more equal the social class and achievement levels of whites and minorities, the more minority friends the white students said they had; and the greater the discrepancy between whites and Mexican Americans, the more white friends the Mexican Americans had or said they would like to have, and the more favorable their attitudes toward whites were; and (4) the higher the self esteem of the whites, the more positive their ethnic attitudes. These results are discussed in this report within the context of a general model of factors that influence the outcomes of desegregated schools. (Author/APM)