Developing Appreciative Attitudes toward Jews: A Multi-Campus Investigation

The purpose of this paper was to examine the institutional conditions and educational practices associated with the development of first-term students' appreciative attitudes toward Jews. Using a longitudinal design, we administered a theoretically derived and empirically validated measure of interfaith experiences to 7,194 first-term students enrolled in one of 122 institutions. Analytically, we weighted data to reflect national figures regarding first-year students and used hierarchical linear modeling to account for students nested within institutions. Results indicated that development during the first term in college was related to having space for support and spiritual expression, attending two or more interfaith activities, and productively engaging in provocative experiences that spurred dissonance and subsequent meaning making about worldview diversity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.