Intergroup, Intragroup, and Changing Best Friendships: Implications for Prejudice and Attitudes Toward Integration in Ethnic Majority and Minority Adolescents

Intergroup friendships are crucial to promote positive intergroup relations. However, it is less clear whether intragroup and intergroup best friendships are stable in adolescence and how they are intertwined with the development of prejudice and attitudes toward integration. The present study addressed these questions among ethnic majority and minority adolescents in Italy. Participants were 1,227 youth (Mage = 15.67, SD = 1.20, 47.34% female), of whom 82.56% had an ethnic majority Italian background and 17.44% an ethnic minority background. Ethnic majority adolescents predominantly maintained stable intragroup best friendships, whereas ethnic minority youth were more likely to have stable intergroup best friendships or to change their friendship type. Best friendship type and stability moderated the development of prejudice but not of attitudes toward integration. This study highlights that leveraging the potential of intergroup friendships can be an effective way to reduce heinous forms of prejudice toward individuals with a different cultural background, but may not be enough to foster more abstract inclusive attitudes.