"Do I belong?" - How negative stereotypes influence the social relationships of adolescents with migration background in school contexts

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Not all ethnic groups of children and adolescents with migration background are equally integrated into the German educational system. Students originating from Turkey, South-East Europe, and Arabic countries show lower academic performance than their native peers. Negative performance-related stereotypes can contribute to these ethnic disparities in education. Previous research showed that perceived stereotype threat can reduce immigrant students’ test performance and learning. The proposed research project investigates whether stereotype threat reduces negatively stereotyped students’ social belonging to the academic domain and their social approach motivation (i.e., the motivation to initiate and maintain positive social relationships with peers in the educational domain). These social consequences of stereotype threat could decrease the social capital of students with migration background and thus contribute to ethnic educational disparities. In a cross-sectional questionnaire study with students with migration background (9th grade), we investigate whether perceived stereotype threat is related to lower social approach motivation, mediated by a reduced sense of belonging to the academic domain. Furthermore, we investigate the interplay of multiple social identities (identification with the ethnic group of origin and the German receiving society) for the social consequences of stereotype threat. We hypothesize that a strong national identity can mitigate the negative effects of a threatened ethnic identity. The negative relation of perceived stereotype threat and sense of belonging should be smaller for students with a strong ethnic and a strong national identity compared to students with a strong ethnic and a weak national identity. Moreover, the proposed project investigates the generalizability of these effects for social approach motivation towards members of the ethnic in- and out-group as well as in face-to-face and digital contact situations.