National identity and in-group/out-group attitudes with Basque and Basque-Spanish children growing up in the Basque Country

Abstract

National identity and in-group/out-group attitudes (evaluation and affect) as well as the relation of these variables to age, gender, and national group were investigated in 101 Basque children aged 7 and 11 years who belonged to the Basque and Basque-Spanish national groups. Findings show that the scores of the older Basque children on the six dimensions of National Identification were higher than those of Basque-Spanish children of the same age. For the 11-year-old Basque children, National Identification is more important than for their Basque-Spanish peers. With respect to in-group/out-group attitudes, both Basque and Basque-Spanish children show more positive attitudes (i.e., attributed more positive and less negative traits, and show higher positivity and likeability) towards their own in-group than towards the out-groups. The positive attitudes toward the in-group shown by the Basque children, however, are higher than those of the Basque-Spanish children. Moreover, Basque children's attitudes towards out-groups in general and towards the traditional enemy, in particular, are more negative than those of the Basque-Spanish children. Finally, while with Basque children certain dimensions of national identity correlated positively with positive attitudes toward the in-group and negatively with positive attitudes towards the traditional enemy, with Basque-Spanish children the same dimensions correlated positively with positive attitudes toward both the in-group and the national out-groups. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords:

• Development
• National identification
• In-group/out-group attitudes
• National group