Attitudes Towards Intergroup Dating Among Brussels Adolescents: The interaction of gender and ethnicity and its determinants

ABSTRACT

Attitudes towards intergroup dating and their determinants are important to comprehend group boundaries of multicultural societies. Our contribution investigates gender and ethnic differences in intergroup dating approval among 18 year olds from 11 ethnic groups in Belgium. We observe ethnic differences in the level of approval of intergroup dating. However, these ethnic disparities are largely explained by the degree of sexual liberalization, parental control and religiosity. Moreover, the associations of parental control, sexual liberalization and religiosity with attitudes towards intergroup dating differ for girls and boys. We conclude by highlighting the relevance of the interaction of gender and ethnic origin in shaping attitudes towards intergroup dating.

Key words:

• social distance
• dating
• religion
• interethnic
• sexuality
• Belgium

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the MaD research department from the WZB, in particular Ruud Koopmans and Merlin Schaeffer for their insightful comments on a previous draft.

Notes

1. Alternatively, logistic regression with robust standard errors and maximum likelihood estimator were carried out and led to exactly the same results with regard to the main explanatory variables.

² Within the ethnic minority sample, the interaction between gender and religiosity is solely significant for non-Muslim ethnic minority adolescents (results not shown).

³ The interaction between gender and sexual conservatism is significant for both Muslim and non-Muslim ethnic minority adolescents (results not shown).

⁴ This interaction is only significant for Muslim ethnic minority adolescents (results not shown).

Additional information

Funding

The data analysed in this contribution are part of a survey funded by Prospective Research in Brussels and the Université libre de Bruxelles.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Carol

Sarah Carol is research fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) and guest researcher at the WZB Social Science Center Berlin. She obtained her Dr. Phil. from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2013. Her work covers the social distance between Muslim migrants and natives in Western Europe, religious rights of Muslims, transnational marriages and the role of immigration policies.

Céline Teney

Céline Teney is junior research group leader at the Centre for Social Policy Research at the University of Bremen. Previously she held positions at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and the Université libre de Bruxelles. Her research interests cover the sociology of immigration, the sociology of the EU, political sociology and quantitative methodology.