National identification and in-group/out-group attitudes with Bosniak and Serbian children in Bosnia

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between national identity and in-group/out-group attitudes with Bosniak and Serbian children living in Bosnia. In total, 89 Bosniak (n = 49) and Serbian (n = 40) children aged 7 and 11 years participated in the study. They were presented with the national identity and the in-group/out-group attitudes scale. The data show that the older children attached less importance to their national identity than the younger children. On three out of six scales, Serbian children attributed greater importance to national identity than Bosniak children did. In addition, Bosniak as well as Serbian children attributed more positive characteristics to their own in-group than to the out-groups. They also ascribed more negative adjectives to the out-groups than the in-group. There were no effects for age. The findings show that the relationship between in-group favouritism and out-group derogation is present with Bosniak but not with Serbian children.

Keywords:

• National identification
• In-group/out-group attitudes
• Conflict
• Bosnian-Bosniak and Bosnian-Serbian children

Notes

¹The population of Bosnia is a mixture of Muslim Bosniaks, Roman Catholic Croats, Russian Orthodox Serbs, and some other smaller ethnic groups who are all called Bosnians. In this paper, we will talk about Bosnian-Bosniak and Bosnian-Serbian children to differentiate between children belonging to the Bosniak and Serbian population groups in Bosnia.