National and supranational identities and ingroup-outgroup attitudes of Hungarian adolescents

Abstract

Although there is an extensive literature on children’s national identities and attitudes, relatively less research in this area has come from beyond Western Europe. This study examined Hungarian adolescents’ national/Hungarian and supranational/European identities and attitudes towards the ingroup and outgroups. One hundred and sixty-six adolescents aged 13–18 years completed measures on relative importance of self-descriptors, strength of identification, and affect for, and trait attributions to, Hungarians and three salient outgroups (Romanians, Russians and Americans). Socioeconomic status (SES) was measured by the Family Affluence Scale. Results showed that Hungarian was the most important self-descriptor compared with gender, age and European, but clear age, gender and SES variations were identified. 13–15 year-olds reported stronger European identification than 16–18 year-olds. Lower- to middle-SES, but not higher-SES, adolescents showed stronger Hungarian vs. European identification. Lower-SES adolescents liked all outgroups less than Hungarians, but middle- and higher-SES ones liked Hungarians and Americans more than Russians and Romanians. Still, Romanians were stereotyped less positively than all other outgroups regardless of socio-demographics. These findings are discussed drawing on social-psychological and developmental literature alongside Hungary’s sociohistorical backdrop. Despite Hungary’s ethnic homogeneity, its young's national identities and attitudes can vary due to differing experiences related to socio-demographic backgrounds.

Keywords:

• Hungarian adolescents
• national identity
• supranational identity
• ingroup attitudes
• outgroup attitudes
• socioeconomic status

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our thanks to the students and staff at the participating schools at Szeged, Hungary, who made this study possible. Some results from this paper were presented at the 24th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD), July 10–14, Vilnius, Lithuania.