The purpose of this study was to explore how having Mexican American friends
influences a person?s perception to racial/ethnic (Mexican American) specific teasing.
This study sought to extend the research on friendships and prejudice by investigating
how friendship influences a person rating of ethnic specific teasing. This study is
significant because promoting interracial friendships could be an avenue to alleviate
some of the negative effects of racial teasing. Moreover, it may help facilitate and create
a more comfortable social environment that might help ethnic minorities in school.
Participants were asked to rate vignettes, including characters that were
identified as Mexican American, which contained racial/ethnic specific teasing. They
were asked to rate the vignettes according to adjectives that were either positive or
negative, such as: humorous, friendly, mean, and cruel. Additionally, measures of
empathy, social desirability, prejudice, and white racial consciousness were
administered. Participants were asked to think of a Mexican American friend and
complete a questionnaire, the Acquaintance Description Form F-2, as a way of
measuring the intensity and closeness of this friendship. The major hypothesis was that participants who indicated a greater and more
intense friendship with their Mexican American friend would rate the teasing as less
positive and more disapproving. Analysis found that people have a more disapproving
attitude toward teasing to the extent that they have, respectively, at least one Mexican
American friend or a higher level of exposure to African Americans. Statuses of white
racial consciousness were also found to be strong predictors for how participants rated
vignettes.
Findings somewhat supported both the Extended Contact Theory and the
Intergroup Contact Theory, adding to the literature that finds when groups spend not
only time together but quality time together benefits can be expected. Some of these
benefits may help to reduce the positive perception of racial teasing and presumably
less racial teasing. Future research should explore the relationship between white racial
consciousness and attitudes and perceptions of racial specific teasing as a strong
associate between the two emerged in this study. Additionally future research may
explore whether less positive feelings of racial teasing is related to less racial teasing
behaviors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-314 |
| Date | 16 January 2010 |
| Creators | Gonzalez, Lorena L. |
| Contributors | Conoley, Collie, Castillo, Linda |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
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