Adolescents’ Openness to Include Refugee Peers in Their Leisure Time Activities

Hanna Beißert (), Kelly Lynn Mulvey and Meike Bonefeld
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Hanna Beißert: Department of Teacher and Teaching Quality, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Kelly Lynn Mulvey: Social Development Lab, Department of Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8101, USA
Meike Bonefeld: Center for Research on Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA), Rostocker Str. 6, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: Background: Against the backdrop of increasing refugee movements, the integration of refugees is becoming a more and more relevant topic for many European countries. As integration is a bidirectional process, the current study examines the openness of adolescents in Germany to include refugee peers from Syria in leisure time activities. Methods: Participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario in which they had to choose who of two peers (a German peer or a refugee peer from Syria) they would include in their activity. Additionally, we varied the relevant skills of the two protagonists to investigate the role of group functioning aspects for inclusion decisions. Three measures were applied: (1) adolescents’ own decisions, (2) what they expected their peer group to do, and (3) what they thought their peer group should do. Results: The findings demonstrate that the participants were generally very open to include refugees and that the protagonists’ skills were relevant for their decisions, though much more for the expected group decision than for adolescents’ own decisions. Reasoning analyses illustrate adolescents’ considerations for these decisions. Conclusion: This research helps to clarify the interplay of moral considerations and aspects of group functioning in adolescents’ inclusion decisions regarding refugee peers.

Keywords: inclusion; refugees; Syria; adolescents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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