TRANSMISSIONS OF ANTI-FOREIGNER ATTITUDES FROM PARENTS TO CHILDREN - A REGIONAL LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF THE INTRAGENERATIONAL AND INTERGENERATIONAL FORMATION OF A PATTERN OF SERIAL ORIENTATION

This study analyzes the formation of xenophobic attitudes towards fore igners among young people during their adolescent phase. The analysis is based on data of a regional three-wave panel survey (1994-96) of yo ung people and their parents. Estimates based from on structural equat ion models show that the stability of these attitudes increases with t he age of the adolescents. The present analysis shows that the influen ce stemming from mother-child transmission is of substantive importanc e for the formation of anti-foreigner attitudes among young people. Th e strength of its total effect is based on the continued cumulative pr esence of mother-child effects during the entire period of observation although the direct mother-child effects decline with the increasing age of the children. The father-child transmission of attitudes, in co ntrast, is of lesser importance. Once the adolescent reaches age 16, t he direct father-child effect disappears, and the continued presence o f a total father-child effect for 16-year olds is solely based on the high intragenerational stability of xenophobic attitudes among adolesc ents. A comparison of the observed parent-child effects among same-age adolescents in 1994 and 1996 indicates that the observed effects are largely constant; they vary only minimally due to period-dependent con text effects.