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Building inclusive societies by promoting social inclusion and reducing discrimination. Theories,
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With the support of the
Erasmus+ Programme
of the European Union
coperta
Editors:
Oana Negru-Subtirica
Elisabetta Crocetti
Building inclusive societies

by promoting social inclusion
and reducing discrimination
Theories, research, and interventions
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reﬂect the
views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Promoting social inclusion skills in a post-truth world:
pagina titlu A gamified online platform and curriculum
The current curriculum was prepared with
the support of the Erasmus+ Programme
of the European Union in the framework
of The Strategic Partnership Project
"Promoting social inclusion skills in a
post-truth world: A gamified online
platform and curriculum" (PROMIS).
https://promis.education
In the PROMIS Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project, 7 organizations from 6 countries

developed research-based instruments to help students better understand what social inclusion
is and how they can enhance their competences when interacting with marginalized groups.
The project partners are Babes-Bolyai University (Romania, coordinator), University of

Bologna (Italy), University of Bordeaux (France), Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in
Warsaw (Poland), Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), Utrecht University
(Netherlands), and eLearning & Software (Romania).
The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the
views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Title: Building inclusive societies by promoting social
inclusion and reducing discrimination. Theories, research, and
interventions
Editors: Oana Negru-Subtirica & Elisabetta Crocetti
ISBN:
978-606-977-059-7
Layout design: Georgiana Savin
Publishing House: Editura ASCR
Copyright information
© - 2021- Babes-Bolyai University, University of
Bologna, University of Bordeaux, Kaunas University of
Technology, Utrecht University, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński
University in Warsaw. All rights reserved. Licensed to the
European Union under conditions.
Contents
Biosketches 8
Building Inclusive Societies: Promoting Social Inclusion and
Reducing Discrimination 12
For a Just and Equal Society: Promoting Integration and
Inclusion16
Isabelle Dielwart, Belinda Hibbel, & Susan Branje
Learning outcomes 17
Problem Statement 19
Theoretical Background 21
Empirical Research 27
Interventions34
References 42
Summary48
Resources 50
Social Inclusion of Adolescents with a Migrant
Background54
Savaş Karataş & Elisabetta Crocetti
Preliminary exercises 56
Interventions79
References 90
Summary97
Questions99
Resources 100
How Poverty Affects Youth Development: From Social
Inequalities to Social Inclusion 104
Oana Negru-Subtirica, Casandra Timar-Anton, Bianca V. Marinica, & Bogdan Glavan

Interventions129
References 135
Summary 139
Key questions 141
Resources 142
Promoting Gender Equality By Tackling
Gender Stereotypes 147
Rasa Erentaitė, Saulė Raižienė, Jurgita Jurkevičienė, Titty Varghese, & Dainora Maumevičienė

Interventions174
References 179
Summary185
Questions186
Resources 187
Social Inclusion of People with Physical Disabilities 195
Dominika Karaś, Joanna Świderska, & Ewa Topolewska-Siedzik

Interventions224
References 237
Summary 243
Questions245
Resources 246
Social Inclusion of Youth with Autism 251
Lyda Lannegrand & Cyrille Perchec

Interventions278
References 287
Summary294
Questions296
Resources 298
Biosketches
Susan Branje is a Professor at the division of Youth and Family,

Utrecht University. Her work focuses on understanding
the developmental changes in adolescents’ relationships
with parents, siblings, friends, and romantic partners and
the associations with adolescent personality, identity and
adjustment.
Elisabetta Crocetti is an Associate Professor of Social
Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Alma Mater
Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy. Her major research
interests include the dynamic processes underlying personal
and social identity formation in adolescence.
Isabelle Dielwart is a Lecturer at Utrecht University, in the
division of Development & Education of Youth in Diverse
Societies. Her interest lies in educational issues regarding
diversity and inclusion, and in the development of youth in the
context of segregation, polarization, and social exclusion.
Rasa Erentaitė is a Senior Researcher and an Associate Professor
at Kaunas University of Technology in Kaunas, Lithuania. Her
research addresses adolescent identity formation, achievement
motivation, future goals, and aspirations in the context of social
inequalities.
Bogdan Glăvan is a Ph.D. student at the School of Applied
Cognitive Psychology, Babeș-Bolyai University. His research
aims to investigate identity development during emerging
8
adulthood by analyzing the relation between identity processes,
self-regulation of goals, and meaning-making.
Belinda Hibbel is an Assistant Professor at the division of
Youth and Family and at the Teacher Education program for
primary education, Utrecht University. Her expertise lies in the
Philosophy of Education.
Jurgita Jurkevičienė is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at
Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. Her research
interests cover social welfare and policy, social inequality,
social media and communication, new information and
communication technologies.
Dominika Karaś is an adjunct in the Institute of Psychology at
the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland.
She is interested in psychometrics, identity formation processes,
well-being, and ambivalence in childbearing decisions.
Savaş Karataş is a Ph.D. student at the Department of
Psychology, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna,
Italy. His research interests include intergroup relationships,
cultural diversity climate in schools, and identity processes in
adolescence.
Lyda Lannegrand is a Professor of Developmental and
Educational Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, University
of Bordeaux, France. Her major research interests include
identity formation in adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Bianca V. Marinica is a Ph.D. student at the Doctoral School
of Applied Cognitive Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University.
9
Her main research interests concern youth’s personal and
professional development through volunteering.
Dainora Maumevičienė is an Associate Professor and a Vice-
Dean for studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and
Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology. Her interest
fields include ICT-integrated and blended English language
teaching, the use of innovative didactics (such as design
thinking in humanities, social sciences and arts), localisation
of software, databases and learning environments; and
interpreting and translation.
Oana Negru-Subtirica is an Associate Professor at the
Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, leading
the Self and Identity Development Lab. She researches
intentionality and agency, through identity, motivation, and
goals.
Cyrille Perchec is an Assistant Professor of Developmental
and Educational Psychology at the University of Bordeaux,
France. His major research interests focus on psychosocial and
socioemotional development in adolescence, with a particular
emphasis on the role of family relationships in adolescent
development.
Saulė Raižienė is a Senior Researcher at Kaunas University
of Technology, and a Professor at the Institute of Psychology,
Vilnius University, Lithuania. Her major research interests
include adolescents’ positive development and academic
motivation.
Joanna Świderska is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of
Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw,
10
Poland. Her research interests include the measurement theory
in psychology, statistical analysis, and research methods.
Casandra Timar-Anton is a Ph.D. student at the Doctoral School
of Applied Cognitive Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University. She
is interested in exploring the confluence between psychology
and human-computer interaction, particularly in the field of
self-tracking devices, mobile technologies, and innovative
interactive systems.
Ewa Topolewska-Siedzik is an Assistant Professor at the
Institute of Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University
in Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests cover identity as an
element of wide personality structure and its formation process
as well as psychometric issues.
Titty Varghese is a Ph.D. student & Lecturer at Kaunas
University of Technology (KTU) in Lithuania. Her research
interest covers public policy, women’s political empowerment,
decision making, local self-governance, third sector, and
violence against women.
11
Building Inclusive Societies: Promoting
Social Inclusion and Reducing Discrimination
The curriculum “Building inclusive societies: Promoting

social inclusion and reducing discrimination” (BUILD) is
designed as a course that integrates theoretical knowledge
and research findings with practical case studies and evidence
on the effectiveness of applied interventions focused on social
inclusion. The curriculum focuses on strategies, mechanisms,
and processes aimed to raise awareness of the dangers of
discrimination and prejudice and provide students with
theoretical and practical tools to contribute to enhancing social
inclusion. The curriculum can be used not only by university
teachers, but also by professionals employed in NGOs working
on social inclusion, and by social responsibility departments
in private companies. In this manner, the curriculum has high
transferability potential.
An international group of university scholars has developed
the BUILD curriculum as a response to the “post-truth” world,
where youth increasingly rely on information from unverified
and often undocumented sources coming from different social
media outlets. Disadvantaged and marginalized groups, like
immigrants, ethnic minorities, people with low socioeconomic
status, women, people with disabilities, etc. are especially
affected by online misinformation. These groups are often
presented in social media in a polarized, highly negative
manner, backed up by strong statements like “These people
are…”, followed by strong negative characteristics attributed
12
to these disadvantaged groups, pointing out weakness, threat,
or danger. Against this background, university teachers
who are also leading researchers of the core topics related to
social inclusion (e.g., identity, prejudice, social relationships)
have elaborated the BUILD curriculum to help students to
understand better what social inclusion is and how they can
promote it working with marginalized and discriminated
groups.
The BUILD curriculum consists of six modules that provide
a comprehensive analysis of social inclusion of different
groups. The first module provides an introduction to the
concepts and mechanisms behind group formation and
conflict (e.g., polarization, discrimination), mentioning ways in
which conflicts can be prevented or resolved, with a focus on
interventions in the school context. The second module tackles
social inclusion of adolescents with a migrant background,
examining the impact of migration on acculturation and identity
processes, intergroup relationships, and also providing evidence
regarding the effectiveness of interventions aimed to adjustment
of adolescents from different ethnic groups. The third module
approaches social inequalities and social inclusion in the context
of poverty, highlighting the impact that living with limited
resources can have on youth development (e.g., in terms of
cognitive development or decision-making) and ending with
evidence-based suggestions of actions that can be implemented.
The fourth module focuses on gender inequality, explaining
how gender stereotypes are contributing to it and suggesting
specific approaches to reduce them. The fifth module draws
the attention to the social inclusion of people with physical
13
disabilities, examining the barriers (e.g., physical but also social,
such as those related to stereotypes about their functioning)
they face and how they can be contrasted. The sixth chapter
focuses on the social inclusion of people with autism, while also
presenting interventions for promoting their self-determination
and social communication skills.
One innovative aspect of the curriculum consists of
integrating research on social inclusion from Western (France,
the Netherlands), Southern (Italy), and Eastern (Romania,
Poland, Lithuania) Europe. In this manner, it offers a
comprehensive European perspective on the current situation
regarding social inclusion of several groups and actions taken to
enhance it. Thus, the curriculum is the product of a think-tank
of experts on social inclusion, and it offers scientific information
presented in an accessible language to counteract online
misinformation and increase students’ critical understanding of
these issues.
The curriculum represents the first intellectual output of an
Erasmus+ strategic partnership “Promoting social inclusion
skills in a post-truth world: A gamified online platform and
curriculum (PROMIS)” (No. 2019-1-RO01-KA203-063157).
Together with the BUILD curriculum, the project partners from
six countries (Romania, Italy, Lithuania, France, Poland, and
the Netherlands) have also prepared a gamification manual
for the curriculum and further developed a modular online
course that is implemented in the learning platform promis.
education. Through the curriculum, the gamification manual,
the online course, and all the resources that are available
in the gamified online learning platform, the project, using
14
innovative pedagogies for digital natives, offers a rich set of
tools to increase students’ understanding of and capacity to
contrast heinous forms of discrimination, segregation, racism,
and gender inequality in order to promote social inclusion in
contemporary societies.
15
For a Just and Equal Society:
Promoting Integration and Inclusion
Isabelle Dielwart, Belinda Hibbel, & Susan Branje
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department

Education and Pedagogy, Utrecht University, the
Netherlands
Learning outcomes
After this unit, students will:

• have knowledge of theoretical concepts regarding
polarization, discrimination and exclusion.
• understand the mechanisms underlying group formation and
intergroup hostility and conflict.
• understand the practical implications of social exclusion on
the individual and societal level.
• have knowledge of evidence-based school interventions and
their underlying theories.
17
Case study
“Hi, my name is Hamza El Amrani and I am seventeen

years old. I aspire to be a lawyer one day. I am in my first
year of a bachelor’s degree in Law, and I have to gain
practical experience by doing an internship. I have put a lot
of effort into writing a motivation letter and designing a nice
resume. I have contacted six local companies already, but up
to today, I have not heard back from any of them. In contrast
to my classmates, who all found an internship after writing
just one or two letters. I am convinced the reason I have not
heard back, is the fact that I have a Moroccan name. My
friends in the neighbourhood talk a lot about the internship-
discrimination of youngsters who have a migration
background, just like me. I feel I am being judged solely by
my name, and not by my knowledge and skills. It must have
something to do with the trend I have noticed in the media,
where Moroccans are being portrayed as criminals and as
socially inept. It enrages me! And on top of it all, politicians
are also making us look bad; just recently I read a tweet
from a popular Dutch politician, accusing ‘four Moroccans’
of ‘attacking’ two women on the train. In fact, it turns out,
the individuals concerned were just railway conductors,
checking their tickets…”
18
Problem Statement
Today’s world is composed of complex and dynamic societies,

with growing cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity. In
the Netherlands, the societal debate around diversity-issues
such as multiculturalism, refugees, and migration seems to
harden. Almost 75% of the Dutch population believes they
live in a society characterized by polarization, referring to the
sharpening of contrasts and growing tensions between different
groups living in the same society (Beugelsdijk et al., 2019).
Polarization is characterized by social and economic
inequality, and can lead to the marginalization, stigmatization,
discrimination and social exclusion of certain groups, often
minority groups. Membership of such marginalized groups
has negative influences on developmental opportunities for
children and youth; they perform worse at school, experience
dissatisfaction or discomfort in their relationship with the
dominant group, and, like Hamza, have to search for longer
periods to find internships or employment. This makes it
problematic for these children to connect with the dominant
group, with the result that social inequality is passed on from
generation to generation (Fergusson et al., 2008; Georg, 2004).
The phenomenon of polarization becomes increasingly
visible due to the rise of social media. The ‘democratization’ of
the media has led to the uncensored publication of tendentious,
and sometimes false, reports (like mentioned by Hamza).
Furthermore, the opportunity for citizens and politicians to
freely voice their opinions – while sometimes presenting them
19
as facts – has made it more difficult to verify the accuracy of
news published on online media channels (e.g., Swire et al.,
2017). The polarized tendencies seen in society are extended
and enlarged into the online domain, putting members of
marginalized groups in an even more vulnerable position.
In this module, we explore how groups are formed, how
conflicts arise between groups, and how these conflicts can be
prevented or resolved, in order to create an inclusive society in
which all children have equal opportunities.
20
Theoretical Background
From the Polder Model to Polarization: Demarcation

Lines in the Dutch Society
In order to understand the experiences of young people like
Hamza, we need to have insights into the social and political
context they grow up in. We address this issue taking the Dutch
society as an example. Since the turn of the century, Dutch
politics has been increasingly characterised by polarization: the
political debate emphasises the differences between groups of
people and their interests (Entzinger, 2014). The decades before
the 00’s had been characterised by the ‘polder model’; a method
for dealing with conflicts of interest where parties seek a
reasonable compromise, rather than emphasizing the differences.
The term ‘poldering’ was originally used for the business
community, where consensus was sought between employers,
labour unions and the government on working conditions and
wages. A characteristic of ‘poldering’ is the acknowledgement
that although the interests of groups can differ, all parties need
each other, so they strive to find a ‘happy middle ground’ (de
Vries, 2014).
However, the peaceable Dutch political climate characterized
by ‘poldering’ changed drastically around the turn of the
century; the public debate on integration and immigration
became more and more heated (Aarts & Thomassen, 2008;
Pellikaan et al., 2007). Opinion makers and politicians argued
whether or not The Netherlands was ‘full’ and questioned
whether the borders should be closed to prevent further
21
immigration. Tensions between majority and minority groups
rose. Another topic of debate was whether foreigners posed a
threat to the Dutch culture and identity, or rather enriched them
(Entzinger, 2014; Van Meeteren et al., 2013).
This political debate was sparked by the publication of ‘Het
multiculturele drama’ (The Multicultural Drama) by Paul Scheffer
(2000), the rise of populist politicians, the terrorist attacks on
the 11th of September 2001, and the murder of columnist and
director Theo van Gogh in 2004. These are considered to be
‘focusing events’: dramatic, sudden occurrences that inflamed
the debate on the subject. These past several years have seen a
succession of such focusing events. Together with the turbulent
years of constant social and political discussions about
integration and the instability of governing coalitions, this has
led opinion leaders to speak of increasing polarization in politics
and society at large (Tiemeijer, 2017).
Reflection moment
‘In your own backyard’

Some focusing events have a global impact. Others are more
national, regional, or local. Can you think of a national,
a regional, and a local event that inflamed a public debate
on issues concerning migration and integration in your
country? Have these debates influenced your opinion on
these subjects?
22
How Groups are Formed: Differentiation,
Identification, and Representation
Differences between people and groups are seen in all societies
(Bovens et al., 2014). It is important to understand when these
differences are experienced as problematic, or as ‘polarizing’. In
order to grasp the concept of polarization, we can conceptualize
‘differences’ in terms of differentiation, identification, and
representation.
First, we can look at objective differences between people
or groups, or differentiation. Socio-cultural contrasts and
differences are common across all societies. However, the
acceptance of existing contradictions eventually depends not
on the differences themselves, but on subjective issues. So, we
should also look at the degree to which people identify with the
group in question. In times of stress and (perceived) threats,
people tend to identify more with their ‘own’ group and to set
themselves apart from other groups of people (Tiemeijer, 2017).
And finally, in addition to differentiation and identification,
the representation of groups and (perceived) differences between
groups plays a role in opinions about divisions in society. One
important question in the context of polarization is whether the
representation of certain groups in the media corresponds with
reality. Is their image portrayed accurately? Existing differences
between groups may be unrecognisable or ignored by the media
(concealment), or certain representations become so dominant
that they drown out all other representations. In the latter case,
people speak and think in terms of ‘us versus them’ (Tiemeijer,
2017).
23
Reflection moment
Where do you belong?

Are you a catholic or an atheist, a goth, a jock, a nerd, a
nationalist, a pacifist? What groups do you consider yourself
to be a member of? Which of the groups you belong to
define your identity? What are the most important ideas and
values that define you as a person?
How Children Become Members of a Group

In order to understand the origins of polarization, it is necessary
to add a socialization perspective. Socialization is the process
by which individuals are moulded into members of one or more
social groups (Grusec & Hastings, 2015). Through the process of
socialization, young people learn to adopt the roles and norms
necessary to function within the structures of their society. As
such, socialization inevitably plays a role in perpetuating social
processes of exclusion and marginalisation.
One of the leading theories of socialization is the social
learning theory (Bandura & Walters, 1977), which posits that
observing other people’s behaviour is fundamental to learning
behavioural patterns and value orientations. Young people
observe others, such as their parents, teachers or peers, as
they participate in the social domain, and then adopt similar
behaviours. Via this relatively implicit mechanism, socializing
agents can play a major role in the maintenance of constructive
or destructive group dynamics.
24
The primary socializing agents for children are their parents
or guardians, their teachers, and their peers (Grusec & Hastings,
2015). Based on the social learning theory, it seems plausible
that children can take on their ideas about other groups.
Children can develop ideas about ‘the other ones’ as a result of
intentional socialization, when socializing agents deliberately
transfer their knowledge, values or convictions to them. But
these socialization results can also occur unintentionally as a
side effect of certain socialization practices or contexts at home
or in school.
Reflection moment
About the apple and the tree

Can you recall your primary socializing agents? Who
influenced you the most during childhood (until 12 years
old) and adolescence (13 until 18 years old). Do you (still)
share similar values with them? On what topics do your
values or ideas differ? How do your primary socializing
agents react when you take a different stance towards a topic
which is important to them?
Inter-group Conflicts and How to Resolve Them

Now we know groups can create or reinforce values and ideas
about other groups or people. But how do groups become
hostile against each other? Explanations about the origins
of inter-group hostility can first be found in the realistic
conflict theory, which posits that conflict, negative biases, and
stereotyping can occur when groups compete over scarce
25
resources (Sherif, 1988). Moreover, the social identity theory
explains that individuals derive part of their identity and self-
image from the groups to which they belong and, as a result,
they tend to assess their own group (the in-group) more
positively than the out-group (Tajfel et al., 1979). This could
explain why people become biased or discriminate others
(Tajfel & Turner, 2004). Finally, the theory of parochial altruism
states that altruism exists mainly within one’s own group, and
not outside it. People tend to behave in a competitive, or even
hostile manner against the other group (the possible ‘intruders’),
in order to secure the interest of their own group. Reasoning
along these lines leads to the conclusion that internal solidarity
seems to be coupled with an instinctive suspicion of others (De
Dreu et al., 2014).
The socialization of young people may have several different
ties to the development of fear or hostility towards others. And
this, in turn, might lay at the roots of polarization, and therefore
of the social exclusion of marginalised groups. But through
interaction, socialization can also contribute to the reduction of
prejudice, hostility and biases. As Allport (1954) states in the
contact hypothesis, under certain conditions, the actual contact
between opposing groups might lead to the reduction of mutual
hostility and bias.
26
Empirical Research
Developing Attitudes towards Diversity: The Role of

Parents, Teachers, and Peers
As described in the theoretical background, socializing agents
such as parents, teachers, and peers play an important role in
the way children view others and other groups. By observing
others and by participating in groups, youngsters learn about
the world. But how does this work, and how does this relate to
developing prejudice or hostility towards others?
First, parents play an important role in the way children
assess social structures; the way parents or guardians speak
about others directly influences the way their children see
the world, and whether or not they see distinctions between
themselves and others based on their background (such as
ethnicity, culture, or socio-economic status) as problematic.
On the one hand, if parents are – consciously or unconsciously
– open to others and emphasize the value of interpersonal
differences, children are more likely to take on similar attitudes.
When parents are prejudiced and hostile towards other groups,
on the other hand, their children are more likely to adopt
this hostility (Levy & Killen, 2008). This means that an inter-
generational transfer of negative outgroup attitudes could
serve as the foundation for group formation, social exclusion,
stigmatization or discrimination (Chatard & Selimbegovic,
2008).
In addition to the intergenerational transfer of outgroup
attitudes by parents or guardians, teachers can also be
27
influential when it comes to transferring attitudes about
diversity to their students; they function as a role model and can
facilitate a classroom dialogue on differences and similarities
(Grusec & Hastings, 2015). But teachers can also implicitly
transfer their perspectives via the ‘hidden curriculum’; the
norms, values and expectations expressed during the day-to-day
classroom activities (Brint et al., 2001). Teachers’ perspectives
are not always positive towards diversity, or even neutral
towards it. And although it is not happening on a wide scale,
some teachers are accused of having lower expectations for
students from migrant backgrounds (Driessen & Cuppen, 2012).
BOX 1.1. Research in the Netherlands:

“Neighbourhood and school effects on educational
inequalities in the transition from primary to
secondary education in Amsterdam” (Kuyvenhoven
& Boterman, 2020)
Background: This research departs from the statement that

education “plays a crucial role in shaping people’s opportunities
in life; thereby, it may also be an important factor in reproducing
social inequalities”. In the Netherlands, it is often assumed
that children from families with a low social economic
status (SES) and/or a migration background receive lower
level school advice when transitioning from primary to
secondary education, compared to their peers from high-
SES and/or ethnic majority families. In the highly stratified
Dutch educational system, where students are sorted into
different educational levels at the age of 12, this school
28
advice largely determines children’s further educational
career. Kuyvenhoven and Boterman (2020) have studied
whether educational inequalities in the Netherlands are due
to individual characteristics such as ethnicity and class, and
how educational inequalities relate to the broader context,
such as the neighbourhood and school context.
Method: This multilevel quantitative study analyses data of
the individual longitudinal register data on school careers of
children in Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands.
It uses data from the longitudinal dataset of the Educational
Careers Research and of the municipality of Amsterdam and
focuses on 30,276 children that started secondary education
between 2007 and 2010.
Results and discussion: This study shows children with
lower-educated parents in general receive lower school
advice than children with highly educated parents. And,
although in Amsterdam SES and ethnicity are highly
intertwined, children with a Dutch background receive
higher school advice than their peers with a migration
background, even when correcting for their socioeconomic
background. In conclusion, this study provides quantitative
data to support the statement that educational inequalities
in the Netherlands are in part due to ethnic/racial bias.
However, the authors suggest that not only individual
characteristics, but also contextual factors such as
neighbourhood and school composition intensify educational
inequalities. Children from lower educated and/or non-
Dutch parents are often overrepresented in disadvantaged
29
schools and neighbourhoods, whereas a concentration of
children from high-SES, Dutch parents in more privileged
schools might be adding to their advantage in the
educational system.
Although parents and teachers play an important role in the

transfer of ideas, this role seems to become less influential as
the children age. In contrast, the influence of peers increases as
children grow older (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011). The interactions
with peers differ from the interactions with parents and
educators, as they are more egalitarian, and the interactions
between peers of the same age often take place in groups
characterised by social acceptance or rejection. In groups,
positive peer pressure can encourage prosocial behaviour and
reduce problematic behaviour, while negative peer pressure
can exacerbate antisocial behaviour and bullying - and therefore
social exclusion as well (Costello & Hope, 2016). Teenagers
especially have the tendency to conform to group norms, and
occasionally even fail to follow their own judgement in the
process (Asch & Guetskow, 1951).
This dynamic between peers also plays a role online;
young people spend a large part of their social and emotional
development in the digital domain, either in front of a computer
or on their telephones (Hinduja & Patchin, 2007). The rise of
social media has made it easier to see one’s own perspective
confirmed, whether that is justified or not (O’Keeffe & Clarke-
Pearson, 2011). Online, prejudice can be affirmed and thus
further instigate polarizing and discriminatory tendencies. Also,
offline bullying and group formation involving social exclusion
30
are sometimes continued online (O’Keefe & Clarke-Pearson,
2011).
Inter-group Conflicts and How to Resolve Them

As we have seen, the socialization of young people may have
several different ties to the development of negative attitudes
towards or fear of ‘the other’. Fear of the other ones may in
turn lay at the roots of polarization, and therefore of the social
exclusion of marginalized groups (Abrams & Killen, 2014). But
we already learned that interaction and actual contact between
people might contribute to the reduction of prejudice and
hostility, as stated in Allport’s contact hypothesis. Empirical
research shows that contact between groups can lead to the
reduction of mutual hostility and bias, when certain conditions
are met. First, the contact must be experienced as positive by
the participants, in order to be effective in reducing prejudice.
Furthermore, people with authority should show they are
supportive of interactions between the groups, and finally
the contact should consist of cooperative activities in which
participants have shared, common goals (Pettigrew & Tropp,
2006). The more these conditions are met, the more positive
contact is effective in reducing fear of the other and prejudice
(Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; Raabe & Beelmann, 2011). Therefore,
facilitating contact between opposing groups might contribute
to preventing or tackling polarization.
Another approach towards preventing polarizing tendencies
between youngsters is through the means of citizenship
education in school. Citizenship education is considered to
be a solution to polarization and unequal opportunities, as it
31
contributes to getting acquainted with diversity, and therefore
seeing its value (Schinkel, 2010). By discussing, for example,
the challenges posed by globalization, global immigration
and the rise of nationalist ideas, schools can make explicit
implicit ideas about what they think makes a good citizen and
clarify differences of opinion (Driouichi, 2007; Schinkel, 2010).
However, it is questioned whether or not schools should impose
certain ideas and values on children; the ideas that diversity
has great value and polarization is an undesirable phenomenon
are of course subjective assumptions (Van der Ploeg, 2015). This
raises questions about how citizenship education should be
organized, and what children should learn about citizenship at
school (Sieckelink & De Ruyter, 2009; Van der Ploeg, 2015).
BOX 1.2. Research in the Netherlands:

“Multicultural contacts in education: A case study
of an exchange project between different ethnic
groups” (Schuitema & Veugelers, 2011)
Background: Schuitema and Veugelers (2011) have

performed a case study on an exchange project, in order to
get a better understanding of what students can learn from
such an exchange project. Research on intergroup contact
has shown that contact with other social groups can, under
certain conditions, result in more positive attitudes towards
other social groups (Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006).
Method: This case study involves a two-day exchange project
between students from a school in a suburb of Amsterdam
32
where most students have a Surinamese background, and a
school in Twente, a rural area of the Netherlands, with only
native Dutch students. Small groups of participating students
and teachers were interviewed, activities were observed,
and changes in students’ attitudes towards different ethnic
groups were assessed using pre- and post-test questionnaires.
Results and discussion: This research showed that, although
the atmosphere between the two groups of students was
good, most students tended to remain with their own group.
Results of pre- and post-tests showed the exchange project
did not result in substantial changes in attitudes towards
other ethnic groups. This might indicate a more structural
project is required to instigate such changes. Another
important result was that students did learn about the living
environment and cultural backgrounds of the other students;
they became aware of the fact that they had preconceptions
based on stereotypes, and the exchange project helped
students to develop a more realistic perception of the other
students.
33
Interventions
In the Netherlands, there are no examples of interventions

specifically focused on combating polarization that have also
been found effective though randomized controlled trials.
We will therefore first examine an intervention that has been
proven effective in a randomized controlled trial, but that was
developed in a different setting. Thereafter, we will examine an
intervention that has been developed in the Dutch context but
has not yet been proven effective.
Extended Class Exchange Program in Israël –

Palestina
The extremely polarized context of Israel-Palestine is
characterized by bias, negative attitudes and stereotypes
along ethnic and religious lines. The biases seem to develop
at a young age (Bar-Tal, 2005; Slone et al., 2000), and can lead
to open discrimination and hostility. Many interventions
have been implemented to combat this hostility, such as the
Extended Class Exchange Program [ECEP] (Berger et al., 2016).
This program was developed based on results of research that
support the positive impact of direct contact on combating
biases, such as studies of Allport’s contact theory and Bandura’s
social learning theory (Allport, 1954; Bandura & Walters, 1977).
In this exchange program, students from an Israeli Jewish school
and an Israeli Palestinian school came together to participate
in 12 events with artistic, musical, social, and athletic activities.
The event began with a focus on mindfulness by doing a
meditation exercise, and then each activity was introduced with
34
a warm-up exercise and concluded with a group discussion.
Each event had a theme such as ‘sharing & participation’,
‘involvement in the community’, ‘acceptance of the other’,
‘promoting respect’, and ‘a safe school environment’. Every
event started and ended with an assembly of all participating
students and teachers, and parents were welcome to attend as
well.
Studies evaluating the ECEP show promising results (Berger
et al., 2016). A randomized controlled trial of 300 students in
the ethnically mixed city of Jaffa (measurements immediately
before and after the intervention and 15 months later) shows
that direct contact and shared development of activities by
the children resulted in fewer biases and less stereotyping
and discrimination between the groups. In addition, positive
emotions about social contact with the other group and
willingness to engage in such contact increased significantly.
Moreover, these effects appeared to extend to ethnic groups
that did not participate in the intervention, and with whom the
children therefore had no contact. The long term of the effects
(15 months after participating in the intervention) showed that
the effects were durable.
Although the intervention described seems promising
in terms of encouraging positive intergroup attitudes and
combating biases against others, the context in which this
intervention was studied differs from that in the Netherlands
in many areas. Although the Netherlands does seem to be
characterized by polarization and ethnic tension, occurrences
of violence are only incidental and there is no open warfare
or armed conflict. It is therefore interesting to examine an
35
intervention that has been developed specifically for the Dutch
context.
The Peaceable School

The intervention The Peaceable School (“De Vreedzame School”)
seems promising and enjoys widespread support in the
Netherlands, especially in the City of Utrecht (Pauw, 2014).
It provides insight into a current and relevant approach to the
problems in the Dutch context by teaching children to respect
and celebrate diversity and to deal with conflict, and is therefore
an interesting country-specific case study.
The Peaceable School is a school-wide program for primary
schools that focuses on the development of pupils’ democratic
citizenship and social competencies (CED Groep, n.d.). The
program considers the school and the class to be a scale model
of society, and uses a variety of means to work on creating an
inclusive community. By making the school ‘Peaceable’, the
school becomes an environment in which children feel seen and
heard, become acquainted with diversity, and learn to make
decisions and resolve conflicts together. The program aims to
encourage a positive social and moral climate at school, and
therefore could have the potential to combat polarization, as
some of the program’s specific objectives are to teach pupils
to treat one another in a positive an caring manner, to take
responsibility for one another and for the community, to make
decisions democratically, and to be open to differences between
people - in other words, to promote social inclusion. When a
school decides to become a Peaceable School, it begins a two-
year introduction period during which the entire school staff
36
learns how to work in a Peaceable manner, a series of lessons is
set up for the pupils, and student mediation is introduced.
The Peaceable School is based on six educational principles1
(CED Groep, n.d.). First, children have a voice and student
participation is central. This gives them an opportunity to
practice responsible behavior and experience how a democracy
works. Second, conflict management is a key theme; students
learn how to resolve conflicts without violence, either
independently or with the help of a student mediator. Positive
peer pressure is also used; children from the older classes are
trained as student mediators to mediate conflicts between
other children, and therefore learn about social responsibility.
An explicit social and moral norm is also utilized; children
learn to display caring and prosocial behaviors through
participation and constructively dealing with conflicts and
differences of opinion. The Peaceable School also strives to
build social cohesiveness and a sense of community by having
children set rules and monitor compliance, and by ensuring
that children receive the message that they belong and are
needed. Finally, children are raised in a democratic manner;
by using an authoritative parenting style characterized by clear
limits, combined with an explanation of these limits; by seeing
children as partners in dialogue; by consistently explaining the
1
In recognition of the perceived success of the program, it has also been applied
at the neighborhood level; in the estimated 25 Peaceable Neighborhoods in the
Netherlands, institutions that deal with young people, such as aid workers,
police and athletics clubs, all use the same educational approach. Institutions tie
into the citizenship competencies that children have learned at their Peaceable
School, and the same expectations, rules and agreements apply throughout
the entire neighborhood.
37
consequences that their actions have on others; and by helping
them empathize with the other person’s perspective.
Although no randomized controlled trial has yet been
conducted, researchers and students at Utrecht University
have conducted some research into The Peaceable School
(incl. Day, 2014; Pauw, 2013a, 2013b; Stolk, 2013). Pauw
(2013a) showed that teachers and school directors evaluate
the program as effective, and a significant improvement in
the social school climate was measured (see figure 1); children
showed significantly more positive social behavior (indicator
1), participation in school (indicator 2), and were better at
independently and satisfyingly resolving conflicts (indicator
3). After the implementation of The Peaceable School, children
seemed to behave in a more responsible manner and treat one
another with more respect, and there were far fewer conflict
situations.
38
Figure 1
Mean Scores of a Group of 13 Schools Starting the Peaceable School
Program
Note. The red columns represent the mean score before implementation,
and the yellow columns represent the score after implementation on
the subscales; 1) Positive social behavior, 2) Student participation, 3)
Conflict resolution (Pauw, 2014).
Furthermore, research into the program showed an increase
in democratic citizenship skills. Children seemed to behave
in a more responsible manner and treated one another with
more respect than before implementation. Also, they were
better able to express their opinions, were more willing to
participate in social activities and thought more about socially
relevant issues (Day, 2014). Moreover, children felt more
responsibility for their community and were more likely to be
open to differences between people after the introduction of
The Peaceable School (Stolk, 2013). Although the studies by Day
and Stolk have significant methodological limitations (including
39
no randomization), the results of the studies do indicate the
potential effectiveness of the program (Pauw, 2014).
The Netherlands Youth Institute has rated The Peaceable
School as ‘Effective based on preliminary evidence’ in its
Databank of Effective Youth Interventions. According to the
Encouraging Education-Related Development and Youth
Welfare evaluation committee, the intervention is based on
sound and thorough considerations. Although the program
can be supported with more recent literature, these studies
of the program give reason to assume that it has positive
effects in the areas of conflict resolution, responsibility for the
community, openness to differences, and collective decision-
making. All this considered, The Peaceable School seems to be
a potentially effective program that contributes to the creation
of an inclusive environment where children learn to act socially,
assume responsibility for others and their surroundings, and the
position of diversity in society.
However, the question remains as to what extent the
program’s effects can be applied to other contexts, as The
Peaceable School program does not extend beyond the context
of the students’ own school, which often has a homogeneous
student population. There are other initiatives that have arisen
from The Peaceable School, however, including the ‘Stadsschool’
(City School) exchange project and ‘Welkom in mijn Vreedzame
Wijk’ (Welcome to my Peaceable Neighborhood), in which
children from different peaceable primary schools come into
contact with one another. The schools are located in the same
city, but in neighborhoods that differ widely in their socio-
economic and ethno-cultural aspects. By coming together to
40
attend weekly lessons from the standard curriculum, these
schools hope to combat bias and segregation through ‘bridging’
(De Winter, 2017).
41
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47
Summary
• Polarization is the sharpening of contrasts between groups in

society and growing tensions, or even conflict, between these
groups.
• Polarization is characterized by social and economic
inequality, and can lead to discrimination, stigmatization and
(social) exclusion of certain groups in society.
• For children and youth, growing up in a society characterized
by polarization might lead to unequal opportunities based on
background and / or group membership, and can therefore
affect their development.
• A political climate characterized by opposition and an
emphasis on differences between people and groups, instead
of a focus on compromise, might contribute to tensions
between groups and / or social exclusion.
• Views about other groups can be passed on to children
by socializing agents such as parents, teachers, and peers
through explicit or implicit action and words. Negative
attitudes towards other groups can be affirmed online,
especially in the ‘bubble’ of social media, thus further
instigating polarization and social exclusion.
• Facilitating contact between opposing groups might
contribute to preventing or tackling polarization. The contact
hypothesis states that contact between different groups
can lead to a reduction of mutual hostility and bias, when
the contact 1) is experienced as positive, 2) is supported by
48
authorities and 3) consists of cooperative activities in which
participants have common goals.
• Citizenship education can contribute to social inclusion or
a reduction in negative attitudes towards others, as it gets
students acquainted with diversity. However, it is questioned
whether or not schools should impose certain ideas and
values on children. The question on how citizenship
education should be organized and what children should
learn, still remains.
BOX 1.3. Take Home Message
After reading this module, we hope you are now more aware
of your own assumptions and prejudices towards others,
and have more insight into how these views might originate.
Furthermore, it is important to be aware of the negative
consequences of prejudice on the social cohesion in society
and the development of individuals therein.
49
Resources
Films and series

Why We Hate
This documentary series, produced by Steven Spielberg,
explores the human condition of hatred. Is every human capable
of hate, and what is needed to stir up hostility? And can we
prevent violent conflict, and overcome hate?
Entre les Murs (The Class)

A movie about experiences of a literature teacher in an inner city
middle school in Paris.
Dear White People

A Netflix series about a predominantly white Ivy League college
where a group of black students navigate various forms of racial
and other types of discrimination.
The Great Debaters

Based on a true story, the plot revolves around the efforts of
debate coach Melvin B. Tolson at Wiley College, a historically
black college, to place his team on equal footing with whites in
the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were
common and lynch mobs were a fear for blacks.
50
Videos
“Education Gap: The Root of Inequality”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lsDJnlJqoY)
In this video, Ronald Ferguson, director of The Achievement
Gap Initiative at Harvard University, explains the importance
of closing the education gap. He explores the progress that is
being made to close this gap, and that a lot of hard work still lies
ahead.
“Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPZEJHJPwIw)
This documentary follows a group of American university
students that participate in a unique social experiment, based
on the famous ‘Blue eyes – Brown eyes’ exercise conducted by
American school teacher and anti-racism activist Jane Elliot in
1968. Why does racism raise its head everywhere and all the
time?
“The Urgency of Intersectionality” | TEDx Talk by Kimberlé

Crenshaw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o)
In this TEDx Talk, civil rights activist and Professor at Columbia
Law School Kimberlé Crenshaw explores the phenomenon
of ‘intersectionality’. Many of the social justice problems like
racism and sexism are often overlapping, creating multiple
levels of social injustice: “If you’re standing in the path of
multiple forms of social exclusion, you’re likely to get hit by
both”.
51
“The Muslim on the Airplane” | TEDx Talk by Amal Kassir
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIAm1g_Vgn0)
In this TEDx Talk, Syrian-American poet Amal Kassir talks
about her experience with the ever-deepening ethnic divides in
society. She explores how we can solve the issues when groups
of people live in fear of the other.
“I am not Your Asian Stereotype” | TEDx Talk by Canwen Xu

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pUtz75lNaw)
In this TEDx Talk, eighteen-year-old Canwen Xu shares her
story on growing up as an Asian-American. She explains how
she grows up in a world where she can either conform to the
Asian stereotype that was expected of her, or to the whiteness
she was surrounded with. Canwen explores how her identity
develops around ‘being different’, and about reaffirming and
breaking these stereotypes.
Further Readings
Levy, S. R., & Killen, M. (Eds.). (2008). Intergroup attitudes and
relations in childhood through adulthood. Oxford University Press.
In this volume, scholars use cutting-edge theory and new
research findings to clarify the multifaceted nature of intergroup
attitudes and relations. It provides an understanding of the
origins, stability and reduction of intergroup conflict. When
do children acquire stereotypes about the other? What are the
sources of influence, and how does change come about?
Titzmann, P.F., & Jugert, P. (Eds.).(2020). Youth in superdiverse
societies: Growing up with globalization, diversity, and
acculturation. Routledge. This book brings together theoretical,
methodological and international approaches to the study of
52
globalization, diversity and acculturation in adolescence. It
focuses on understanding the experiences and consequences
of multicultural societies and offers insight in the field
of intergroup relations and the complexity of growingly
heterogeneous societies.
53
Social Inclusion of Adolescents
with a Migrant Background
Savaş Karataş & Elisabetta Crocetti
Department of Psychology, Alma Mater Studiorum

University of Bologna, Italy
Learning outcomes
After this unit, the students will be able to understand:

• The impact of migration in contemporary societies
• Conceptual models of acculturation and intergroup
relationships
• Empirical research on acculturation across adolescents’ social
contexts
• The interplay between acculturation and identity processes
• Interventions for promoting the adjustment of adolescents
with migrant background
55
Preliminary exercises
Exercise 1.
Please indicate 5 typical characteristics of people with a migrant

background (list what comes to your mind most quickly without
doing any research).
1. __________________________________
2. __________________________________
3. __________________________________
4. __________________________________
5. __________________________________
Exercise 2.
Myths or NOT Myths quiz (for each sentence below, please indicate
which sentences are Myths and which are NOT Myths)2
2
These items have been prepared based on the following sources.
• International Organization for Migration (2020). Myths, facts, and answers
about refugees and migrants. https://belgium.iom.int/myths-facts-and-answers-
about-refugees-and-migrants
• Anti-Defamation League (ADL). (2019). Myths and facts about immigrants and
immigrations. https://www.adl.org/media/6950/download
• European Commission. (2019). Facts matter: Debunking myths about
migration. https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-
we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/20190306_managing-migration-
factsheet-debunking-myths-about-migration_en.pdf
• van Zalk, M.H. W., Kerr, M., van Zalk, N., & Statin, H. (2013). Xenophobia
and tolerance toward immigrants in adolescence: Cross-influence processes
within friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 627-639. https://
doi.org/10.1007/s10802-012-9694-8
56
Not
Myth
Myth
1. Migrants take jobs away from the local
❍ ❍
people.
2. Migrants bring crimes and violence to our

❍ ❍
countries.
3. Migrants carry diseases. ❍ ❍
4. Migrants work in low profile jobs. ❍ ❍
5. Migrants are a huge burden for our

❍ ❍
economies.
6. Migrants have to be assimilated within our

❍ ❍
countries.
7. Our countries enriched because of

❍ ❍
migrants.
8. Migrants cannot pursue their traditions

❍ ❍
and customs in their host countries.
57
Problem Statement
Migration flows have rendered modern societies increasingly

diverse from an ethnic and cultural point of view (International
Organization for Migration, 2019). In their daily life, people can
have several interactions with other cultural groups, for instance
when they buy ethnic food, or when they talk with a classmate
or colleague with a migrant background, and so on. However,
even though we can experience diversity in our societies,
negative attitudes, prejudice, and discrimination against
people with a migrant background (i.e., recent refugees, first-
generation, and second-generation immigrants, free-movers,
and trans-migrants) are still common, including among young
people.
Negative bias against people with a migrant background is
often spread by media communications. Newspaper headlines
asking for new walls and for closing the frontiers have appeared
in many Western countries. Taking Italy as an example, it is not
uncommon to read newspaper articles talking about a perceived
58
“invasion” or “ethnic replacement” perpetrated by migrants.3, 4, 5
These alarmist articles contribute to provide a simplified and
dichotomous view that does not take in close consideration the
real situation.
In this respect, it is worth reading these headlines against
the portrayal provided by official statistics. According to the
recent report of the International Organization for Migration
(2019), Italy is the fifth most popular migrant destination in
Europe, and the total number of migrants is about 6 million in
2019 (Eurostat, 2020, International Organization for Migration,
2019). Most of the migrants in Italy come from other European
countries (e.g., Romania, Albania), North African countries (e.g.,
Morocco), and the countries of the former Soviet Union (e.g.,
Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan). The median age of the
international migrants was estimated as 40.4, and 8.6% of the
migrants are younger than 19 years (United Nations, 2019).
3
la Repubblica. (June 28th 2017). Migrants, Italy to EU: Foreign ships block
hypothesis. Mattarella: “Unbearable situation”. https://www.repubblica.it/
cronaca/2017/06/28/news/migranti_italia_ue_sbarchi-169383917/?ref=search
4
la Repubblica. (December 3rd 2017). “Migrants? Idles and criminals, in
Italy an ethnic replacement is in progress”. https://www.repubblica.it/
politica/2017/12/03/news/salvini_non_cerco_voti_naziskin_ma_non_c_e_
alcun_ritorno_del_fascismo-182878696/
5
Corriere della Sera. (September 21st 2017). “African invasion, renting to
migrants forbidden”. https://www.corriere.it/cronache/17_settembre_21/
sindaco-leghista-piemonte-invasione-africana-vietato-affittare-migranti-
vercelli-3e6189b2-9eba-11e7-8e38-5c41d07827be.shtml
59
Figure 1
Percentage of Migrants within the Italian Population
60,000,000
50,000,000
40,000,000
30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Migrants Italians
Note. Derived from ISTAT (2020).

According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics
(ISTAT, 2020) the migrants’ percentage within the Italian
population is not high as one would expect when reading about
an “invasion” (Figure 1). Also, even though it became higher
between 2012 and 2014, it was quite stable in the years after,
remaining between 8% and 9%.
60
Migration Profiles and
Integration Policy Indexes
Check out this interactive website, to see how the migration

profile looks in your country:
https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/
migration/data/estimates2/countryprofiles.asp
Check out this interactive portal, to see the quality of the
integration processes of migrants in your country: http://
www.mipex.eu/
Case study
Meet Amina. Her family migrated from the Casablanca

region in Morocco to Italy in search of better job
opportunities when she was 12. Her mother tongue is
Arabic. When she arrived in Italy, she had a “new life”
to discover in terms of language, friendships, family
relationships, religion, food, and so forth. Even though
these exciting areas that were waiting to be explored
more, her first period in Italy was stressful, because of the
several barriers including the differences in the language,
educational system, and the way of interacting with peers.
However, when she started to attend junior high school, she
was supported in her desire to explore this “new world”
more by the warm, polite, and welcoming attitudes of her
teachers and classmates in her school. She also received
additional Italian language courses after her school hours,
61
and she improved her fluency in Italian in a short period
thanks to her passion and endeavor.
She is now 14 and she has recently begun to attend a
technical secondary high school in the Northern-Eastern part
of Italy. Although she has improved her language fluency
a lot, she prefers to spend more time with her Moroccan
friends in school and out-of-school contexts. Because of this,
she feels somehow sad, since she does not feel brave enough
to explore this new world.
Amina is also stressed because she has realized that the
rules and traditions in her family (i.e., Moroccan) and in the
Italian society differ from each other, in some cases they are
even contradictory. On one hand, she wants to adopt the
Italian traditions and customs, on the other hand, she desires
to also maintain her Moroccan heritage traditions.
62
Psycho-social theoretical models have been developed to

understand how migration affects the life of individuals from
both ethnic majority (e.g., Italians living Italy) and minority
groups (e.g., Africans living in Italy). In this vein, this module
provides a brief overview of theoretical advances in the study
of acculturation, that is the process of cultural and psychological
change that results from the meeting between cultures (Berry,
1997).
Reflection moment
Think about your experiences abroad, such as your holidays

in another country or your study experiences via exchange
programs (e.g., Erasmus). How can you describe these
experiences? Which kind of similarities and differences
have you observed between your own culture (i.e., heritage
culture) and the culture of your destination country (i.e.,
host culture)?
Acculturation Models
From One-Dimensional to Bi-Dimensional Models

Initially, in the One-dimensional model (Gordon, 1964), the
acculturation process of individuals from minority groups
(e.g., Asian immigrants living in the US) was conceptualized
as a linear process, going from discarding the values, beliefs,
attitudes, and behaviors of the heritage culture (i.e., the Asian
63
one) to adopting those of the host culture (i.e., the American
one). However, this model has been criticized for narrowing
the acculturation process, considering it mainly as a process of
assimilation to the host culture (e.g., Ryder et al., 2000).
In the seminal Bi-dimensional Acculturation Model, Berry
(1997, 2005), distinguished four acculturation strategies (i.e.,
Integration, Assimilation, Separation, and Marginalization),
based on identification (high versus low) with the host culture
(i.e., it is characterized by the relative preference of the migrants
for having contact with the individuals from majority group and
participating in the cultural milieu of the host society) and with
the heritage culture (i.e., refers to the preference for maintaining
the migrants’ own heritage culture in the host society). As
shown in Figure 2, Integration refers to a combination of high
identification with the receiving host culture while maintaining
a strong connection with the heritage culture; Assimilation
refers to high identification with the host culture and low desire
for maintaining the heritage culture; Separation is defined as
rejecting the host culture while placing value on the heritage
culture; and Marginalization is characterized by the low desire
for identification with both host and heritage cultures (Berry,
2009). Notably, the integration strategy is the one that fosters
well-being and a more adaptive psychological functioning (for
a meta-analysis, see Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2013), whereas
the marginalization strategy appears to have the poorest mental
health outcomes. Therefore, acculturation strategies have
important implications for individuals’ adjustment.
In addition to considering which acculturation strategies
are endorsed by the members of the minority groups, Berry
64
(2005, 2009) also suggested the importance of considering the
influence of the corresponding acculturation strategies preferred
by the members of the majority groups (i.e., Multiculturalism,
Melting Pot, Segregation, and Exclusion; Berry, 1997, 2005).
Multiculturalism refers to the acceptance of the cultural diversity
among the majority group members. Melting Pot represents
the relative preferences of the majority group members for the
assimilation. Segregation and Exclusion refer to positive attitudes
of the majority groups towards separation and marginalization,
respectively (Berry, 2005).
Figure 2
Acculturation Strategies of the Minority and Majority Groups
Note. Adapted from Berry (2005, p. 705).
65
Exercise:
Think about Amina
In the case of Amina, which strategy would she like to adopt?

a. Assimilation
b. Separation
c. Integration
d. Marginalization
Models Adopting Intergroup Perspectives

Theoretical developments of Berry’s model, such as the
Interactive Acculturation Model (Bourhis et al., 1997) and
the Concordance Model of Acculturation (Piontkowski et al.,
2000), have emphasized the importance of adopting inter-
group perspectives in which different types of relationships
between members of the minority and majority groups
can be consensual (harmonious), problematic, or even
conflictual, based on the interplay between the acculturation
strategies of migrant minority groups and the acculturation
preferences of host majority groups (see Table 1). Notably,
harmonious relationships are possible when both groups
strive for Integration/Multiculturalism, or they agree on either
assimilation or separation.
The most recent theoretical advancement in the acculturation
literature has been provided by the Relative Acculturation
Extended Model (Navas et al., 2005). This model integrated
prior theoretical contributions by (a) considering the
perspectives of individuals from both majority and minority
groups; (b) differentiating between practiced acculturation
66
strategies (in the real situation) and preferred acculturation
attitudes (in the ideal situation) of people from both majority
and minority groups; and (c) acknowledging that individuals
can display different acculturation strategies and attitudes
across central (family relationships, friendships, religion, ways
of thinking) and peripheral (school/work, consumer habits,
political system) domains (Navas et al., 2005). For instance,
individuals prefer to adopt the values, rules, and languages
of the host culture in the work context, but to keep their own
traditions in the family context.
Exercise:
Think about Amina
In the case of Amina, which barriers did she encounter when

she arrived in Italy? And which resources helped her in
facing these barriers?
67
Table 1
Relationship Outcomes of the Concordance Model of Acculturation
Acculturation Strategies Acculturation Strategies of the members of the minority

preferred by the members of group
the majority group
Integration Assimilation Separation Marginalization
Culture Contact
Multiculturalism Consensual Conflictual
Problematic Problematic
Culture Contact
Melting Pot Consensual Conflictual
Contact Culture
Segregation Conflictual Consensual
Exclusion Conflictual Conflictual Conflictual Conflictual
Note. Adapted from Piontkowski et al. (2002, p. 224).
The Intergroup Contact Theory

Considering the importance of the intergroup perspective,
intergroup contact experiences become major determinants
of which acculturation strategies are endorsed (or preferred)
by the members of minority and majority groups. In the social
psychological literature, the most important hypothesis (Allport,
1954) refers to four fundamental conditions of intergroup
contact (i.e., equal status, cooperation, common goals, and
support by social and institutional authorities), according to
which the fulfilment of these conditions is necessary to establish
positive intergroup contact experiences. More recently, an
extensive meta-analysis of Pettigrew and Tropp (2006) indicated
that the fulfilment of all these conditions is not essential to have
68
positive intergroup contact experiences and its outcomes (e.g.,
prejudice reduction).
Reflection moment
Think about your experiences with people of another

nationality. Describe some of your positive and negative
intergroup contact experiences.
In line with this, recent advancements the intergroup contact

theory (Hayward et al., 2017; Wölfer et al., 2016) focused on
different forms of intergroup contact, based on quantitative (i.e.,
referring the amount of the direct or indirect contact experiences
with the out-group members) and qualitative (i.e., refers to the
positive and negative contact experiences) indicators. Notably,
positive (e.g., warm, respectful, trustful) and negative (e.g.,
unfriendly, insulting, intimidating) contact experiences do
not have the same impact. In fact, negative contact predicts
increased prejudice more than positive contact predicts reduced
prejudice, a phenomenon known as the positive–negative
contact asymmetry (Barlow et al., 2012).
69
Exercise6:
Think about Amina
Several pairs of positive and negative contact interactions

have been listed below. Think about the case of Amina,
firstly specifying which of the contact interactions in the
word list might facilitate her social integration in the left side
of the column. Secondly, find the negative correspondence
interactions, and specify them in the second column,
accordingly.
6
The pairs of positive and negative contact experiences have been derived
from Hayward et al. (2017).
70
Empirical Research
In this section, we review empirical research that, building

upon the theoretical background presented in the previous
section, has examined acculturation processes and intergroup
experiences in a specific developmental period, which is
adolescence. In this phase, individuals define themselves, their
places within society, and their ways of relating to members of
other social groups (Albarello et al., 2018; Motti-Stefanidi et al.,
2018).
Reflection moment
Think about your adolescent years. In which social contexts

have you spent most of your time? How has each context
affected your development?
Acculturation Processes as Embedded in Adolescents’

Social Contexts
The first key social context that affects adolescents’ acculturation
processes is represented by their family. Intergenerational
transmission processes (Degner & Dalege, 2013) emphasized
that the acculturation strategies of parents affect the
acculturation strategies of the adolescents (e.g., if parents use
a certain assimilation strategy, their children are more likely to
use the same strategy) but only to a certain degree. In fact, most
adolescents with a migrant background adopt the host culture
more rapidly than their migrant parents do. This difference
71
between the acculturation strategies of adolescents with a
migration background and their parents is a phenomenon
known as the acculturation gap (e.g., Kwak & Berry, 2001).
Empirical examples of this have been provided by Wang-
Schweig and Miller (2018). They examined adolescent-parent
dyads in the USA and found that adolescents reported higher
identification with the host culture and lower identification with
their heritage culture than their parents.
In addition to parents, peers are also likely to influence
the acculturation strategies of adolescents with a migrant
background (e.g., Mancini & Bottura, 2014; Karataş et al.,
2020). For instance, Zagefka and colleagues (2011) found that
the perception that majority members support integration was
positively linked with adolescents’ own desire for integration in
Chile. These findings refer to the overlap between the desires of
adolescents with a migrant background and the preferences (or
attitudes) of adolescents from the majority group for adopting
the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of the host culture.
Therefore, it might be claimed that the acculturation attitudes
of adolescents with a migrant background are influenced by the
acculturation preferences of the native peers.
Beyond family and peers, schools are another important
acculturative context that provides opportunities to have
intergroup contact experiences by establishing cross-ethnic
friendships (e.g., Schachner et al., 2018). In an enlightening
study, Schwarzenthal and colleagues (2018) investigated the
effects of school norms promoting a climate based on equality
and inclusion (i.e., teachers support contact and cooperation
between adolescents with different backgrounds and treat them
72
equally) and cultural pluralism (i.e., valuing students’ diverse
cultural backgrounds as a resource) on positive and negative
intergroup outcomes (i.e., out-group orientation and perceived
discrimination) of adolescents with a migrant background and
natives in Germany. The results demonstrated that endorsed
cultural diversity norms (i.e., equality, inclusion, and cultural
pluralism norms) in the school context were associated to more
positive intergroup outcomes (e.g., higher level of out-group
orientation and lower level of perceived discrimination). These
findings highlight the significant implications of endorsing
diversity norms in the school context for fostering positive
intergroup contact experiences, which are strongly related to
reduction of prejudice and discrimination (e.g., Pettigrew &
Tropp, 2006; Wölfer et al., 2016). Consistent with these results,
another study in Germany (Wölfer et al., 2016) demonstrated
that direct (i.e., positive face to face encounters) and extended
(i.e., knowledge that in-group members have close relationships
with an out-group member; Wright et al., 1997) intergroup
contact experiences diminish prejudice, discrimination, and
social exclusion in adolescence. Furthermore, Albarello and
colleagues (2020) also investigated which factors can reduce the
prejudice against adolescents with a migrant background in the
Italian context (see Box 2.1).
73
Reflection moment
Put yourself in the shoes of a teacher who works in a

multicultural high school in your country. What would
you do to create school norms foster a climate promoting
equality, inclusion, and cultural pluralism?
BOX 2.1. Research in Italy: “Prejudice and

Inclusiveness in Adolescence: The Role of Multiple
Categorization and Social Dominance Orientation”
(Albarello et al., 2020)
Albarello and colleagues (2020) examined which factors

can reduce prejudice against migrants endorsed by Italian
adolescents from the majority group and foster social
inclusiveness. As shown in the Figure, the results of a
longitudinal study conducted with 304 Northern-Italian
adolescents (61.84% females) with a mean age of 17 years
and half attending secondary high schools highlighted
that defining migrants in terms of multiple categorization
(depicting them with more than four categorical dimensions)
reduced prejudice over time, whereas social dominance
orientation (an individual trait expressing support for group-
based hierarchies based of the belief that one’s group
is superior than any other group) increased later levels
of prejudice. Prejudice also negatively affected multiple
categorization and positively affected social dominance
orientation over time. Moreover, prejudice mediated the
74
effects of multiple categorization and social dominance
orientation on identification with the human group. Notably,
human identification captures individuals’ awareness of
being a member of the human group, irrespectively of
the differences that may characterize the large variety of
social categories encompassed in it. So, one person may
feel a strong bond with other human beings although
they might belong, for instance, to different ethnic,
gender, and socio-economic groups. These findings have
important implications for enhancing social inclusiveness in
multicultural societies.
75
Reflection moment
“Who are you?”
Acculturation and Identity Processes: Challenging

Pathways
Acculturation processes are intertwined with the youth’s
identity formation (Berry et al., 2006). So far, most attention has
been devoted to the relationship between acculturation and
ethnic identity, that refers to the individuals’ sense of self as
a member of an ethnic group and the attitudes and behaviors
associated with that sense (Phinney, 1990). Dimitrova and
colleagues (2013) examined the associations between ethnic
identity and acculturation strategies of Turkish-Bulgarian
adolescents in Bulgaria, and they found that the Turkish identity
was positively linked with the identification with the heritage
culture. In contrast, the Bulgarian identity was related to the
identification with the host culture.
In addition to ethnic identity, empirical studies conducted
across multiple European countries, such as Italy (Crocetti et al.,
2011; see Box 2.2) and the Netherlands (Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx,
& Meeus, 2008), highlighted that identity formation processes in
personal identity domains that are common to all adolescents
(such as educational and interpersonal identity domains), can be
more challenging for adolescents with a migrant background.
In fact, the results of these studies indicated that adolescents
with a migrant background could be more uncertain about
their identity choices, and they might go on considering and
76
reconsidering their commitments to various life domains since
the challenge for identity development is strongly associated
with the challenge of acculturation processes.
BOX 2.2. Research in Italy: “Identity Formation

in Adolescents from Italian, Mixed, and Migrant
Families” (Crocetti et al., 2011)
Crocetti and colleagues (2011) examined the identity

processes of adolescents from migrant families compared
to their peers from Italian families and to those from mixed
families in which one parent was Italian, and the other
had a non-Italian nationality. Identity is a dynamic and
iterative endeavour that involves assuming commitments
with regard to various identity domains; verifying them
through an in-depth exploration of their meaning (thinking
actively about existing commitments and searching for
additional information about them); and discarding or
revising one’s current commitments when they are no longer
satisfactory (reconsideration of commitment; Crocetti, Rubini,
& Meeus, 2008). The participants were 509 adolescents (45%
females) with a mean age of 13 years and half. As shown in
the Graph, the results highlighted that adolescents from
migrant families reported higher levels of reconsideration
of commitment than did their peers from Italian and mixed
families. These findings testified that adolescents from
migrant families face more difficulties in defining their
personal identity.
77
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
Commitment In-depth exploration Reconsideration of

commitment
Adolescents from Italian families
Adolescents from mixed families
Adolescents from migrant families
78
Interventions
In this section we examine the “Identity Project”, an

intervention developed in the US by Umaña-Taylor and
colleagues (2018a, 2018b) to enhance adjustment of adolescents
from both ethnic majority and minority groups by promoting
their ethnic identity development.
The Identity Project is rooted in Erikson’s (1968) psychosocial
theory, which indicates how meaningful search, reflection, and
exploration are necessary for adolescents to achieve a clear
sense of identity that, in turn, allows adolescents to experience
an inner sense of self by understanding their past, present and
future. This process works for ethnic identity as well (Phinney,
1990), that is a fundamental identity domain for adolescents
who are nowadays surrounded by many different cultures.
Given that achieving a clear ethnic identity is a core step for a
positive psychosocial functioning in youth (Rivas-Drake et
al., 2014), the core idea of this intervention is to promote a
substantial exploration and the consequent resolution of ethnic
identity in adolescents of both majority and minority groups.
Intervention Phases
The Identity Project is based on an eight weeks intervention for
adolescents and it was administered to them at school, during
lesson hours, every Monday. The activities for each week are
detailed below.
79
Table 2
The Activities of the Identity Project
Introduce the idea of identity as a
multidimensional, fluid construct
Identify and categorize different components
1. Unpacking
of students’ identities (e.g., personal, social)
identity
Emphasize how different components of
students’ identities can change across time
and situations
Introduce stereotypes as presumptions based

on assumed similarities within groups;
allow students to both acknowledge and
2. Group distinguish themselves from stereotypes
differences: usually assigned to their group
Within and Introduce idea that there are more differences
between both within and between “groups”
Introduce idea that differences that do exist
are continuous, not categorical, and also
occur within groups
Increase students’ awareness of ways in

which various groups (e.g., ethnic, religious)
have been marginalized throughout
3. Stories of U.S. history by sharing true accounts of
our past discrimination from people of different
backgrounds
Use the various stories to build a sense of
community between students
80
Increase students’ exploration and knowledge
of their own ethnic and cultural heritages
Increase students’ understanding of complex
family systems, and how family members can
4. My family
have different degrees of influence on each
history
member
Demonstrate similarities that exist between
one another, in terms of the diversity that
exists in family histories
Define symbols, traditions, rites of passage,

and rituals—as they relate to ethnic/cultural
heritages
Increase students’ understanding of symbols,
5. Symbols, traditions, rites of passage, and rituals as
traditions, and markers of culture for different ethnic/
rites of passage cultural groups
Increase students’ exploration and
understanding of symbols, traditions, rites of
passage, and/or rituals for one of their ethnic
heritages
81
Facilitate students’ processing of the photos
they took through discussion with peers and
the creation of personal storyboards
Acknowledge differences in the individual
6. Photo
content of students’ storyboards, and
processing and
commonalities in the general themes that
storyboards
students’storyboards represent
Increase students’ sense of clarity regarding
the meaning that the various symbols have
for them
Increase students’ understanding that some

family members’ cultural experiences will be
relevant to students, but some will not;
Normalize and validate these contrasting
experiences
7. Ethnic Increase students’ understanding that ethnic

identity as a and cultural heritage(s) can inform who one
journey is, but this is just one part of identity and
will vary in importance (across people and
time)
Students will learn that the meaning of
Ethnic-Racial Identity (ERI) can change across
time; and that there is no, single, “correct”
ERI journey
82
Review major themes covered in Sessions 1–7
Celebrate and share the ethnic and cultural
heritages that students have explored
8. Grand finale throughout the past seven sessions
Provide an opportunity for students to teach
visitors about the information they have
learned in the past 7 weeks
83
Testing Efficacy
In order to test the efficacy of this intervention, the authors
conducted a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) with ninth-
grade adolescents from a public high school in South-western
United States. A total of 215 participants were randomly
assigned to either the treatment group (which included
114 participants) or the control group (which included 101
participants). The sample was gender-balanced (50% female),
with a mean age of 15.05 years, and the ethnic groups included
were White (37%), Latino (30%), African American (24%), Native
American (6%), and Asian American (3%). While participants in
the treatment group were assigned to the Identity intervention
program, participants in the control group were able to choose
other training programs offered by their school. No significant
differences were found between the intervention and the control
groups regarding age, gender, nativity status, free/reduced
lunch status at school, or parental education.
To verify if the intervention had any effect on ethnic
identity exploration and resolution, participants completed
a questionnaire in a pre-test and respectively 1, 6, and 56
weeks after the intervention took place. Secondary outcomes,
measured 56 weeks after the intervention, were adolescents’
global identity cohesion, overall academic engagement, self-
esteem, depressive symptoms, and the degree to which they felt
positively about and interact with ethnic groups other than their
own.
84
Results
First, the authors (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2018a) tested the
effects of the Identity Project on ethnic identity exploration and
resolution in the short term (from pre-test to 6 weeks after
intervention). As displayed in the Figure 3, the intervention
increased exploration of ethnic identity and indirectly also
identity resolution (i.e., in the intervention group exploration
at one week after the intervention predicted positively identity
resolution at 6 weeks after the intervention).
Second, the authors (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2018b) examined
the effect of the intervention on psychosocial adjustment in
the longer term (56 weeks after the intervention) and, notably,
unraveled the underlying mechanism. Results indicated that the
intervention had important long-term effects (i.e., 1 year after
pre-test) via the following sequential mediation process: the
Identity Project intervention (pre-test) increased ethnic identity
exploration (1 week after the intervention), which promoted
ethnic identity resolution (6 weeks after the intervention),
that fostered other indicators of psychosocial adjustment
(i.e., global identity cohesion, academic achievement, self-
esteem, and lower depressive symptoms) 56 weeks after the
intervention, as indicated in the Figure 4. The only dimensions
on which the intervention was not predictive of changes were
orientations toward other outgroups and academic engagement.
Importantly, the mediational chain documented by the authors
was found for both ethnic majority and minority groups.
85
Figure 3
Results of the Identity Project on Ethnic Identity
3.2
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
Treatment Control
Note. T1 = pre-test, T2 = 1 week after the intervention, T3 = 6 weeks

after the intervention, T4 = 56 weeks after the intervention.
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Figure 4
Results of the Identity Project in the Long-term
Note. T1 = pre-test, T2 = 1 week after the intervention, T3 = 6 weeks

after the intervention, T4 = 56 weeks after the intervention.
In synthesis, the Identity Project demonstrated that an
intervention program providing youth with strategies, tools,
and opportunities with which to reason about and evaluate
the relevance of their ethnic identity will result in them
being more likely to explore it and develop a greater sense of
clarity regarding their ethnicity and, consequently, will affect
adolescents’ future psychosocial adjustment across multiple
domains.
87
Reflection moment
Remember the preliminary exercise you did at the beginning

of this module. We asked you to both write five typical
characteristics of people with a migrant background and
make a distinction between myths and true beliefs about
people with a migrant background. If we were to ask you
to do the same again, what comes to your mind about
migration now? Particularly, what can you do to increase the
social integration of adolescents with a migrant background?
Please take some time and reflect on what you have learned
from the present module.
What can you do?

◦◦ You can challenge the myths on migrants and their
migration processes. Besides, you can inform the people
around you on migrant-related myths.
◦◦ You can follow the recent statistics of the European
Commission, the Eurobarometer, the Migrant Integration
Policy Index, and the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees to deal with the negative bias against the
migrants in the mass media. Using these statistics, you can
find a “real” argument to cope with these alarmist news or
articles.
◦◦ You can inform the people around you about the mutual
and interpersonal nature of acculturation processes.
◦◦ You can work with NGOs (e.g., UNICEF) to diminish
prejudice against migrants and to facilitate their social
integration.
88
◦◦ You can create study-groups for youth to learn and discuss
how social integration is essential in modern multicultural
societies.
◦◦ You can create extracurricular activities for adolescents in
order to broaden their knowledge about positive intergroup
contact experiences and cultural diversity norms in a school
context.
◦◦ You can create multicultural events (e.g., international
dinners) in your department to learn more about the
cultural characteristics of your colleagues.
89
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Summary
• On one hand, increasing levels of migration can increase

interethnic tensions in the society because of prejudice
against migrants, on the other hand, they can provide greater
opportunities to have positive intergroup contact experiences
that can diminish prejudice.
• In the seminal Bi-dimensional Acculturation Model, four
acculturation strategies (i.e., Integration, Assimilation,
Separation, and Marginalization) have been described as
the results of the process of cultural and psychological
change when individuals and groups of different cultural
backgrounds meet. Among these strategies, integration has
more positive outcomes for individuals’ adjustment.
• The intergroup perspective takes into account the
acculturation preferences of individuals from the majority
group as one of the essential determinants of which
acculturation strategies are endorsed by the members of
minority groups.
• The acculturation processes of adolescents are embedded in
their main proximal societal contexts, namely family, peer,
and school contexts. Therefore, the quality and quantity of
their intergroup contact experiences within these contexts
have been identified as a key factor affecting adolescents’
acculturation processes.
• The acculturation processes of adolescents are intertwined
with their identity formation. Adolescents with a migrant
background could be more uncertain about their identity
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choices. However, intervention programs providing
youth with strategies, tools, and opportunities to explore
their identities can positively affect adolescents’ future
psychosocial adjustment across multiple domains.
The social inclusion of adolescents with a migrant

background requires a dynamic interplay between
migrants and members of the host society. Positive
intergroup contact experiences across multiple social
contexts and identity exploration and consolidation
have core implications for enhancing the integration
and well-being of adolescents with a migrant
background. Becoming more aware of our own
experiences and of socio-psychological processes,
we can all contribute to this endeavour so crucial for
contemporary multicultural societies.
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Questions
• How are the acculturation preferences of the individuals

from majority groups important for shaping the acculturation
strategies of individuals from migrant groups?
• Considering the intergroup nature of the acculturation
processes, why are the family, peer, and school contexts
crucial for developing adolescents’ own acculturation
strategies?
• How can intergroup contact experiences influence prejudice?
Also, think about the possible explanations of why negative
intergroup contact experiences increased prejudice more than
positive intergroup contact experiences?
• Why is adolescence a crucial life period in terms of
developing inclusive identities? How are adolescents’
acculturation processes related to the development of their
personal and social identities?
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Resources
Films and series

Gran Torino
Gran Torino is a 2008 American movie directed by Clint
Eastwood, who also starred in the film. The main character, Walt
Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), is a recently widowed Korean War
veteran, and he tries to deal with the demographic changes in
the neighborhood in which he has lived all his life. The movie
is about his relationship with a Hmong adolescent and his
immigrant family, and it is useful for understanding prejudice,
intergroup contact, and the development of intergroup
tolerance.
Green Book
This 2018 biographical comedy-drama movie by Peter Farrelly
portrays the relationship between a-working-class American-
Italian bouncer and an African-American classical and jazz
pianist in the 60s. This essential and powerful movie touches on
racism, prejudice, and stereotypes in the American society.
I Learn America (http://ilearnamerica.com/)

The 2013 documentary movie, directed by Jean-Michel Dissard
and Gitte Peng, presents a portrait of the acculturation processes
of five-resilient newly arrived immigrant adolescents in the
school context of New York City, the USA. The movie shows
the struggles of these five immigrant adolescents to integrate
themselves in the new society.
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Chef’s Table - Cristina Martinez (Season 5, Episode 1)
Netflix’s Chef’s Table narrates the story of Cristina Martinez,
Mexican chef and immigration activist in Philadelphia, the
USA. The episode addresses several issues (e.g., prejudice,
stereotypes) about being an immigrant woman in the culinary
world via her personal story and her memories.
Videos
“How Shall We All Live Together?” | Presentation by John
Berry at the International Conference entitled “Integration
Challenges in a Radicalizing World”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-8RrjO5-ss)
John Berry explains key aspects of his theory by discussing how
people who have been raised in different cultures can figure out
to live successfully together.
“The Brainwaves Video Anthology, Linda Tropp - Intergroup

Contact”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZMy7nr0aFY)
Linda Tropp briefly explains the Intergroup Contact Theory and
presents the findings of her meta-analytic study about the effects
of intergroup contact experiences on prejudice reduction.
“Between Two Cultures” | TEDx talk by Smrithi Ram

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv_UfDBNWI8)
In her speech, Smrithi Ram describes the challenge, experienced
by many first-generation immigrants, of reconciling her own
identity with the different cultures surrounding her and shares
why it is important for our communities to embrace diversity
and cultural variety.
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“Biculturalism-Two Worlds in One Person” | TEDx talk by
Anna Gricuk
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIKfKnHfnL0)
In her speech, Anna Gricuk points out implicit bias against the
migrants in the news on mass media, and she bring attention to
the advantages of having more than one ethnic background by
referring to her personal experiences.
“Helping Refugees Integrate” | TEDx talk by Irem Ergun

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpk7haVIJD0&t=10s)
Irem Ergun highlights the role of natives in fostering the social
integration of Syrian refugee students in Turkey by referring
to the Virtuous Triangle Project, a platform that matches
local university and primary school students to facilitate the
integration of refugees.
Further Readings
Brown, R. (2010). Prejudice: Its social psychology. Wiley-Blackwell.
A comprehensive book presenting the literature on prejudice
based on classic (Allport, 1954) and contemporary research
findings.
Brown, R. & Pehrson, S. (2020). Group processes: Dynamics
within and between groups (3rd ed.). Wiley. An overview of the
significant developments in the literature of group processes.
Brown, R., & Zagefka, H. (2011). The dynamics of acculturation:
An intergroup perspective. In J. M. Olson, M. P. Zanna, J.
M. Olson, M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in experimental social
psychology, Vol 44 (pp. 129-184). Academic Press. A book chapter
102
on acculturation processes examined from the lens of the
intergroup perspective.
Echterhoff, G., Hellmann, J. H., Back, M., Esses, V., & Wagner,
U. (2019). The social psychology of forced migration and
refugee integration [Special issue]. European Journal of Social
Psychology, 49(7), 1337-1482. A special issue aimed to capture
the experiences and perspectives of both people from a minority
group (e.g., refugees) and people from the majority group
by referring to self, motivation, threat, stereotypes, social
identification, collective action and so on.
Masten, A. S., Liebkind, K., & Hernandez, D. J. (Eds.). (2012).
Realizing the potential of immigrant youth. Cambridge University
Press. A comprehensive overview of contemporary studies on
immigrant youth and on their (potential) success in different life
domains (e.g., school, peer, family, language).
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How Poverty Affects Youth
Development: From Social
Inequalities to Social Inclusion
Oana Negru-Subtirica, Casandra Timar-Anton, Bianca V.

Marinica, & Bogdan Glavan
Self and Identity Development Lab, Department of

Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
Learning outcomes
After this unit, students will be able to understand:

• What poverty means, in the context of social inequalities
• Which are the personal resources of youth living in poverty
• The process of cognitive development of youth living in
poverty
• How youth living in poverty prioritize their goals and actions
• Scientific interventions that can help youth living in poverty
achieve their goals and live up to their potential
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Problem Statement
Poverty is a problem in all contemporary societies and regions.

Though we tend to believe that we live in a democratic and
civilized world, in 2019 many children (age 0 to 16) in Europe
were at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Eurostat 2019
statistics indicate that 34.6% of children from Romania, 26.8% of
children from Lithuania, 21.8% of children from France, 15.3%
of children in Netherlands, are at risk of poverty. These are just
a few examples of European countries. So, poverty is a clear and
present danger and it is important to understand how it affects
youth development and what we can do to help. In this module,
we will use the terms poverty/poor, low socio-economic status,
and people from disadvantaged communities interchangeably,
to refer to people who have very limited financial and social
resources. Poverty means living with very few resources
both from a material standpoint (e.g., income, food, shelter,
clothing), and from an opportunity standpoint (e.g., education,
employment, medical care, security).
Children at risk of poverty and

social exclusion in Europe
Check out this interactive map, to see how the situation looks
in your country:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/
ae74b17b-ff5b-4d8f-b98a-28ec0ddd79a7?lang=en
106
According to a 2018 report from the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), social
inequality has increased in the past few decades and social
mobility represents one of the angles through which we can
look at these inequalities. Escalators are a great metaphor
used in this report that can help us better understand social
mobility. Everybody rides an escalator that is slowly going up
(on the social scale), in sociology terms this would be absolute
social mobility. As this would mean that everyone is increasing
their socio-economic situation, we can say it is a good thing
for everybody. However, inside this main escalator, everyone
moves at different speeds, as such, their relative position in the
main escalator might go upward or downward as the main one
goes up over time; again, in terms of sociology, this would be
relative social mobility. The issue is that the distribution of the
speed with which one moves on the social scale is not evenly
distributed, not amounting to an inclusive raise of all the people.
The belief that anyone can improve their socio-economic
status is rather common in the context of increasing inequalities
and lower social mobility in various domains, such as education,
occupation, income, or health (OECD, 2018). The idea that “You
can do it if you really want” can motivate us, but at the same
time it can lead to placing the whole responsibility for moving
upward on the social scale entirely on the individual. The
same applies for failing to improve one’s condition. However,
this myth of meritocracy (i.e., the belief that anyone has
enough opportunities to move upwards on the social scale if
they work hard enough; Littler, 2018) pays no attention to the
barriers one doesn’t have any control over, such as the limited
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access to resources and its consequences (including in terms
of decision-making priorities). Therefore, before we can even
talk about the individual being responsible for his own success
or failure at improving his socio-economic status, we need to
analyze personal and social factors that influence this “power”.
Poor people are sometimes described in the media as stupid,
uneducated, bad with money, incapable to plan for the future.
This module comes to shed light on such fake news and explain
how poverty affects how people’s minds develop and work and
how their families are a crucial component of positive change.
Free associations exercise

As the concept of ‘poor’ or ‘poverty’ may have different
connotations for different people, we want to ask you to write
down as many words for describing people living in poverty
as you can think of. Think of them from the perspective of the
society you live in.
So, what comes to your mind when you think of ‘poor’ and
‘poverty’?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
____________________
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Case study
Meet Ioan. Ioan is an 8th grader in a middle school from a

Romanian village. He is the eldest child in a family of six.
His parents left school after the 8th grade and now they
work low-skilled, temporary jobs, in a nearby town. Every
day, Ioan witnesses the struggles of his parents as they have
to wake up at dawn, get cold water from the well, prepare
his younger siblings for school and walk more than 5 km
to get the bus to work. Ioan himself walks to school each
morning through snow in winter or mud in summer, wearing
the same footwear. For him, the highlight of each day is the
warm lunch provided by the school. When he is very hungry,
he eats it all at school, otherwise he brings it home to share it
with his siblings.
Ioan often feels overwhelmed by the amount of daily
responsibilities and challenges he faces both at home
and school. Despite being an adolescent, Ioan has many
additional roles. While his parents are away, he looks after
his younger siblings and prepares food for them, cleans the
house, and mends the vegetable garden. During the evening,
it is quite common for Ioan to witness heated arguments
between his parents due to the lack of money and other
resources.
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Ioan often feels lonely, as some of his school mates do not
go through the same struggles. His mind often drifts away
at his home problems and the uncertainty of tomorrow. The
added stress limits his ability to focus at school which often
leads to poor grades and low motivation to study. On top of
this, his parents are unable to guide him and offer homework
support. As a result, day by day, Ioan thinks of giving up
school. All the things he wants (warm shoes, a new coat), he
feels he cannot get by going to school. He starts to think that
it would be better if he stayed home and helped his parents
with the housework, taking care of the animals and vegetable
garden. In this manner, he feels that he could help his family
and, by selling the vegetables from their garden in the nearby
town, he could actually get the things he wants. Sometimes,
Ioan still dreams of more. He dreams about leaving the
village and doing something great, inspiring his younger
siblings and impressing his family and friends.
Poverty has always been counterpoised to affluence and

economic stability. When people talk about “poor” people,
they often think about what poor people lack, in terms of
money, skills, things, and so on. One of the things that “poor”
people seem to lack is the capacity to plan for the future. This
common belief references the idea that poor people seem to
have difficulties in setting long-term goals, like planning for an
education or saving money for something they could buy in a
distant future.
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Exercise:
Think about Ioan
In the case of Ioan, which of the following is a long-term

goal?
a. To buy warm shoes
b. To buy a new coat
c. To achieve a high-school education
d. To mend the vegetable garden
e. To sell vegetables at the market
Long-term goals are things that one plans for and will
achieve in a very distant future. In the case of Ioan, planning
to achieve a high-school education means that he will stay in
school for the next 4 to 5 years, he will learn for all subjects and
do his homework so that he takes all exams. In his case, it also
means that his parents should be able to support him to go to
high-school in the nearby town (20 kms away), as their village
does not have a high-school.
So, when we look at Ioan’s current situation, he does not
see the meaning of going to school, as going to school does not
solve his everyday needs. Ioan is focused on the present and the
near future (weeks or months away), as his basic needs (warmer
clothing for the winter) really need to be attended to. Also, Ioan
is very close to his parents and he sees how difficult it is for
them to get by financially. Hence, he wants to be able to help
them, by mending the garden, growing vegetables, and selling
them in the nearby town.
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The fact that poor people tend to be more focused on the
present, is many times presented as a major weakness that leads
to negative paths that they will take in their future.
Exercise:
Think about Ioan
What could happen to Ioan if he decides to drop out of

school after the 8th grade?
Please complete the following phrases by choosing the
missing words.
financial debt the family land
a well-paid job many children
healthcare and health insurance
a. He will have difficulties finding_________ because of his

low-level education.
b. He will stay in his home village and keep working__.
c. He will be at risk for _______, as he cannot properly save
money.
d. He will marry very young and have________.
e. He will have very limited access to_________, as he will
probably work temporary jobs, with no health insurance.
All these predictions amount to something that researchers

call the poverty trap. This refers to things that poor people do
(they are called behaviors), that, in time, increase their level of
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poverty. For instance, dropping out of school too early seems
to be linked in time with having low-paying and unstable
jobs, which in turn leads to limited access to healthcare and
subsequently to the probability of getting chronic diseases
(Frankenhuis et al., 2016). Now think about Ioan’s story. He
is reared in a tough environment, with limited resources and
many stressful conditions, which shape his cognitive and social
skills.
Humans are born ready to learn and to develop a variety
of skills. It is well known that the brain starts to grow long
before birth and continues to undergo major developments
during the early years of childhood. Thus, the first years of
life have tremendous impact for later cognitive and physical
development. Brain development and cognitive development
are strongly connected. But what do we mean by cognitive
development? Cognitive development refers to how someone
gains an understanding of the world by exploring and figuring
out how things work. It includes reasoning, problem-solving,
decision-making, language, memory, which all help and prepare
humans to make sense of the world around them.
There are many factors which can influence brain
development for the better or worse, such as: nutrition, health
care, and the child’s proximal environment (e.g., poverty,
stress, neglect, or other risks). Neuroscience evidence shows
us that our brain continues to develop through our entire life,
but the experiences encountered during the first years of life
constitute the building blocks for future development, thus are
the most impactful. During childhood, early life adversities
have been shown to have deleterious effects on the nervous
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system, in such a way that visible changes in volumetric
parameters can be observed. For instance, children living in
poor conditions have been found to have lower white and
grey matter volumes. Also, their hippocampus and amygdala
volumes are smaller than their peers’ (Luby et al., 2013;
Hair et al., 2015). Both the hippocampus and amygdala are
part of the limbic system, a system responsible for memory,
learning and emotion. The hippocampus’s main functions are
related to generating, organizing and storing memories while
connecting them to different emotions. This is why very often
our most vivid memories are linked to strong emotions. The
amygdala represents a brain structure similar to a ‘sensor’ or
‘alarm’ responsible for detecting whether something in the
environment, either an event or person, is potentially harmful
or threatening. In the long run, the smaller volumes observed
in these brain structures in children living in poverty can have
detrimental effects on learning and emotional regulation.
How do you think this different neural development affects

their life in the short and long-term?
Unfortunately, many children in poor families start school

with an observable lag behind their colleagues, in terms of
linguistic abilities, emotional regulation, attention, and planning
skills. This often brings about discrimination and segregation at
school both from their peers and teachers. As they go through
school, these problems only get worse to the point where
they are unable to keep up with the school requirements and
eventually this puts them at risk of dropping out. Later in life, as
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school dropouts, it is very hard for them to get well-paying jobs
which further keep them in the poverty trap.
These experiences may encourage people living in poverty
to think about themselves according to the fixed mindset. The
fixed mindset views intelligence as static, stable and not easily
changed (Claro et al., 2016). This kind of thinking shapes
your actions and behaviors. For instance, in a difficult and
challenging situation, you may give up easily, because you
think that you cannot make it and eventually you will end up
avoiding challenges. Also, the fixed mindset may prevent you
from seizing opportunities, because you do not think they are
worth pursuing, as nothing can really change your situation.
Besides the fixed mindset, there is another type of thinking,
namely the growth mindset (Claro et al., 2016). The growth
mindset is represented by a malleable view of intellectual
abilities. People with a growth mindset will approach difficult
tasks and situations with the belief that with sustained work
they will self-improve and be able to find solutions to overcome
any hardships. For a more detailed presentation of these two
mindsets, you can have a look at Figure 1.
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Figure 1
Differences between a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset
Note. From “Growth Mindset Toolkit,” by Transforming

Education, (2014), graphic courtesy of Nigel Holmes.
(https://www.transformingeducation.org/growth-mindset-toolkit/).
Copyright 2014 by Transforming Education, licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0.
International License.
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The focus on what poor people lack in terms of social and
cognitive skills is represented in the scientific literature by the
so-called deficit models. Deficit models reflect all the things that
people living in poverty do not have and cannot do or get; they
are the dominant models when researchers approach poverty.
One of the main limitations of deficit models is that no levers
for positive change can be identified when we only look at
what poor people cannot do or do not understand. Therefore,
researchers now try to also look at how poor people actually
make it in their harsh environments.
Reflection moment
“Performance reflects adaptation to the context.”

(Frankenhuis & Nettle, 2020, p. 16)
What does this mean? Can you think of an example when
this statement was true for you? Then, can you think of an
example when this is true for people living in poverty in
your area/country?
In the case of Ioan, his focus on the present can be analyzed

in the context of the world around him. His family, his
neighbors, his classroom and school are all fighting for survival,
trying to gather enough resources: money, funding for the
school and for getting qualified teachers, wood for the winter,
food and water for the times when the road to the village
is flooded. This type of harsh environment requires quick
responses in the present, as threats are unexpected and often
different from other crisis situations. A focus on the future
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would require a higher level of predictability and control over
the environment.
Through this lens of analysis, the fact that Ioan wants to
make changes to his life that lead to immediate benefits (leave
school to help parents, mend the garden to have vegetables, etc.)
can be seen as an adaptive reaction to a harsh and unpredictable
environment. In fact, survival in poverty leads to the formation
of so-called hidden-talents, which are abilities and qualities
that people with low socio-economic status develop in order to
navigate an unpredictable and difficult environment. Research
studies indicate that such hidden-talents are (Frankenhuis &
Nettle, 2020):
• The capacity to quickly identify great dangers and
opportunities in one’s immediate environment;
• The capacity to quickly and efficiently move from one task/
activity to another one;
• The capacity to detect and follow up on things that change
very quickly;
• The capacity to keep going in an activity when they work for
an immediate reward (something you get exactly when you
finished the activity);
• The capacity to react more quickly and also get over more
quickly to negative emotional reactions of other people.
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Empirical Research
Exercise:
Think about Ioan
As Ioan’s parents did not complete secondary school, what

do you think his chances are at making it to university?
1. 25%
2. He has no chance! The system is broken!
3. 60%
4. He can do it if he really wants to.
5. 15%
Coming back to our case, as Ioan comes from a

disadvantaged family he will not be able to raise as fast as his
peers from non-disadvantaged families and it will be harder for
him to have a better education, career, healthcare and income
than his parents. You may think “oh, well, if he will work hard
enough, he will eventually succeed”, but in real life, things are
not that clear cut. For instance, results from a longitudinal study
(i.e., a design that follows the same person for a predetermined
period of time) on poverty and cognitive development
highlighted that low income was associated with poorer
academic performance (Hair et al., 2015). The results were based
on a sample of 389 children (aged between 4 and 22 years old)
who undertook an array of brain scans (i.e., magnetic resonance
imaging scanning) and test batteries regarding general
intelligence, language development, and math achievement,
resulting in 823 observations. The brain scans revealed that
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children coming from low income families lag in terms of
anatomical brain development compared with their peers. This
had an observable impact on their school performance, as their
grades in standardized tests were 4-7 points lower.
Regarding the educational dimension of social mobility, a
recent OECD study showed that children with parents who
did not complete secondary school have only 15% chance
of attaining tertiary education, compared to 60% chance of
children from families in which at least one of the parents has
tertiary education. Nonetheless, we can say Ioan is luckier
than his younger sisters, as statistics highlight that in case of
girls, poverty has a greater negative impact on their raising
on the social scale. One of the factors that might influence
intergenerational educational mobility might be related to
parents’ priorities, which impact the decisions they make when
it comes to their children.
Now let’s take a look at some of the decisions Ioan’s parents
have to make. Which do you think is a priority for them? Try to
order them from the highest to the lowest priority.
1. Their children doing well in school.
2. Buying Ioan a new pair of shoes.
3. Reading them a bedtime story or watching a documentary
together.
4. Saving up money to buy wood to heat the house in the
winter.
5. Making sure they have enough food by working in their
small vegetable garden.
As we have seen in the previous part of the module, Ioan
had to be more focused on the present because his basic needs
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require immediate care and just can’t be ignored. The same
applies for his parents and impacts their decision-making
when it comes to establishing priorities. In addition to this,
in low-income families from some countries the mothers
consider that their main responsibilities consist in teaching
children about their role in the family, not moving far from
home throughout their entire lives, and being grateful for
the previous generations’ sacrifices (Valdés, 1996). Although
family obligations (e.g., house chores, financial help) are a core
aspect of certain cultures, regardless of the socio-economic
status, a stronger sense of family responsibility is displayed
by people from low-income families. For example, as part
of a larger study with multiple measurements, conducted
by Witkow et al. (2015), 12th graders from 3 different high
schools filled in questionnaires which measured the socio-
economic status, academic achievement, and the importance of
family obligations. Two years later, they provided information
regarding their financial situation (e.g., having a job) and family
assistance, whereas 4 years later they mentioned their college
situation (e.g., currently attending, already graduated, not
enrolling).
Besides revealing that family obligations and financial
difficulties are associated with lower academic persistence over
time, the results also indicated that 12th grade socio-economic
status was negatively correlated with how important they felt
it was to provide future help to their families (e.g., give money,
live nearby) on one hand, and family obligations 2 years later
on the other hand. In other words, the lower the socio-economic
status, the higher the perceived family obligations. Raising
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children with extremely limited resources requires a great deal
of sacrifice and their help is usually necessary when the parents
get too old and/or too sick to work. Hence, promoting gratitude
and family responsibility as core values is very important.
Reflection moment
Can you remember which were your family responsibilities

when you were 14?
In Ioan’s case, family obligations currently take the form

of looking after his younger siblings, cooking for them, and
mending the vegetable garden, which take up much of his day
and might significantly limit the time he has left for educational
activities (not to even mention having free time to play, like
most children his age). Furthermore, if we look from Ioan’s
possible future perspective in which he would invest effort
in upward social mobility, his parents’ values and practices
might represent obstacles in his efforts. As Mallman (2017)
highlighted in his in-depth interviews on early life experiences
of people that are upwardly mobile on the social ladder, high
performance in school and intellectual curiosity might make
them feel different and distinctive from their families. In the
long run, their aspirations can make them stand out and become
a relational barrier between them and their family members.
This can increase their vulnerability regarding relational and
identity issues, as they have to integrate or choose between
different types of values, behaviors, commitments, and views
on life (Mallman, 2017). In this regard, we can observe that
social mobility does not refer only to income, but it is a complex
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process that starts early in life and can have consequences long
after a person manages to have a certain education, occupation
or income.
Reflection moment
Pause for a moment. Before you read further, try and think
what your career dreams are. Wait, wait! We really mean it,
please pause for 2-3 minutes and think about your career
dreams.
Now that you are back, which do you think are the career
options Ioan might think about?
1. “Career is not that important; I will manage somehow. My
dad does it all the time, day by day.”
2. “I want to become a pediatrician and take care of all the kids,
as I take care of my younger siblings.”
3. “I will amount to a position of judge and stop all corruption;
even minor infringements of the law will be severely
punished without any impunity.”
4. “If I won’t be able to finish high school, at least my mom told
me she will help me get a job at the factory she is working
in and I will have a stable job. By doing this, I could also be
around and help them.”
5. I cannot even imagine what goes through his mind, my
parents always wanted the best for me and encouraged me
to follow my dreams. Not going to college was not even an
option for me.
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Beside the preference for certain values, a family’s socio-
economic status is also related to parental aspirations, which
further influence children’s own aspirations. Parents from low
educational backgrounds tend to have lower aspirations for
their children, especially in terms of personal development
needs, such as achieving an education and fulfilling their
potential. Their low aspirations seem to influence their
children’s aspirations (Reese et al., 2016). As a recent report
from OECD (2020) revealed, when comparing children with
similarly high PISA results, high-achieving children coming
from poor backgrounds are much less likely to have high
ambitions than children from more privileged backgrounds.
Moreover, as they have lower aspirations, it is more frequent
for them to look towards jobs that might get automated in the
near future. Not only that, but as they lack guidance from their
parents, the misalignment between their educational plans and
their occupational plans are much more frequent in children
from poor families. As such, even if they might have higher
aspirations regarding their future career, in many instances
they do not understand the educational requirements for the
respective job.
Going back to Ioan’s situation, these results suggest that
parents’ lack of concern for school-related and other educational
activities could also be motivated by their low aspirations.
Simply put, they just do not expect Ioan to achieve a lot.
Therefore, there’s no point in investing in his human capital,
which refers to a person’s competences and is related to the
investments made in their development (e.g., formal education,
books, private classes, computers, summer camps). Obviously,
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this low investment is also maintained by the limited access
to financial resources. For example, as Ioan’s parents are
constantly worried about covering basic, immediate needs,
things such as books and museum visits might be regarded as
unnecessary luxuries, which explains why the option “Reading
them a bedtime story or watching a documentary together”
ranked so low on the list you ordered earlier. However, if we
look at families that are not from disadvantaged backgrounds,
as they have a higher level of predictability and control over
their environment, they are more likely to prioritize such
activities. In this manner, they prepare their children for future
challenges (e.g., getting into college, finding a good job), by
helping them gain knowledge and develop skills. Consequently,
the opportunity gap between different socio-economic statuses
keeps on increasing over the course of the lifetime, contributing
to the poverty trap discussed in the previous part of the module.
In order to understand the relationships between childhood
parental involvement and future outcomes, some studies
used data from the National Development Study conducted
in the United Kingdom (Flouri & Buchanan, 2004; Hango,
2007). This national study collected data regarding the
development of children born in the same week in 1958. It
initially interviewed the mothers of the newborns, but follow-
up interviews conducted when their children were 7, 11, 16, 23,
33, 42 years-old and also included occasional information from
other people (e.g., the children, teachers). Results indicated
that parental interest in the child’s education (especially the
father’s), measured through teachers’ evaluations, can help
reduce the negative effects of financial struggles on education.
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The frequency of involvement in activities such as walking
together, having a picnic, outings, and visits has a positive
impact on educational achievement in later life. Even when
measuring parental involvement by looking not only at
educational interest, but also at the frequencies of reading to the
child, outings (i.e., walks, visits, picnics), and father managing
the child, the frequency of involvement was associated with
the child’s later educational attainment. Therefore, parents
can be encouraged to show interest by involvement in small,
but helpful educational activities with their children, such as
reading a bedtime story, watching educational shows together,
discussing interesting things the children learn at school, and
simply spending time together. The impact usual activities can
have on the child’s development is also shown by a study which
highlights that dinnertime conversations can play a positive role
in the way children understand the world of work and which
aspirations are appropriate for them (Paugh, 2005).
Taking this into consideration, when we look at Ioan’s
possible career options we can understand why it is more likely
for him to think of option 1 or option 4, both options having
great chances of coming with poverty and high unpredictability.
In the long run, both options have great chances of having
rippling effects in all his life domains, making him more likely
to be exposed to environmental hazards, violence, and even
shortening his life. If we try to be more optimistic and imagine
he chooses option 2, there is a great chance that without any
external intervention he might not understand the educational
requirements for a pediatrician and this lowers his chances of
ever getting to that career path.
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BOX 3.1. Research in Romania: “Socioeconomic
background, nonverbal IQ and school absence
affects the development of vocabulary and reading
comprehension in children living in severe poverty”
(Lervåg et al., 2019)
Vocabulary and reading comprehension are two essential
skills which influence the school years and then the adult
life. During primary school, children learn, on average, 860
root words per year, both from school textbooks, and from
their families. In fact, research has shown that the complexity
of the sentences and language they hear at home strongly
correlates with the child’s vocabulary. There have been
several previous studies, which found that children living
in poverty had significantly lower levels of vocabulary and
reading comprehension compared to their peers. Empirical
evidence has shown that comprehension is strongly tied to
vocabulary, as the more words a child knows, the easier it is
for him to derive the meaning of new words from the text he
is reading.
Starting from the evidence provided in the academic
literature on the link between poverty and language deficits,
Lervåg and colleagues (2019) examined a sample of children
from Romania, both coming from the majority population
(i.e., Romanian) and from an ethnic minority (i.e., Rroma).
127
Method
Employing a longitudinal design spanning the first three
years of school, three groups of children were compared
(Romanian, monolingual Rroma, and bilingual Romanian-
Rroma), yielding a total sample of 500. Across the three
years, there were five measurement points, which included
data measurements from the reading comprehension skills
and vocabulary. The family SES status was also included
by taking into account family income, parents’ education,
employment, and living conditions.
Results and Discussion
The results revealed that the children coming from the higher
SES Romanian families started out with better vocabulary
and reading comprehension skills than their lower SES
Romanian peers. With time, from one measurement to
another, there has been an increase in both vocabulary and
reading comprehension skills in all the 3 groups, but the
higher SES children showed the fastest growth. These results
are worrisome because they show a clear difference in the
key skills needed for communication and learning. Even
worse, the results show that the divide only increases with
time, as it gets harder and harder for lower SES children to
keep up.
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Interventions
As Michael Jackson’s lyrics (Man in the Mirror) urge us:

I’m gonna make a change
For once I’m my life
It is gonna feel real good,
Gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right [..]
it is now time to look at previous interventions with
scientifically proven efficiency. In 2019, an article was published
in Nature reporting the results of an intervention on 12,490
adolescents, 9th graders (Yeager et al., 2019). To accomplish
this intervention, the researchers employed a randomized
controlled trial. What does this mean? It means that students
were randomly assigned to either the intervention treatment
(i.e., growth mindset condition) or to the control condition (i.e.,
‘brain essentials’ condition). Also, all the people involved in the
study (i.e., students, school staff, or members of the research
team) were blind to treatment conditions throughout the entire
study, meaning that they did not know which students were
assigned to the intervention or control condition.
The first session included baseline questionnaires and the
delivery of the first intervention phase. This took place between
weeks 2-5 of the fall semester. Students were invited to sign
into the research website and complete some demographic
measures. After that, they proceeded in accordance to their
randomly assigned treatment. Students in the intervention
condition: (1) were presented with scientific evidence regarding
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neural plasticity, which highlighted how brain functions can be
enhanced when embracing new challenges and more difficult
ways of thinking; (2) they internalized the intervention message
by completing exercises, applying its principles into their own
lives, and presenting them to a future student. Students in the
control group: (1) read an article on general brain functions;
(2) answered a series of questions based on the article in a
reflexive manner. The control group materials did not include
information about the malleability of the brain, but rather
tapped on essential concepts about different brain regions and
functions.
The second phase of the intervention took place between
weeks 5-10 of the fall semester and was continued by a follow-
up study. Students in the intervention condition: (1) gained
knowledge about other students/celebrities who adopted the
growth mindset principles; (2) completed exercises. Students
in the control condition: (1) went through an article about ways
of studying the brain; (2) completed exercises to sum up the
article’s information. The follow-up study’s results showed that
low-achievement students coming from disadvantaged families
benefited the most from this intervention by improving their
GPAs in their general, mathematics, and science grades. This
intervention is highly scalable, as it is cost-effective, and has the
outcome of adolescents becoming trainers themselves for the
next generations.
Now what can you do to help children living in poverty
change/improve their lifestyle? As we are already familiar
with some of the negative effects of poverty, it is important to
start searching for solutions. Our primary aim was to provide
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a comprehensive summary of the difficulties poor people go
through in order to better understand their situation. Making
a change implies that we have to take all of the previously
mentioned difficulties poor families usually encounter and
start to address them by thinking about how their proximal
environment is organized to suit their needs.
What can you do?

• You can use metaphors like “the brain is a muscle” or
“growing your intelligence” to address the growth mindset
and to explain why adolescents should work hard in order to
keep developing themselves.
• You can explain and demonstrate the benefits of adopting a
growth mindset by offering examples of same age peers that
improved their school performance over time.
• You can challenge the fixed beliefs associated with different
abilities by making use of famous case studies (e.g., scientists,
professors, business-people) who started out in the same
situation as they are.
• You can teach adolescents to view a problem from different
angles and try different strategies to check what works best.
• You can persuade them to write messages/letters to their
colleagues about past difficult situations they have overcome
by exercising and hard work.
• You can teach adolescents different learning strategies which
they can further employ in schoolwork.
• You can create study-groups for adolescents in which they
can learn together and share their learning habits.
• You can teach adolescents how to approach and take on
challenging tasks.
• You can improve adolescents’ decision-making skills by
employing different board games.
• You can develop extracurricular activities for adolescents to
broaden their aspirations.
Family-Level Interventions
Increasing parents’ aspirations can lead to higher
investments in the child’s human capital and to an increasement
in their own aspirations. One way to do this is by exposing
poor families to educated professionals and increasing
their awareness regarding job opportunities (proved to be
particularly effective for the mothers of girls). This has been
achieved during a governmental program from Mexico named
PROGRESA, which aimed to break the vicious circle of passing
on poverty from one generation to another (Chiapa et al.,
2012). In order to reach this objective, two main aspects were
addressed: education and health. The first step was identifying
eligible communities using census information regarding their
socio-economic status. Then, 506 eligible communities from
rural Mexico were randomly chosen to be in the program’s
evaluation sample. For comparison reasons, 320 of these
communities were assigned to the treatment group and 186 to
the control group.
Disadvantaged families were required to attend regular
medical check-ups and engage in eight survey rounds, the first
four of which also included information on parental aspirations
for their children. Whereas the treatment group started
132
receiving the benefits sooner, the control group did so much
later and was not informed about the future benefits they would
receive. The frequency of these check-ups based on which
the benefits were offered varied depending on the age of the
children in the family, with children under 5 having at least 4
check-ups yearly, while those older than 5 only 2. As most rural
clinics had only two staff members (a doctor and a nurse), the
parents were constantly exposed to the same professionals at
every visit.
Results showed that six months after the start of the program
the average educational aspirations of the parents from the
high exposure group got bigger than the average from the
low exposure group. However, one year after the start of
the program the difference between the groups got smaller,
indicating that the parental aspirations of the low exposure
group was catching up with the high-exposure group’s
aspirations. This brings evidence for the fact that it is more
about how many times the parents interact with educated
professionals, and less about how frequently. The changes in
parental aspirations could be explained by the fact that, as the
parents get closer to the professionals and communicate with
them, their thinking is influenced by interacting with someone
“from a different world”, one in which different information is
available.
What can you do?

• You can facilitate contact between a family from a
disadvantaged background and educated professionals.
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• You can help the families meet with people working in the
children’s dream field, or even try to develop a mentorship
between the person and the children. This is important as
more often than not, parents do not have the opportunity to
gain knowledge or to truly understand more complex jobs,
usually from fields or jobs that require higher education.
• You can encourage families to get involved in educational
and recreational activities with the children. For example,
dinnertime conversations, walks, and reading stories together
can be a great start.
• You can help parents realize the importance of showing
interest in their children’s education. For example, if they do
not feel that they can help with homework, they can display
interest by learning from the children. As the children try to
explain the content, it can even help them start to understand
it better.
• You can do this by getting involved in projects aimed at
people from poor backgrounds, or you can start such a
project. Get involved, be that future professional that parents
and children are exposed to.
Remember the first association exercise you did at the
beginning of this module? We asked you to list as many words
as you could on ‘poor’ and ‘poverty’. If we were to ask you
again on this matter, how do you relate to poverty now? What
comes to your mind about poverty and its drawbacks now?
Please take some time and reflect on what you learned from the
present module.
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References
Chiapa, C., Garrido, J. L., & Prina, S. (2012). The effect of social
programs and exposure to professionals on the educational
aspirations of the poor. Economics of Education Review, 31(5),
778-798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.05.006
Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth
mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic
achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, 113, 8664-8668. https://doi.org/10.1073/
pnas.1608207113
Eurostat. (2019). People at risk of poverty or social exclusion by
age and sex. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/
ilc_peps01/default/map?lang=en
Flouri, E., & Buchanan, A. (2004). Early father’s and mother’s
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Frankenhuis, W. E., & Nettle, D. (2020). The strengths of people
in poverty. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29, 16-
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Frankenhuis, W. E., Panchanathan, K., & Nettle, D. (2016).
Cognition in harsh and unpredictable environments. Current
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Summary
• One of the common fake-news related to poverty is that

anyone can improve their socio-economic status and
everyone has the same opportunities to attend to if they work
hard enough. Nevertheless, the myth of meritocracy pays no
attention to the barriers one does not have any control over,
such as limited access to resources and its consequences.
• The results of several important emerging empirical
research highlight that poverty can impact youths’ cognitive
development by influencing their understanding of
themselves and the world, their learning ability, emotional
regulation, what they will prioritize and how they will make
long-term plans.
• Family related factors can also have a significant impact on
the development of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Due to the limited resources and short-term needs, parents
with low socioeconomic status have lower aspirations for
their children, which further influences children’s aspirations.
• The dominant models used when researchers approach
poverty are the deficit ones, focusing on what marginalised
people lack in terms of social and cognitive skills. However,
a new perspective leaves more room for positive changes
and highlights that youth living in poverty develop
hidden-talents that help them navigate unpredictable and
challenging environments.
• Recent empirical studies have shown that interventions can
have a significant impact on the lives of young people from
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disadvantaged backgrounds. One of the mentioned studies
emphasises that encouraging a growth mindset in low-
achievement students coming from disadvantaged families
can significantly increase their academic performance.
Furthermore, a different study highlights that interactions
between professionals and disadvantaged families can
increase parents’ aspirations.
• The principles behind the mentioned interventions are
simple. As such, practical recommendations for the general
population can be derived from this scientific evidence.
It is never too late to inspire and act on social change.

Whether you have already been involved in fighting
against social inequality stereotypes or have just now
decided to do so, your contribution is essential. As
we have previously shown, each of us can ‘make a
change’. We can accomplish this by embracing one
or more of the feasible outlined recommendations
(e.g., helping disadvantaged children to develop a
growth mindset, teaching them different learning
strategies, encouraging families to initiate dinnertime
conversations and reading times). In doing so, we can
really ‘make a difference’ by trying to work on each
and every shortcoming, so by the end of the day we
can feel satisfied with our contribution.
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Key questions
• How would you explain to your peers the impact of poverty

on both cognitive development and the family?
• How can you help young people from disadvantaged families
increase their academic performance?
• How can you improve educational aspirations of parents
coming from low socio-economic backgrounds?
• How do you plan to reduce the consequences of poverty
among young people in your area?
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Resources
Films and series

The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
Based on the true story of Chris Gardner, this movie depicts
the struggles of a salesman to make ends meet, while trying
to maintain a loving father-son relationship and protect his
son from the harsh reality they’re living. We recommend this
movie as it highlights how sometimes even doing your best isn’t
enough, fighting the stereotype that homeless people go through
poverty because they are lazy.
Capernaum (2018), translated as “Chaos”

This powerful drama depicts the challenges of life in the slums
and the several responsibilities a young boy has trying to simply
survive. We recommend this movie as it draws attention to
poverty-related issues that we rarely think about, such as the
lack of identification documents, and, unlike the previously
recommended movie, the family environment is far from being
loving.
Black-ish (Season 3, Episode 6)

Although this critically-acclaimed sitcom tends to address more
racial issues, this episode focuses on parental hopes for their
children’s future jobs. As the main characters are the generation
who has achieved upward social mobility, the conversation gets
more serious when one of them is accused by their parents of
looking down on blue-collared people (like himself). Besides,
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throughout all the jokes, different perspectives regarding
work can be noticed between the wealthy generation and their
parents.
BBC Children in Needs Series - The Young & Homeless (Street

Life) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFyI5jBSnw)
This BBC documentary highlights the struggles of homeless
teenagers across the United Kingdom, presenting real
teenagers who have trouble finding a place to call “home”. We
recommend this documentary as it sheds some light on youth
poverty in Europe.
Videos
Crash Course Sociology Playlist - “Social Class & Poverty in
the US”, “The Impacts of Social Class”, “Social Mobility”
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMJ-
AfB_7J1538YKWkZAnGA)
Crash Course is an educational Youtube channel, which presents
introductory content designed by experts in various fields in an
engaging manner, with the Sociology Playlist being based on the
John J. Macionis book “Sociology” (15th edition). These three
videos on social class present some of the concepts we’ve talked
about in this module and a few new ones, providing interesting
and easy to understand examples.
Crash Course Sociology Playlist - “Schools and Social

Inequality”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMk3Bk08NA&list=PL8d
PuuaLjXtMJ-AfB_7J1538YKWkZAnGA&t=0s)
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This video is a great way to sum up and remember the part on
the module regarding social factors outside the person’s control,
which influence life and/or educational outcomes. Using the
social-conflict theory, it addresses the myth of meritocracy,
family’s cultural capital, social inequality reproduction, and
some related racial issues in only 11 minutes.
“Using Brain Science to Create New Pathways out of Poverty”

| TEDx Talk by Beth Babcock
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHIq-8J2K0Q)
During this TEDx Talk, Beth Babcock highlights how job market
changes bring new challenges for the people working to get
poor people decent jobs. After shortly presenting poverty’s
influence on brain development, she proposes a labor market
integration approach, based on brain development research.
“How Economic Inequality Harms Societies” | TEDx Talk by

Richard Wilkinson
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7LzE3u7Bw)
In this data driven TEDx Talk, Richard Wilkinson presents
comparisons both between and within countries, introducing
the concept of income inequality and showing how countries
with bigger differences between the rich and the poor are
associated with higher rates of health and social problems.
Maybe a bit surprisingly, he points out that this inequality
seems to be not only affecting the people at the bottom of the
social ladder, but also those at the top.
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“This is What Inequality Looks Like” | TEDx Talk by Johnny
Miller
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpfMMKT_4jw)
Unlike the other videos mentioned in this section, this one
has a weaker focus on presenting data and concepts. Instead,
it presents photographer Johnny Miller’s project “Unequal
Scenes”, which uses drone images to explore inequality in
South Africa. We recommend this easy to watch Ted Talk as
it uses visual content to draw attention to how poverty and
social inequality might be even closer than we think, just a few
meters away from wealthy communities. Photos from different
locations can be found here https://unequalscenes.com.
“Why You Do Not Care About Inequality” | TEDx Talk by

Jonathan Mijs
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYgH5QLJCzQ)
After researching attitudes and beliefs about economic
inequality at the London School of Economics and Harvard
University, Dr Jonathan Mijs highlights some of the reasons
why, despite the high inequality, people are not equally
concerned about the matter.
Further Readings
Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success.
Random House Digital, Inc. As we have seen in this chapter,
one’s mindset can affect how difficult situations are approached
and the academic achievement of children from disadvantaged
backgrounds. We recommend reading this book for a more
comprehensive understanding of the two types of mindsets and
their impact on several domains of our lives.
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Littler, J. (2018). Against meritocracy: Culture, power and myths of
mobility. Routledge. In this book, Jo Littler addresses the concept
of meritocracy, arguing that despite the optimistic assumptions
at its core, it fosters social division. In the first part of the book,
she approaches meritocracy in political speeches, the world of
work and social theories, whereas in the second part several
case studies about elites presenting themselves as ordinary are
presented.
Smarsh, S. (2018). Heartland: A memoir of working hard and being

broke in the richest country on earth. Scribe Publications. This
book combines the author’s childhood memories with a social
analysis of Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, challenging the
readers to think about class division and some misconceptions
about poor people. As the title suggests, the author observes
how, despite working hard, her family has a hard time making
ends meet.
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Promoting Gender Equality By
Tackling Gender Stereotypes
Rasa Erentaitėa, Saulė Raižienėa,b, Jurgita Jurkevičienėa,

Titty Varghesea, & Dainora Maumevičienėa
a
Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, Kaunas
University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
b
Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Vilnius,
Lithuania
Rasa Erentaitė, Saulė Raižienė, Jurgita Jurkevičienė, Titty

Varghese, & Dainora Maumevičienė
Learning outcomes
After this module, students will be able to:

• Recognise fake news about gender and gender inequality
• Explain how gender stereotypes contribute to gender
inequalities
• Suggest measures and behaviours that help to achieve gender
equality in different situations
Gender on a race track
Read the story (based on Baldwin, 2019; Collantine, 2014) and

think of the answers to the questions below.
Desiré Randall Wilson (born in 1953) started driving a
micro-racing car at the age of five. At the age of 12 she came
second in the South African nationals, driving midget cars.
By the age of 19 she made her full racing debut and was
fourth in the South African Formula Vee Championship.
In the following seasons she remained among the leaders
at the national races, and subsequently moved to Europe to
compete in races related to Formula One (F1). She became
the only woman to win a F1 race of any kind when she won
at Brands Hatch in the British Aurora F1 Championship in
1980. In the race she always had to compete with men. She
recalls male drivers were her best friends until she beat them.
If she came faster, some drivers would not even speak to
her. She had to prove herself with numerous racing victories
to tackle the attitude she often faced among the sponsors,
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peer drivers, and team owners in the field: “what’s this
woman doing here?”. In a sport as expensive as car racing,
such attitude has created barriers to accessing the most
prestigious teams and races, as well as getting the best
cars. In her most important race for qualifiers for F1 Grand
Prix she received a car, which was heavily crashed just two
weeks ago and did not have the technical characteristics
necessary for the highest league. In her career she was
supported by her father, who was a successful motorbike
racer, and by her husband, a road course architect. In 2011
her husband wrote a book about her racing career Driven by
Desire: The Desiré Wilson story.
• The story about Desiré Randall Wilson refers to the events a
few decades ago. Would a girl or a woman who is interested in
car racing face similar issues today? Why or why not?
• In Saudi Arabia, women were granted the right to drive a car in
2018. Why do you think it was forbidden for women to drive a
car in this country before 2018?
• Is driving a car considered a masculine activity in your
country? What about driving a racing car?
• Do you think some activities, sports or jobs should be done only
by men or only by women? Why? Why not?
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Problem Statement
Equality of women and men is widely acknowledged in

the constitutions and laws of many contemporary societies.
However, when it comes to social relationships and everyday
practices, none of the countries has achieved actual gender
equality yet. The main trends are similar in different parts of
the world, showing that women have lower access to political
participation, decision-making power, economic participation,
and command over resources, compared to men. These trends
are so deeply ingrained that many people do not even realise
that women are often mistreated, and that mass media images
are misrepresenting them as being weak, passive, irrational, and
in any case not as good as a male, which is harmful and holding
us back - politically, economically, and socially (Ward & Aubrey,
2017).
“When we see women playing secondary roles, young women can

think it’s normal life to play a secondary role and lose ambition.”
Young woman, 23, Senegal
Source: Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (2019)
Recent statistics illustrate the enormous gap in power

and opportunities that still exists between women and men.
For example, according to the European Institute for Gender
Equality (2019) and the World Economic Forum (2020), if you
are a female born in Lithuania, you are almost four times less
likely to be elected to national parliament and six times less
likely to become a member of a company’s board of directors,
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as compared to your male counterpart. Also, being a female in
Lithuania, you are more likely to work in lower paid jobs and
earn almost 20 % less than a male.
Similar patterns of gender inequality are observed globally.
For example, the data reveals that women hold only 27% of the
managerial positions worldwide (United Nations, 2018). They
also earn just 10% of the world’s income and own 50% less of
the world’s wealth than men (Oxfam, 2020a, 2020b). This reality
entails serious negative consequences, restricting women’s
comprehensive development, affecting their preferences,
aspirations, skills, emotions, and even physical health (Castillo-
Mayén & Montes-Berges, 2014).
While reasons behind gender inequality are complex
and intertwined, persistent stereotypical thinking about
women and men is the major barrier for achieving gender
equality worldwide. Women and men are often presented
in stereotypical ways, portraying them as two different
types of human beings with specific needs, goals, thoughts,
and behaviours, often overlooking large variations within
gender groups. These stereotypes are present in language,
visual representations, jokes, social and traditional media,
socializing us early on from childhood into what is considered
“appropriate” for females and males and what is not. For
example, sociological surveys reveal that the majority of the
Lithuanian population still thinks that women are more likely
than men to make decisions based on their emotions (81%)
(Eurobarometer, 2017) (see Figure 1). More than half also agree
that a man must earn more than a woman (61%), and that
women’s main duty is to take care of their men’s household
151
(58%) (Lygių galimybių kontrolieriaus tarnyba−LGKT, 2019a).
Finally, four out of ten persons claim that women are the
ones who provoke violence in men (41%) (LGKT, 2019b). The
United Nations (2014) considers gender stereotypes a highly
unfavourable phenomenon since they not only shape the
perceived value of women and men and determine which
career paths are acceptable, but they can also be used to justify
restrictions and violence against women and are, thus, related to
violations of human rights.
Figure 1
The Percentage of the Population That Agrees with the Statement
“Women Are More Likely Than Men to Make Decisions Based on
Their Emotions”
Source: Eurobarometer (2017)
152
In social situations, our reactions and judgments about others or

ourselves are often influenced by biased attitudes that are based
on our stereotypes. People form beliefs about characteristics
of social groups (e.g., women and men) based on our natural
tendency to categorize and generalize. We learn about
specific qualities assigned to different social groups during
socialisation, through communication with parents and peers,
as well as from the examples that we see in the media. These
stereotypes can be maintained, regardless of how accurately
they reflect the actual characteristics of the group, because the
information that confirms our stereotypes is better remembered
than the information that disconfirms them (Fyock & Stangor,
1994). Furthermore, when we are exposed to information
disconfirming a stereotype, we tend to consider it an exception
and keep the original bias, thus, the stereotype remains
unchanged.
Two types of stereotypes are known: implicit and explicit
(Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). People do not have conscious
awareness about implicit stereotypes. They are automatically
activated and have an uncontrollable influence on judgment
and behaviour. In contrast, explicit stereotypes are accessible to
a persons’ conscious awareness and people can verbalize them.
Therefore, human beings may control the application of explicit
stereotypes, but are unable to alter the activation of implicit
stereotypes. Since we tend to categorize people based on gender,
153
it can be assumed that the majority of people consciously or
unconsciously engage in gender stereotyping.
Exercise:
Implicit Stereotypes
Implicit stereotypes
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and

beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to openly
state. For example, people may be unwilling to explicitly
express some of their views if they feel these views are
not supported by others. Also, humans may be unaware
of their own views, especially if these topics are strongly
related to social norms or taboos. To better understand what
implicit stereotypes are and how they work, take an implicit
association test online at this link: https://implicit.harvard.
edu/implicit/takeatest.html. Having clicked the link, select
the test “Gender-Career IAT” or “Gender-Science IAT”.
Were you surprised with the result of your test? Was it in line
with your self-reflections on the gender stereotypes you may have?
154
The Concept of Gender Stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are mental associations between the gender
category and particular attributes (Tobin et al., 2010), or simply
beliefs about the characteristics associated with certain genders.
Gender stereotypes refer to abilities, interests, preferences,
appearances, character traits of men and women (or boys
and girls), and point to differences between gender groups.
As such, gender stereotypes are based on the perspective of
gender differences – the idea that women and men form largely
different social groups, as opposed to a perspective of gender
similarities – the idea that women and men are largely similar
and that differences within the same gender group are more
substantial than between gender groups (Hyde, 2005).
Gender stereotypes may partly shape how we see ourselves.
Our self-concept or self-judgements become gendered
when certain mental links co-exist (Figure 2): the individual
sees oneself as a member of a particular gender group and
identifies oneself as a member of it and the individual sees
traits, behaviors, abilities or interests as differentiated by
gender (Tobin et al., 2010). When these conditions are present,
gender stereotypes will likely affect a person’s self-judgements,
and through them will contribute to determining personal
preferences, decisions, and behaviours (e.g., when choosing a
field of study or deciding what career goals to pursue).
155
Figure 2
The Interplay between Gender Stereotypes and Self-Concept.
Note. Adapted from Tobin et al. (2010).

In a similar way, gender stereotypes may also affect
our judgement of other people. Gender is one of the first
characteristics of a person that we notice. Once we classify a
person as a man or a woman, we activate our gender stereotypes
and evoke gendered characteristics attributed to these groups
(Kark & Eagly, 2010). Activated gender stereotypes then become
a part of the cognitive processes we use to evaluate and make
decisions about women and men. We may perceive them as
more similar to their respective gender stereotypes than they
actually are (Kark & Eagly, 2010). Because people act on how
they see others, implicit and explicit beliefs about gender affect
how people judge and behave towards others (e.g., when hiring
for work or deciding on a promotion) (Kark & Eagly, 2010).
156
Exercise:
Recruiting a trainer
Recruiting a trainer
Imagine that you are the CEO of a private firefighting
company, which trains and outsources the labour force. The
company is based in Vilnius. Now you are opening a new
branch in Kaunas. Thus, in your company there is a vacancy
for the position of a trainer in the firefighting division. This
job requires courage, strength, leadership, commanding
traits, and frequent commuting between Vilnius and Kaunas.
After the advertisement online, you have received 10 CVs of
suitable candidates. There are two women candidates.
As the CEO analyse the situation and think of the process
and outcome of this recruitment.
• Would you hire a female for this position? If yes, why, if not,
what are the main reasons for your decision?
• Which gender stereotypes may prevent a CEO from hiring a
woman for this position?
• What could be the interview questions you cannot ask women
which might cause them an unequal feeling in the situation
above?
• And what are the main facilities you will arrange in your
company to have equal opportunities for men and women?
For more information on the statistics, please see the link
https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Employment/
barriers-women#global-gap
157
Descriptive and Prescriptive Aspects of Gender
Stereotypes
There is a distinction between descriptive and prescriptive
gender stereotypes (e.g., Heilman, 2001). Expectations about
the actual characteristics of gender group members are called
descriptive stereotypes, examples of which are the beliefs that men
do not cry and that women take more care of their appearance
than men. Expectations surrounding how gender groups
should behave are called prescriptive stereotypes. For instance,
the beliefs that men should not cry and women should take
more care of their appearance than men illustrate this type of
stereotype. Although descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes
generally cover the same characteristics, socially undesirable
characteristics tend to be used in descriptive rather than
prescriptive formulations (e.g., women would stereotypically be
described as being more talkative than men, but not prescribed to
be more talkative than men).
Prescriptive aspects of gender stereotypes point to their
regulatory, normative functions in a society. These are beliefs
which prescribe how women and men should differ and what
they should be like in a given socio-cultural context (i.e., they
function like social norms). Gender social norms specify ranges
for acceptable and unacceptable behaviors of women and men.
Though arguably both prescriptive and descriptive gender
stereotypes similarly reflect and reproduce the same socio-
cultural gender norms, prescriptive ones may be more closely
linked to behavior (Thompson et al., 1992).
158
Gender Ideologies
Gender ideologies are frequently defined as patterns or clusters
of interrelated gender stereotypes (Tobin et al., 2010) that share
assumptions and define certain gendered relationships (e.g.,
patriarchal or egalitarian gender ideology) or regulate certain
domains (e.g. femininity ideology, masculinity ideology). Based
on a general concept of ideology (Hamilton, 1987), gender
ideology is a system of collectively held normative beliefs and
attitudes that support, justify and maintain a particular pattern
of gendered social relationships, arrangements, and behaviors.
As such, the analysis of gender ideologies and stereotypes
is important not only in explaining gendered ways of the
individual’s behavior, but in also explaining the systematic
gender inequalities that are constructed and maintained through
social institutions, traditions, habits and norms. Cultural
differences can be one of the essential factors for various gender
ideologies in multiple countries across the globe. Figure 3 shows
the types of gender ideologies.
159
Figure 3
Types of Gender Ideologies.
Source: Somech and Drach‐Zahavy (2016)

Exercise:
Gender ideologies
Traditional or egalitarian?
Please think of different countries in the world, as well as

different cultures and social norms related to gender. Which
countries have the highest support for egalitarian gender
ideologies? Check your answer by comparing it to the World
Economic Forum (2020, p. 9) report on The Global Gender
Gap Index 2020 under the link below
(http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf).
Now think about your country. Could you find any prominent
traditional gender ideologies in your country?
Do you believe the traditional ideologies to be a barrier to
women’s and girl’s development in your region?
160
Areas in which gender ideologies are most frequently
assessed in psychological research include femininity,
masculinity, and sexism. Studies on femininity and masculinity
ideology reveal a set of characteristics prescribed for women
and men across different cultural contexts. In traditional gender
ideologies, women are constructed as overtly emotional,
caretaking, dependent on others, sexually appealing for men,
yet chaste and passive (Levant et al., 2007). Characteristics
prescribed for men include restrictive emotionality, drive for
achievement and social status, aggression, self-reliance, and
homophobia (O’Neil, 2011). Research on sexism (a view that
one gender is superior to the other and that men are superior
to women) revealed that traditional gender ideologies function
as both explicit devaluations of women (e.g., explicitly hostile
characterizations of women as incompetent, unintelligent,
overly emotional) and covert or benevolent devaluations (such
as reverencing women as wives or mothers, romanticizing
them as objects of men’s sexual desire, or portraying them as
weak and in need of men’s protection) (Glick & Fiske, 1997).
Compared to hostile sexism, benevolent sexism seems based
on positive evaluations of women. However, the interplay
of the two dimensions of sexist ideology (also referred to as
ambivalent sexism) contributes to restricting women’s personal,
professional, political, and social opportunities.
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Empirical Research
The effects of gender stereotypes and ideologies have been

extensively researched and discussed in a number of areas of
psychological functioning. Numerous empirical studies have
shown that traditional gender stereotypes and ideologies may
have some detrimental effects on the self-concept, the well-being
and the career paths of women and men. Some of these findings
are discussed below.
Links between Gender Ideologies and Aspects Of the

Self-Concept and Well-Being
Existing studies (for review, see Calogero et al., 2011) offer
support for a relationship between some aspects of gender
ideologies and aspects of the self-concept and well-being. The
most salient findings come from studies on self-objectification
– a tendency to view one’s self as an object and focus on body
and appearance as the defining aspects of the self (Fredrikson &
Roberts, 1997), which disproportionately characterizes girls and
women. In traditional gender ideologies, femininity is typically
constructed based on sexual appeal and the beauty standards
of a given society (e.g., thinness). Through cultural messages
women are acculturated to internalize an observer’s perspective
and view their body as central to their value as a person
(Fredrikson & Roberts, 1997). In line with these considerations,
conformity to feminine gender role norms is found to
significantly contribute to increased body consciousness and
negative body image, especially among young women (Adams
et al., 2016).
162
Self-objectification may have important implications
for women’s well-being and health. The self-objectifying
perspective can lead to increased feelings of shame and
anxiety related to the body, as well as reduced awareness
of how one’s body feels and decreased motivation for goals
unrelated to physical appearance (Fredrikson & Roberts,
1997). Accumulation of such experiences may explain a
number of mental health risks that disproportionately affect
women: depression, sexual dysfunction, and eating disorders.
Moreover, situations which trigger self-objectification may
also impair women’s cognitive functioning (e.g., critical and
logical reasoning ability) (Winn & Cornelius, 2020). Potential
explanations for the relationship between self-objectification
and cognitive performance include constant appearance
monitoring, discrepancies between the actual and the ideal self,
negative self-conscious emotions, gender schema activation, and
stereotype activation (Winn & Cornelius, 2020).
163
Exercise:
Holiday pictures
Holiday pictures
You and your friends went for a trip to Malta in the summer
of 2020. You have taken many pictures at the beach and at
restaurants. One of your female friends is a little overweight.
After returning from the vacation, you posted many pictures
with your friends on Facebook and tagged them. Soon after the
post uploaded on the Internet, some students from your college
started body-shaming your friend publicly online and made
funny jokes and comments under her picture. Some people
started sending offensive messages to her personally. Due to
this incident, she was distraught and started feeling depressed
and did not want to come out of her room. This incident
destroyed her confidence, and she was very hesitant to go to
lectures too.
• Do you think a similar situation would happen if the friend in
the situation was a male? Are males and females in your social
network commented on their looks, body-shamed, sent offensive
messages or comments about their looks or sexted?
• Have you noticed any instances in your country in which
famous women, such as female actors, have been bullied or
shamed online because of their appearances?
• How could bullying and body shaming affect a person’s well-
being?
164
BOX 4.1. Research in Lithuania: “The links between
femininity ideology and adolescent girls’ depressive
symptoms, self-esteem and satisfaction with life”
(Erentaitė & Malinauskienė, 2012).
This study analysed the links between adolescent

femininity ideology and aspects of the self-concept and
well-being in a sample of adolescent girls in Lithuania. The
study assessed whether traditional femininity ideology,
defined as a tendency for self-objectification (i.e., seeing
physical appearance as central to one’s personhood) and
inauthenticity in relationships (i.e., withholding negative
feelings in order to please others) (Tolman et al., 2006), is
related to girls’ self-esteem, life satisfaction and depressive
symptoms. The participants in the study were 146 female
adolescents, aged between 15 and 18 years old. The
participants filled in a questionnaire assessing the extent
that they adhered to adolescent femininity ideology and
answered questions on their self-esteem, life satisfaction
and depressive symptoms. The study showed that
higher scores in self-objectification were related to higher
depressive symptoms, lower self-esteem and lower life
satisfaction among adolescent girls. Higher inauthenticity
in relationships was also related to higher depressive
symptoms and lower self-esteem. Overall, the internalization
of adolescent femininity ideology explained interpersonal
differences in self-esteem, life satisfaction and depressive
symptoms among adolescent girls participating in the study.
165
The findings of the research above are in line with studies in
the US where higher endorsement of adolescent femininity
ideology was also negatively associated with self-esteem and
positively associated with depression among adolescent girls
(Tolman et al., 2006).
Some findings indicate that gender ideologies may have

unfavorable implications beyond self-objectification and beyond
female samples. DiDonato and Berenbaum (2011) found that
higher support for sexist ideologies (assessed as ambivalent
sexism) was positively related to negative emotionality
and negatively related to self-esteem of both women and
men. A review by O’Neil (2011) also highlights that higher
internalization of a number of aspects of the masculinity
ideology has significant relationships with males’ psychological
and interpersonal difficulties (including substance abuse, risk
behaviors, psychological distress, anger management, anxiety,
and body concerns).
Research on Gender Stereotypes and Career Choices

There is a pervasive tendency in the labour market for women
and men to concentrate in different occupations and sectors of
the economy. For decades women have continued to be over-
represented in care and education, while men predominate
in business management and technology. Such gender-
based segregation is associated with a number of undesirable
phenomena, such as a large gender pay gap (i.e., differences
between what women and men earn for jobs of the same
166
value), labor and skills shortages in certain sectors, as well as
unrealized individual talent.
Early signs of gender segregation in the labor market can be
already observed at the school level. As early as primary school,
children tend to prefer gender-typed professions (Helwig, 2008).
Though interests and preferences become more complex and
diverse during adolescence, students’ choices of school courses
during late high-school remain extremely gendered (Nagy et al.,
2006). Adolescents’ occupational expectations (i.e., anticipation
of their attainment at work) also resemble gendered divisions
in the labour market. For example, in Lithuania 19% of the
boys versus 5% of the girls wanted to pursue computing and
engineering, while the percentage was reversed (respectively
3% and 12%) for health-related professions (Sikora & Pokropek,
2011). This pattern was consistent across 57 countries, even
though the size of the gap varied (Sikora & Pokropek, 2011).
167
BOX 4.2. Research in Lithuania: “Gender equality
in education: Opportunities for boys to choose non-
traditional professions” (Pilinkaitė-Sotirovič, 2018)
This study addressed the understudied issue of

non-traditional professional choices for boys. Most
studies on gender-based segregation in the labour
market focus on limitations for girls to enter male-
dominated professions (e.g., in science, technical
and technological fields), while very few have
analysed possibilities for boys to choose professions
in healthcare, education, and social services. This
study examined how professions in the care sector
are constructed in terms of educational materials for
adolescents. A sample of online educational materials
(e.g., 65 videos, 101 photos, three textbooks from the
educational platform www.mukis.lt) were selected
for the content analysis. All selected materials aim at
helping young people of both genders in choosing
a profession. The content analysis revealed that
the professions indicated above are traditionally
dominated by women and were only negligibly
presented to adolescents. Moreover, men were
portrayed as role models in the educational videos
and photos for almost all of the professions, in this
way suggesting that the professional domain in
general is more relevant for men rather than women.
The content analysis of textbooks revealed that
168
professional options of adolescent girls and boys
were constructed on the basis of traditional gender
ideologies attributing agency and rationality to
boys and emotionality and dependency to girls. The
study also demonstrated that being interested in a
profession is mainly constructed as a male interest.
At the same time, the professions related to the care
sector are made “invisible” and constructed as not a
viable option for an adolescent boy to pursue.
Figure 4
Women and Men as Role Models in Educational Materials on
Professions for Adolescents
169
Figure 5
A Share of Care Sector Professions in Educational Materials on
Professions for Adolescents
Though there are complex reasons and mechanisms of

gendered career aspirations and choices, research shows
that adherence to gender stereotypes contribute to choosing
stereotypical professional paths (Eccles, 1987). Some researchers
suggest that negative stereotypes and a lack of identification
with a certain domain may undermine performance in domains
where one’s group is negatively stereotyped and one’s
belonging uncertain (Dasgupta, 2011). In the short term, higher
adherence to gender stereotypes may impede women’s and
girls’ mathematical task performance, reduce their leadership
aspirations, increase the size of the gender gap in spatial tasks
170
performance. In the long term, negative stereotyping and a
lack of belonging may reduce self-confidence in one’s ability
and consequently lead to the withdrawal from the domain
(Dasgupta, 2011).
Exercise:
Gender at university
Gender at university
Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) is one of the leading

and biggest technical universities in Lithuania and the Baltic
states. Being one of the most dynamic schools of higher
education in Lithuania, KTU often becomes a research
and study leader in various fields and provides studies
of engineering, technologies, physical, education related
and social sciences, humanities and arts. The first, second,
and third cycle study programmes are offered in computer
science, engineering, technological, management related,
educational, physical sciences, humanities and arts. Have a
look at the table presented below which shows the gender
distribution in different fields of study at Kaunas University
of Technology between 2014 and 2020 (Table 1).
171
Table 1
The Distribution of Men and Women Expressed in Percent in
terms of Selected Study Fields and Areas at Kaunas University of
Technology
Year 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020
Gender Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male
Tech Sciences 33.49 64.14 36.13 62.56 36.9 60.87 37.7 59.84 36.04 58.66
Social Sciences 50.14 15.56 45.76 13.16 42.11 11.7 38.78 9.92 40.67 9.44
Physical
9.43 17.18 10.99 21.28 13.31 24.87 14.91 27.38 15.01 28.88
Sciences
Humanities 4.74 1.16 5.13 1.06 5.53 0.88 6.54 0.99 6.48 0.87
Arts 2.07 1.79 1.89 1.79 1.53 1.84 1.67 1.67 1.59 1.87
Biomedicine 0.13 0.16 0.11 0.16 0.17 0.15 0.2 0.19 0.21 0.28
Overall 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Source: Kaunas University of Technology

The table illustrates that there is a significant difference
regarding enrolment in various fields and areas of study
between females and males. Throughout its entire history,
Kaunas University of Technology has always been associated
with studies in the field of engineering and technologies,
which are typically selected by men. The data collected
during the last six years demonstrates that there are more
male students selecting studies related to engineering,
technologies and physical sciences, whereas more women
than men select study programmes in the areas of social
sciences and humanities.
• Are you a student of humanities, social or technological
sciences? If so, what are the main reasons for your choice of this
specific study area or field?
• What is the gender balance in your study program/group? If
there are more women or more men, why do you think it is so?
172
• Are some study fields and professions considered masculine or
feminine in your country?
• Try to imagine that females shift to jobs that are generally
considered masculine, and males shift to tasks that are typically
considered feminine. What opportunities and challenges might
occur with such a change?
• Now imagine that you are the minister of education in
your country. What new policies would you implement to
ensure equal opportunities for male and female students in
technological, social, physical sciences as well as humanities,
arts, biomedicine or other?
173
Interventions
It is known that workforce homogeneity (e.g., the predominance

of one gender in a certain field or organization) limits creativity,
discovery, and job satisfaction (Smith et al., 2015). This issue is
prominent in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics, usually abbreviated as STEM, where the majority
of employees worldwide are men. The most common three
explanations of gender inequity in STEM are as follows:
• during the education process fewer women choose STEM as
their field of study;
• fewer women are qualified for STEM faculty positions than
men;
• since men dominate in STEM, implicit gender biases may
affect decisions during the hiring processes, instead of the
candidates’ qualifications.
The study below presents and evaluates the effectiveness of
an intervention to address workforce homogeneity in STEM.
Specifically, the intervention addresses gender biases during the
hiring process of a new STEM faculty member.
“Now hiring!” A Three-Step Faculty Search

Intervention
Smith and colleagues (2015) created the three-step intervention
aimed at enhancing academic staff’s gender diversity in STEM
fields by improving the hiring process. The intervention took
place at a university in the USA which has 235 employed
STEM faculty members, only 19% of which were females. The
174
intervention was carried out throughout one academic year and
during this time 23 new academic staff members were recruited
in several STEM disciplines, including the departments of
agriculture and engineering, as well as natural, physical, and
mathematical sciences. Each department had a search committee
of 4 to 6 members that was responsible for new academic staff
recruitment. The hiring process had several stages: At first,
the search committee reviewed the applications and chose the
candidates for the phone-interview. Then, based on the results
of the phone-interviews, the candidates were selected for the
on-campus interview. The job was offered to the finalist of the
on-campus interview. Lastly, the selected candidate made a
decision about accepting the job-offer.
The theoretical background for the three-step intervention
was the self-determination theory. According to this theory
(Deci & Ryan, 2000), people are motivated and have the energy
to act when they feel that their three basic psychological
needs (competence, autonomy and relatedness) are satisfied.
Competence requires experiencing mastery and strengthening
skills. The need for autonomy refers to the need of people to feel
in control over their actions. Finally, the need for relatedness
refers to making meaningful interpersonal connections with
others.
Intervention Phases
Each step of the intervention was designed to satisfy a certain
basic psychological need of the search committee. The activities
for each step of the intervention are described in Table 2.A
175
faculty peer delivered all of the activities to a randomly selected
search committee.
Table 2
The Activities of the Three-Step Intervention
Basic psychological
Step Activity
need
The 1st “Faculty search toolkit” Knowing the
step was prepared based on the specific strategies
best-practice techniques about how to
for broadening the pool of broaden the
applicants. A faculty peer at the applicant search,
beginning of the special training enhancing the
presented the toolkit to the competence of the
search committee. search committee
to attract diverse
candidates.
The Members of the search This knowledge
2nd committee participated in a strengthens the
step 30-minute oral presentation search committee’s
made by a faculty peer on the understanding of
role of implicit gender bias how biases affect
in skewing the candidate- their decision-
screening and interview making and
processes. enhances their
autonomy to gain
control over the
unintentional
biases.
176
Basic psychological
Step Activity
need
The 3rd At the end of the special The activity
step training, a short presentation enhances the
emphasizing the importance connection with
of the work-life balance was the university for
made. The committee chair both the search
was recommended to offer committee and job
a meeting with a “family finalists.
advocate” to all on campus
interview finalists to discuss
the issues related to work-life
integration in a confidential
manner.
Testing Efficacy
A randomized control trial was used to test the effectiveness
of the intervention. The search committees were randomly
assigned to the intervention (implemented 14 searches during
one academic year) and to no-intervention (implemented 9
searches during one academic year) conditions. The search
committees in the no-intervention condition received only the
mandatory in-person training conducted by a staff member
from human resources (HR). The intervention group received a
special training according to the steps described above.
Four criteria were used for evaluation of the impact of the
three-step intervention: mean percentages of women candidates
among short-listed and phone-interviewed candidates,
percentages of women among on-campus finalists, percentages
of offers made to woman candidates and percentages of offers
accepted by women candidates. The hypotheses were that
177
the search committees in the intervention group would have
an increased number of women in the phone and on-campus
interviews, and that more women would get and accept job
offers, in comparison to the no-intervention group.
Results
The results showed a significantly greater percentage of
women applicants that were interviewed via phone during
the search procedures in the intervention condition, compared
with the search procedures in the no-intervention condition.
Besides, women made up a significantly greater percentage
of on-campus interviewees in the intervention group than in
the no-intervention group. It illustrates a large difference in
the inclusion of women as finalists. Search committees in the
intervention condition were 6.3 times more likely to make a job
offer to a woman candidate than those in the no-intervention
condition. Finally, the women candidates from the intervention
group who received job offers were 5.8 times more likely to
accept the offer, compared with woman finalists from the no-
intervention group. Overall, the three-step faculty search
intervention on gender diversity in STEM fields was successful,
as it increased women faculty membership within STEM.
Summing up, the results of the current intervention proved
that even short duration training provided to the search
committees could diminish gender related biases during
recruitment and, subsequently, increase gender diversity at the
workplace.
178
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Summary
• Persistent stereotypical thinking about women and men is a

major barrier for achieving gender equality worldwide.
• Gender stereotypes, or mental associations between
gender categories and particular attributes (e.g., abilities,
appearances, motives, interests), can affect a person’s self-
concept and judgment of others.
• Traditional gender ideologies and sexism are related to lower
well-being and an unfavourable self-concept, especially
among women and girls.
• Traditional gender ideologies and gender stereotypes
contribute to gender-based segregation in the labor market
(e.g., women are overrepresented in the care sector, while
men are overrepresented in science and technology sectors).
• Interventions can reduce implicit and explicit gender biases
stemming from traditional gender ideologies.
BOX 4.3.Take Home Message
Lower adherence to gender stereotypes and

traditional gender ideologies can facilitate a more
balanced gender distribution in currently gender-
segregated career fields, as well as a higher well-
being in different social groups, especially among
women and girls.
185
Questions
• Why are traditional gender ideologies and gender stereotypes

so pervasive?
• How do gender stereotypes relate to self-concept and well-
being of women and men?
• How do gender stereotypes relate to career aspirations and
choices of women and men?
• Imagine you work at the human resources department of
a company producing construction equipment. You have
to select a new colleague for the engineering innovations
department. What would you do to reduce gender bias in the
selection procedure? What would you do to increase gender
diversity in the workplace?
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Resources
Films and series

Little Women (2019)
The Little Women is a movie that depicts the life and aspirations
of four common women and the struggles they overcome to
become self-reliant in their lives. This movie is showing the
backgrounds of the American Civil war, the sufferings and
struggles of that period and the challenges the women needed
to undergo during those times due to the male domination
in the society. Even though some of the significant central
characters in the movie were subtle and confined to traditions,
the main character, Jo, who is the primary breadwinner of the
family tries to make her own space in the society by writing
stories and novels in disguise for making the livelihood. Later
she understood the need for her own identity and wrote a book
in her name, which shows the development of her agency in the
movie. This film has high relevance in contemporary times as it
will motivate younger women to be independent and not to be
confined by patriarchal norms and to develop their autonomous
identities.
Suffragette (2015)
Suffragette is a movie which highlights the inequalities
associated with the voting mechanism and suffrage during
times when the universal adult suffrage was an unknown and
distant phenomenon. It prevented women from voting due to
the patriarchal mentalities of the noble and ruling-class men.
187
The movie shows that the concept of suffrage for women will
not come as a natural phenomenon and ought to be fought for.
It shows the development of the protest movement across the
globe in demand for the suffrage for the woman. It shows the
measures of protest employed for achieving the mechanisms
of suffrage. This movie is of high relevance as it shows that the
societies in the current times also have the moral responsibility
to counter the challenges and inequalities women are facing,
thereby achieving equality with men in all the spheres of life.
The Runaways (2010)

The biopic follows two rebellious teenagers who became
runaway ladies - the first popular all-girl rock band to arrive in
the United States in 1974. Through concentrating especially on
gender identification and fashion trends, it also portrays the
struggles of self-identity, the challenges faced by women in
society, and the lack of sufficient support and attention. The film
underscores the strength of youth, as women reject the notion
that rock enrolment is exclusively for boys. This film encourages
the youth to focus on their aims by trying their best to overcome
various identity fears.
The L Word
The series shows the evolution of gender-related social norms
and the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender
(LGBT) people. As it shows the life of a group of friends from
Los Angeles, the series challenges, questions and plays around
with traditional gender-related social norms, while presenting
what life could be like if gender norms were less restrictive. It
is also a significant identity game changer as it is showing that
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gender and sexual identities could be more flexible than usually
considered. This movie encourages us to look into ourselves, to
understand the complexities of our gender and sexual identity
and to embrace them.
The Crown
This is one of the most recent series, which depicts the life and
struggles of a woman throughout her life of being a leader, a
wife, and a mother. After the death of King George VI, Elizabeth
II became the queen of England. The story revolves around the
life of Elizabeth, who, as a woman, is struggling to manage the
situation and deal with all her responsibilities. It also shows
the frustration of the patriarchal society, especially within the
family, as her husband Prince Philip is finding it challenging
to handle the situation. This movie reveals the relevance of
empowering women, so that they can become global leaders and
heads of states and other institutions.
Global Gender Equality Is 100 Years Away

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6M6F9n-XYg)
The United Nations’ Sustainable Goals identifies Gender
Equality as its fifth goal and requires us to consider this as not
only a fundamental human right, but also a necessary foundation
for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Despite progress
in various sectors, women and girls around the world still lack
gaining equal rights in their economic, social, cultural, and
other potential areas. This video report shows the importance of
gender equality over the years and the significant developments
made in different countries.
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Videos
“OECD- Gender Equality”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j85fGU3PeeY)
Equal access for women and girls to education, health, work,
and representation in political and economic decision-making
processes will strengthen the sustainable economy and benefit
society and humanity. This video shows the importance of why
society and government should give priority to equality and
increase access for women in various sectors. It also shows that
the empowerment of women and girls can contribute to the
overall growth of the nation.
“World Economic Forum - Closing The Gender Gap”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG_P5ja-oO0)
Through this video, the World Economic Forum promotes
a platform for women’s labor force participation, increased
leadership, equal pay, and providing women the necessary skills
development training to succeed in their jobs. It also promotes
the importance of partnerships between the private and the
public sectors so that countries develop an action plan to address
various challenges for gender equality in their nations and create
the appropriate policy frameworks to tackle it.
“Why Gender Equality Is Good for Everyone — Men Included” |

TED Talk by Michael Kimmel
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n9IOH0NvyY)
Sociologist Michael Kimmel makes a practical case for treating
men and women equally at work and at home. Kimmel
advocates that it is essential for men to believe in gender
190
equality in order to change the belief systems, also highlighting
how it is beneficial for both women and men.
“Why Gender Equality is not Just About Women” | TEDx Talk

by Caroline Strachan
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4WuurpnSbc)
This talk calls for an equal focus on confidence, competence,
and child care as the real drivers of change. Now it’s the time
to take a new and equal approach to work with the current
gender equality bandwagon. Unequal societies have high levels
of anti-social behavior and violence, while countries with higher
gender equality are more connected and people living in them
are healthier and have better welfare. Therefore, it is essential to
have equality in our societies.
Games
Gender Story (http://en.agenderstory.eu/)
This is a game platform in the form of various chapters, which
aims to increase our understanding of what gender is and the
sex and different social constructions on gender. It shows the
impact of social norms on personal identity, the implications
of body shaming, the importance of proper career guidance
in adolescence and other gender-related issues throughout
the life-span. This game platform will help us understand the
importance of gender equality.
Gender Equality Index (https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-

index/game/LT/W)
This game platform presents gender statistics by comparing
European countries. In a gamified way, it presents important
191
statistics such as the life span of women and men, educational
achievement by gender, proportion of women in politics,
working span by gender, gender imbalance in household tasks,
monthly earnings of women and men and the rate of sexual
violence in the country. This platform will notably enhance
the knowledge of young people regarding various sectors that
require gender equality in different countries.
Further Readings
Flood, M., & Howson, R. (Eds.). Engaging men in building gender
equality. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Gender equality
impacts men and women alike and has a profound effect on
their everyday lives. Gender equity initiatives have traditionally
been contextualized mainly as a women’s problem since women
are the guiding force behind gender equality approaches and
challenges. The book identifies various ways on how to include
more men in speaking up for gender equality and thereby
achieving the progress.
Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordic Council of Ministers
Secretariat. (2019). Nordic co-operation program on gender equality
2019-2022. Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordic countries lead
the way in narrowing the gender gap, taking place at the top
of the global rankings in recent years. All Nordic countries
have robust welfare mechanisms for promoting equality and
supporting everyone to enter or return to the workforce. Also,
support for working families and parental leave, legal, political,
and cultural help for its citizens have made them role models
for other nations. This book gave attention to four priority
areas such as the future of work and economic growth, welfare,
192
health and quality of life, power and influence, gender equality
with a focus on men and masculinities. The book suggests
various policies for giving attention to crucial areas and thereby
achieving gender equality.
UNESCO. (2003). UNESCO’s gender mainstreaming
implementation framework, baseline definitions of key concepts, and
terms. http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/
HQ/BSP/GENDER/PDF/1.%20Baseline%20Definitions%20of%20
key%20gender-related%20concepts.pdf
It shows that the concept of gender is essential because it
is socially applicable. The analysis reveals how women’s
subordination (or men’s dominance) is socially produced.
Therefore, subordination can be changed or terminated. It also
gives definitions of various terms related to gender and equality.
OECD. (2015). Gender equality and women’s rights in the post-2015
agenda: A foundation for sustainable development. https://www.
oecd.org/dac/gender-development/_POST-2015%20Gender.pdf
This document shows the importance of gender equality by
analyzing the Millennium Development Goals. An effective
framework for post-2015 should prioritize gender equality
across other goals. Gender-specific goals and indicators,
including poverty, education, health and employment,
livelihoods, food security, environmental and energy
sustainability, sustainable and peaceful communities, are also
envisaged.
UNICEF. (2011). Promoting gender equality: An equity-focused
approach to programming. https://www.unicef.org/gender/files/
Overarching_Layout_Web.pdf
193
It shows various opportunities for promoting Gender Equality
throughout the UNICEF Programme. Here we can see that
Gender refers to men’s social roles, women, boys, girls, and
their relations in a society that gives specific time and place
for individual actions. Gender is the critical determinant that
influences on who does what, who has power, who decides,
who has authority.
194
Social Inclusion of People
with Physical Disabilities
Dominika Karaś1, Joanna Świderska1, & Ewa Topolewska-

Siedzik2
1
Department of Methodology of Psychological Research,
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland
Center for Research on Development and Personality

2
“Personalitas”, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in

Warsaw, Poland
Dominika Karaś, Joanna Świderska, & Ewa Topolewska-

Siedzik
Learning outcomes
After this unit, the students will be able to understand:

• How disability is currently conceptualized (as an effect of
biological, psychological and social factors).
• The most common barriers people with physical disabilities
encounter.
• The influences of the environment, attitudes and stereotypes
on the functioning of people with disabilities.
• What policy makers, non-government organizations, social
welfare institutions, academic institutions and regular
people can do to increase the social inclusion of people with
disabilities.
196
Exercise 1.
One of the most characteristic features of physical disabilities
is their visibility. When you meet a person with a physical
disability in the real world, after being together for a while,
it is almost impossible to be unaware that someone is in a
wheelchair, walks on crutches or has rickets. Each person has
encountered someone with a physical disability—e.g., on the
street, at the store or at least viewed one in a movie. What comes
to your mind when you think about a person with a physical
disability? Please write down your answers and reflections here.
……………………………………………………...............……………
………………………………………………………………...............…
…………………………………………………………………...............
…………………………………………………………………...............
Exercise 2.
Imagine you see a person in a wheelchair at the university
waiting for the same lectures you are attending. Please complete
the sentences below with your thoughts.
I have ………………………............…………. experience in
communicating with a person in a wheelchair.
When I approach him/her, I can say …...............………………
….........................………and ask about …………....…………………
I wonder …………………………………………............…….......
I hope that s/he…………………………………………..................
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Problem Statement
The stereotypical image of people with disability is negative. They

are perceived as dependent, passive and sad7. The following direct
citation is from an article written by Lech, who is a man with a
physical disability: Even today, when I stand in front of a church or
on the corner of busy Warsaw’s streets and wait for my friends, I often
get change from passers-by, even though I don’t have any cardboard
asking for alms. Anna, who is in a wheelchair after an accident,
indicated three main stereotypes in her article. People with
disability are viewed as (1) being confined to their homes, (2)
requiring caregiver help, and (3) not taking care of themselves
and having low self-esteem8. Regardless of how strongly we
believe we are free of prejudices, negative images of people
with disability persist in our western societies. At first glance,
one knows what physical disability is because its presence
is frequent and common and because people with disability
constitute the largest minority group worldwide. However,
have you ever thought that being in company of people with
disability brings some inconvenience?
7
Stefańczuk, L. (2017). Stare stereotypy mają długie cienie – kontekst społeczny
niepełnosprawności [Old stereotypes have a long shadow – social context of disability].
http://www.watchdogpfron.pl/stare-stereotypy-maja-dlugie-cienie-kontekst-
spoleczny-niepelnosprawnosci/
8
Płoszyńska, A. (2017). „Taka ładna, ale na wózku” – wciąż „żywe” stereotypy [‘So
pretty, but in a wheelchair’ - stereotypes still ‘alive’]. http://www.niepelnosprawni.
pl/ledge/x/493009.
198
Case study
Maria is 20 years old. A few years ago, she had an accident.

She will probably never walk again, and now she is in a
wheelchair. Since the accident, she has experienced not
only environmental barriers (such as no access to certain
buildings or public transport), but also social barriers,
although she attended a “normal” school. Moreover, Maria
will start attending university courses soon. She dreams
of graduating from a university but fears that she will not
accomplish this goal alone at a university in an unfamiliar
city.
She has actively played sports all her life and loves
meeting other people. The initial period after the accident
was very difficult, and she could not accept the loss of
fitness. Now, she is becoming used to the new state of her
body. However, she has another problem—her friends
avoid her. For example, they fear her reaction if they were to
invite her to watch the competition in which she previously
competed. It is not easy for Maria, but she would like them
to know that she is the same person as she was before the
accident and misses social contacts.
Maria experiences problems that are not obvious to
everyone around her. In addition to getting the wheelchair
to the curb, she often has problems with everyday activities
such as unscrewing a bottle or picking up dropped objects
from the ground. These situations sometimes frustrate her.
She would be happy to accept help from other people in
199
such cases, but she has the impression that people often look
away from her out of fear of not knowing how to behave.
Maria would like to tell people without disabilities that,
despite her physical disability, she is a person with strengths
and weaknesses similar to them; yes, she can attend a party
or concert with them. Additionally, if they see that she
cannot handle crossing the street, they can approach her and
ask if she needs help.
It is worth remembering that disability is a generic term

for a diverse group of specific handicaps and a wide range of
needs. Among others, disability may be caused by affliction or
damage to the neurological, musculoskeletal, visual, auditory,
respiratory, circulatory, digestive, genitourinary systems and
by metabolic disorders, mental disorders, tumours, obesity,
genetic diseases and mental retardation. Disability not only is a
health problem, but also mirrors interactions between features
of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or
she lives. To understand the issue of disability, it is necessary
to understand not only the health problems faced by people
with disabilities but also, and more importantly, their social
problems, including the threat of social exclusion.
200
Statistics on disabilities
One billion people in the world experience disability (WHO,

2011). Considering that, in 2011, there were 7 billion people,
what percent of people had disabilities? On the following
website, you can find basic information and a hyperlink to
an advanced data visualization platform about long-term
disabilities in people over 16 years old living in the European
Union:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/
EDN-20181203-1?inheritRedirect=true
On average, 25% of all of the participants in Europe
reported having this problem. For example, in 2019 in
Poland, 5.5% of the respondents aged 16–24 years old
reported long-standing limitations in usual activities due
to health problems; however, in the group aged older than
65 years, this number was 50%. Can you find data on the
number of people with disabilities in your country?
The basic document that aims to promote, protect, and

ensure the full exercise of human rights for persons with
disabilities is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2007). World Health
Organization (2011) data shows that nearly 15% of the world’s
population lives with disabilities, of whom 2%–4% experience
significant difficulties in functioning. Almost every person, at
some point in their life, experiences at least temporary physical
disability. For instance, according to data from the Labour Force
201
Survey (LFS, 2020), in Poland in 2019 over 3 million people had
some form of disability (with legal confirmation of disability).
Importantly, depending on the adopted criterion of biological
disability (or, more precisely, the level of restrictions), the
population of people with disability in Poland may account
for 4.9 to 7.7 million people, which is close to a quarter of the
society. According to the Central Statistical Office of Poland
Report (Piekarzewska et al., 2014) regarding the health of
people older than 15 years old, the most common type of
disability is the one associated with damage and diseases of the
musculoskeletal system, affecting 59% of the people with legal
or biological disabilities.
Therefore, this module is devoted to physical disabilities,
defined as a condition experienced by a human being with
reduced motor skills of the body (WHO, 2011). Mostly (although
not always), physical disability is associated with limb injuries.
The impairment may have resulted from prenatal changes,
disease, accidents, and several other factors. Most of the motor
impairments that can be distinguished are as follows: no
limbs or parts thereof, damage to the central and peripheral
nervous system or individual/whole muscle groups, skeletal
abnormalities (in the development or prenatal period), and joint
damage (often due to accidents).
202
Definitions of Disability
Many approaches have tried to reveal the essence of disability9.
Initially, disability regulations and laws came from the
medical approach, where disability is viewed as an individual
defect within a person’s body or mind. A response to the
medical model was a social model, which moves the focus of
disability away from the individual. Disability is then viewed
as a complex construct including attitudes, beliefs, and the
environment (Beaudry, 2016). The reconciliation of these
approaches is a relational model, called also a biopsychosocial
or individual-environmental model, which defines disability as
an interplay between biological and social conditions (Solli
& Barbosa da Silva, 2012). The general definition of disability
by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2011) takes the
biopsychosocial approach into account and highlights
three aspects: (1) a problem in body function or structure
(impairment); (2) a difficulty encountered by an individual
in executing a task or action (activity limitations); and (3) a
problem experienced by an individual concerning involvement
in life situations (participation restriction). Adopting a
relational approach to disability resulted in The Classification of
Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF; WHO, 2002). ICF serves
9
Although this module is dedicated to physical disability, the theoretical issues
in the literature consider disability as a whole rather than by each aspect or
type. Therefore, in this section, we present theoretical considerations about
general disability.
203
as a base for the definition, measurement, and policy regulation
of both health and disability. As stated in the title, ICF focuses
on functioning and health, not only on disability. Notably,
health and disability are conceptualized along a continuum, not
as different states. It is an essential quality difference because
each person is situated somewhere on this health-disease
continuum. In other words, a person with disability is not
simply one with impairment, but one whose impairment causes
difficulties in functioning (WHO, 2002). The way to include
people with disability is not by changing them—something
that is often impossible—but to do as much as possible in the
environment to enable them to function as well as possible
despite their impairment.
Exercise:
People with disabilities at universities
Many universities have offices dedicated to people with

disabilities. Do you know who students with disabilities like
Maria can approach to find support and where is this type
of office at your university? If not, check where and how
someone who might be in need can find help.
Stereotype Content Model as an Explanation of

Social Exclusion
Although most European countries have implemented
legislation to ensure equal rights for people with disabilities,
they still face significant discrimination and social inequalities.
According to studies on social perception, this situation can
204
be explained by people’s tendency to use stereotypes about
disability, rather than personal attributes, in their initial
judgement of people with disabilities (Clément-Guillotin et
al., 2018; Rohmer & Louvet, 2009). These stereotypical beliefs
are ambivalent: on the one hand, people with disabilities are
perceived as incompetent, unemployable, passive, asexual,
and weak (Fichten & Amsel, 1986; Rohmer & Louvet, 2018;
Nario-Redmond, 2010); on the other hand, they are perceived
as courageous, heroic, hardworking, persistent, conscientious,
honest, moral, and friendly (Nario-Redmond, 2010; Rohmer &
Louvet, 2018).
These seemingly contradictory labels about people with
disabilities are congruent with the theoretical framework of the
stereotype content model (SCM) by Fiske and colleagues (Fiske
et al., 2002). According to this model (Table 1), stereotypes
can be defined by two universal dimensions: warmth and
competence. The former refers to social and moral qualities
(such as honest and likable), and the latter refers to intellectual
and motivational qualities (such as ambitious and skilful). Given
these dimensions, people with disabilities are stereotyped as
warm but incompetent, regardless of the nature of impairment
(Fiske et al., 2002; Louvet et al., 2009; Rohmer & Louvet, 2018).
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Table 1
Characteristics of Groups in the Stereotype Content Model (SCM).
Competence
Low High
Paternalistic prejudice Admiration

Low status, not High status, not
competitive competitive
High Pity, sympathy Praise,
(e.g., elderly people, admiration
people with disabilities, (e.g., in-group,
housewives) close allies)
Warmth Contemptuous prejudice Envious

Low status, competitive prejudice
High status,
Contempt, disgust, competitive
Low anger, resentment Envy, jealousy
(e.g., welfare recipients, (e.g., Asian,
poor people) Jews, rich
people,
feminists)
Note. Table adapted from Fiske et al. (2002, p. 881).

Often, when thinking about disability, we do not consider
the true problems encountered by people with disabilities
in everyday life but the stereotypical image of a person in a
wheelchair. The stereotype of a person with disability is often
a poor, deplorable, pitiful, and dependent person (Lejzerowicz,
206
2016). Such an image of people with disabilities creates a sense
of exclusion on both sides. People without disabilities do not
want to engage people with disabilities in their social activities
because they fear committing some gaffe or being unable to
provide proper help. However, behind this stereotype lies the
diversity of everyday problems experienced by people with
disabilities, such as, for example, that women with disabilities
are also exposed to gender discrimination (WHO, 2011).
Although we see an increasing number of facilities that are
accessible for people with disabilities in the environment,
people with mobility limitations encounter problems with
movement almost on a daily basis.
Exercise:
Does a wheelchair influence perception?
You are about to take a new course. Before the start of

the new semester, all students have participated in a
conversation on one social media platform. You have
talked to Maria, the girl you read about in the beginning
of the module. You think she is very amusing and cannot
wait to meet her face to face. Only when you meet at the
university you discover that Maria is in a wheelchair. Are
you surprised? How does your image of Maria change after
you meet her in real life? Do you still think Maria has an
incredible sense of humour?
207
What Do People with Disabilities Need to Deal With?
The most common barriers that people with disabilities are
exposed to include the following: inadequate policies and
standards at the state level, negative attitudes from the society
(including teachers, administrations, and peers), problems with
access to proper rehabilitation, difficulties related to access to
services. Additionally, people with disabilities face financial
problems, the lack of access to infrastructure and transport,
the lack of involvement in decision-making processes directly
affecting their lives, and the lack of scientific evidence about
existing intervention programmes (WHO, 2011). The picture
below presents the most common spheres of life in which people
with disabilities face many burdens.
Figure 1
Daily Life Problems of People with Disabilities
Note. Based on WHO (2011).
208
Exercise:
Think about Maria
Attention, elevator failure!
You and Maria must attend a lecture at the university in 10

minutes. The lecture hall is on the second floor. Typically,
it is not a barrier because the building is equipped with
elevators. Unfortunately, on that day the elevator is not
working. What can you do to help Maria get into the lecture
hall? What can change in the environment to enable Maria
to attend lectures (i.e., what can the teacher do, and how can
modern technology help)?
Much is being done regarding the elimination of

environmental barriers hindering the daily functioning of
people with physical disabilities—most countries have legal
regulations regarding the design and construction of public
buildings and housing. However, much less is discussed
about other problems encountered by people with reduced
mobility, problems with social inclusion, acceptance by other
people, and the inability to fully engage in all spheres of life.
Eliminating environmental barriers is not sufficient to increase
the social inclusion of people with disabilities. Many of the
social problems that people with disabilities face are due to a
lack of public knowledge about how to behave in relation with
such people. Therefore, we often turn our heads at the sight of
a person with disability (sometimes, on the contrary, we cannot
refrain from looking), but we may also express uncertainty—i.e.,
is it appropriate to offer such a person help? Is it appropriate
209
to ask about her disability? Feelings of embarrassment,
uncertainty, and ignorance regarding the functioning of people
with disabilities sometimes make us avoid contact with them.
Our perception of people with disabilities is sometimes
also affected by the “halo effect” (Fiske et al., 2002): we usually
generalize the perceived “otherness” of people around us to all
spheres. Thus, if we see someone looking different, we expect
him/her to behave and think differently. Noticing otherness
in the way we move, we also expect otherness in the mental
sphere, which often raises the lack of acceptance, caution in
contacts and sometimes even reluctance (Jaffer & Ma, 2014). The
psychological effect of perceiving physical differences can also
produce a feeling of remorse towards such people (caused by
being completely healthy and the other person not) and, as a
result, withdrawing from contact with them.
Exercise:
Think about James and Pola
Meet James and Pola
James is 32 years old and the dad of 6-year-old Pola—a girl

with cerebral palsy. Currently, she is in a wheelchair and is
still in rehabilitation to start walking. Since Pola was born,
her father has loved her unconditionally and strives to make
his daughter as abled as possible. Unfortunately, their lives
are not easy, revolving around rehabilitation, obtaining
funds for it, as well as struggling with intolerance, even
in places such as kindergarten or the playground. James
often feels disappointed that people judge his daughter
210
by her looks and the way she moves, often ascribing to her
intellectual retardation as well. Pola often feels sad and hurt
when other children do not want to play with her.
James would sincerely appreciate if people were not
afraid to talk about disability with their children. He also
wished that they would not stop their children when they
ask loudly about his daughter, but also that they would not
be afraid of playing together. He is also saddened when
people are surprised that, similar to typical people, he goes
on vacation with his daughter or to the cinema or museum;
many assume that “they have no money and collect it for
rehabilitation”. He believes engaging in activities such as
visiting cultural facilities or going on a vacation makes their
life “normal” and is also a part of rehabilitation and social
inclusion.
Imagine you are a teacher in elementary school. Pola is
about to start participation in lessons you lead. How can you
talk with other children about Pola’s disability? How can you
prepare your students to welcome Pola?
Frequently asked questions when facing people with

disability include the following: Is it appropriate to help a
person experiencing mobility problems? How do you talk to a
person in a wheelchair? Is it appropriate to stand while talking
to a person in a wheelchair? Is it appropriate to extend a hand
to a person moving on crutches? Can such a person also have
a problem with communication? Should we ignore the topic of
disability in the conversation? Should I look at a wheelchair or
211
avoid staring? What formulations should we use when talking
about disability? There are many questions concerning how
to establish contact or start a conversation with a person with
disability to avoid offending them or help them when they want
to, and not impose their help when the person with disability
does not want to. In this module we want to show that, behind
the stereotype of a “wheelchair person” and on the other side of
the computer or smartphone screen, there is a real person, with
needs, possibilities, and preferences not different from the rest
of society, but experiencing a special type of difficulty.
Exercise:
What’s it like to be a woman in a wheelchair?
Have you ever wondered how to behave while someone in a

wheelchair is around? Let’s check what a wheelchair-bound
person thinks about how other people act towards her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0jrmmqBBZ8
You and other students are going out. Maria, whom you
met at the beginning of this module, also wants to join you
at the bar. What should you think about when choosing a
place? What can you do if you see she has problems placing
an order, grabbing a drink from the bar or finding a place at
the table?
212
Empirical Research
Most of the research on people with physical disabilities can

be classified into one of three main subjects: (1) psychological
functioning, (2) inclusive education, and (3) difficulties in
everyday functioning. The first one concerns the psychological
aspects of the functioning of people with physical disabilities.
In their review, Ioannis et al. (2017) showed that research
mainly addresses the issues of self and emotions, and less
frequently those of personality or motivation of people with
physical disabilities. There are also studies on how healthy
people stereotypically perceive people with disabilities (e.g.,
Dovidio et al., 2011; Stern et al., 2010), as well as some on the
mental health and well-being of people with disabilities (Tough
et al., 2017). The second group of research on disabilities in
general, including physical disabilities, is focused on inclusive
education, the main goal of which is the maximum inclusion
of children with disabilities in the group of non-disabled
peers (Gajdzica, 2010; Lindsay, 2007). The last and third aspect
undertaken in research on people with functional limitations or
bodily impairments concerns the difficulties and barriers related
to their daily functioning in an environment that is often not
accurately adapted to their needs (e.g., Law et al., 1999; Lid &
Solvang, 2016).
Research on the functioning of people with physical
disabilities indicates that the degree of adaptation to their
disability is associated with the perception of their agency.
Difficulties in action and physical mobility, fear of deteriorating
213
health, less pain resistance, dependence on other people, a
decreasing network of social relationships, and awareness of the
limited role in performed tasks are some of the manifestations of
struggling with disability (Psarra & Kleftaras, 2013). Moreover,
research shows that seeing oneself as warm, but incompetent
is often internalised in the minds of people with disabilities
(Louvet et al., 2009). In addition to the limited mobility of
people with physical disabilities, their perceived incompetence
can lead to various personal problems, including loneliness,
reduced immunity and increased sensitivity, feelings of shame,
experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and
even suicidal thoughts.
BOX 5.1. Research in Poland: “Mental and Social

Well-being Versus Physical Disability – the
Diagnosis of the Problems” (Rzempowska et al.,
2016)
Rzempowska et al. (2016) conducted a study that was

aimed to enhance the understanding of the everyday
functioning of young people with physical disabilities
living in the Polish countryside. This study investigated
how respondents assess their mental well-being, as well as
their social situation (including among others: the chance of
obtaining help, acceptance or a lack of acceptance of their
disability, or having suicidal thoughts). The participants
were 175 people with physical disabilities (53.9% women),
aged between 18 and 45, living in the one region of Poland.
The participants took part in an interview that was based on
214
a questionnaire consisting of 96 questions. According to the
results obtained, over half of the studied group (both women
and men) admitted that mobility impairment had affected
their mental well-being. In particular, they experienced
mental discomfort, isolation, helplessness, powerlessness,
lack of self-confidence, etc. Men also felt that they had lost
everything and women reported that they had been a burden
for others. With such a depressed mood, suicidal thoughts
appeared, which 41.7% of respondents admitted having
them. It also turned out that respondents with post-traumatic
disabilities had such thoughts more often than those who
were born with the movement disability. However, most
participants (81.7%) declared that they finally accepted their
mobility impairment. It was possible due to the support of
their families. In contrast, institutional support, especially in
the countryside, was much more limited.
215
Reflection moment
Looking at this photo of a man, what do you think about

him? How would you describe his appearance? What traits
would you use to describe him/her? Would you like to meet
him? Try to write down five adjectives describing him.
…......................................................
…......................................................
…......................................................
…......................................................
…......................................................
216
This man is Mark. In his everyday life, he is in a wheelchair.
Source: Image under license from BMPhotolab/

Shutterstock.com
Look one more time at the list of adjectives you prepared

previously. Do you still perceive Mark the same way?
217
Reflection moment
Looking at this photo of a woman, what do you think about

her? How would you describe her appearance? What traits
would you use to describe her? Try to write down five
adjectives describing her.
…......................................................
…......................................................
…......................................................
…......................................................
…......................................................
218
This woman is Ania. In her everyday life, she is in a
wheelchair.
Source: Image under license from wavebreakmedia/

Shutterstock.com
Look one more time at the list of adjectives you prepared

before. Do you still perceive Ania the same way?
219
The lack of social acceptance for being different divides
people into those with and without disabilities. This division
is additionally intensified by factors such as the environment
that is not adapted to the needs of people with disabilities or
the harmful stereotypes common in society (Rzempowska et
al., 2016). Therefore, the crucial problem is how to change these
negative perceptions of disability on both sides (people with
and without disabilities)? Dunn and Brody (2008) pointed out
that the three major components of living a good life with a
disability are as follows: 1) connections with other people (e.g.,
establishing and maintaining close relationships with others,
helping people), 2) life regulation qualities (e.g., goal settings,
being absorbed in activities, seeking positively reinforcing
experiences), and 3) positive personal qualities (e.g., finding
meaning in life, developing resilience, expressing gratitude or
having a sense of humour). However, it should be considered
whether, due to their impairments, persons with physical
disabilities construct their life satisfaction in a different way
than those without disabilities. Research on people with
acquired mobility impairment conducted in Poland sheds some
light on that issue. An example is described below.
220
BOX 5.2. Research in Poland: “The Mediating
Effect of Self-efficacy on the Relationship Between
Health Locus of Control and Life Satisfaction:
A Moderator Role of Movement Disability”
(Rogowska et al., 2020)
This study addressed the relationship between subjective

well-being (conceptualized as life satisfaction) and health
locus of control, including two types of beliefs related to
being healthy or not. The first concerns internal beliefs
about the effectiveness of one’s own actions and behavior.
The second refers to external factors, further differentiated
into factors related to other people (e.g., family, friends,
health professionals) or force majeure (e.g., fate or luck).
Rogowska et al. (2020) assumed that the relation between
life satisfaction and locus of control is not only direct, but
can be explained better by considering self-efficacy (i.e.,
the belief about one’s capability of doing a certain thing)
as an underlying mechanism (mediator). Moreover, such
an explanatory model should be different for people with
acquired mobility impairment and for those without
disabilities. The study involved a group of 120 people, half
of whom had a physical disability, mainly as a result of
spinal cord injury (80%). The second half, the control group,
included volunteers without disabilities. Age, gender,
and place of residence did not differentiate between the
two groups. The study showed that people with physical
disabilities reported lower life satisfaction and beliefs about
221
internal control over their health than people without
disability. Furthermore, the findings confirmed the expected
mediation of self-efficacy, as shown in Figure 2. Thus, self-
efficacy should be enhanced during interventions or therapy
aimed to improve the satisfaction with life of people with
physical disabilities.
Figure 2
The Interplay between Self-Efficacy, Health Locus of Control,
Disability and Life Satisfaction.
Note. Adapted from Rogowska et al. (2020).
222
It must be noted that the problem of stereotyping against
people with disabilities has both explicit (intentional and
conscious) and implicit (unintentional and unconscious) content.
Overtly negative attitudes towards people with disabilities are
socially unacceptable because of norms established to protect
them (Crandall et al., 2002). However, Rohmer and Louvet
(2018) showed that explicit positive evaluations of social and
moral qualities (warmth dimension of Stereotype Content
Model; Fiske et al., 2002) of persons with disabilities are not
confirmed by implicit attitudes. These results have important
implications for understanding the still existing social inclusion
issues people with disabilities have to face.
Exercise:
Group work with people with disabilities
Think about Maria (as you can remember, she is a 20-year-

old young woman in a wheelchair). Imagine you are
assigned a project group with her. How do you feel? What
limitations do you see? What facilities do you see? How do
you rate her real input in group work? Are you sure your
impressions are free of stereotypes?
223
Interventions
Activities aimed at the social inclusion of people with

physical disabilities are associated not only with the elimination
of environmental and communicational barriers related to
access to infrastructure, but also with the elimination of social
barriers, such as intolerance, lack of acceptance, and exclusion
from social life. WHO (2011) presents recommendations on
actions that can be taken by various entities to increase the social
inclusion of people with disabilities, as summarized in Table 2.
Table 2
WHO recommendations for various entities
Governments: NGOs:
• Adaptation of existing • Information on the rights of
legislation to the needs of people with disabilities;
persons with disabilities • Support in the field of
(including consultation with educational integration;
these persons); • Participating in the process of
• Development of the national creating national regulations;
strategies, actions and • Promoting public awareness to
standards of conduct for enhance understanding of the
increasing social inclusion; rights and problems of people
• Allocation of funds to the with disabilities;
public sector; • Carrying out the environmental
• Introduction of national audits to remove physical and
standards in construction and social barriers.
transport;
• Implementation of information
campaigns on disabilities.
224
Service providers: Academic institutions:
• Information on the rights of • Removing barriers to the
people with disabilities; recruitment and participation
• Support in the field of of students and employees with
educational integration; disabilities in classes;
• Participating in the process of • Implementation of the
creating national regulations; Convention on the Rights of
• Promoting public awareness Persons with Disabilities in
to enhance the understanding university life;
of the rights and problems of • Conducting research on the lives
people with disabilities; of people with disabilities at the
• Performing environmental university and problems they
audits to remove physical and face and making commitments
social barriers. to eliminate these problems.
Note. Based on WHO (2011)

More and more is said about supporting people with
disabilities, considering their needs and the difficulties they
experience. National authorities are also allocating more and
more funds for this purpose (for example, in Poland in recent
years nearly EUR 5 billion per year have been invested). Many
of these actions clearly contribute to improving the quality
of life of people with disabilities: that includes cash benefits,
the employment of assistants for people with disabilities (who
can, for instance, help with travelling to the doctor, but also
to entertainment venues such as cinema or theatre, shopping,
etc.). Many of these funds are also allocated to social campaigns
aimed at increasing people’s awareness and sensitivity to
the everyday problems of people with disabilities, and thus
increasing their social participation and social inclusion.
225
Disability and employment
Check how many people with basic activity difficulties are

employed in your country. What can you say about differences
between countries?10
10
Eurostat. (2020). Disability statistics. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-
explained/index.php/Disability_statistics
226
Even though so many actions have been taken, it is very
difficult to find scientific evidence confirming the actual
effectiveness of intervention programs, in particular data
from randomized controlled trials (RTC). In fact, data on
the effectiveness of such programmes are lacking or these
programmes are not sufficiently effective (Kowalik, 2007). In
international research we can find some studies proving that
interventions aimed at increasing physical activity contribute
to increased social participation and well-being of people with
physical disabilities (for a review, see O’Brien et al., 2016), but
RTCs are scarce. Below, we present two interventions that have
been implemented and evaluated for effectiveness.
1. Physical Activity Stimulation Programme for

Children With Cerebral Palsy on Social Participation,
Self-Perception, and Quality of Life
Social inclusion is one of the key elements determining the
health and well-being of people with disabilities. Social
inclusion is associated with the experience of a sense of
belonging, acceptance, participation, and happiness. In a
socially inclusive community, members can feel valued,
respected and treated whit dignity. Moreover, research showed
that social inclusion and social support can improve well-
being (Sohlman, 2004). Thus, interventions that increase social
inclusion contribute to the good living and well-being of people
with disabilities.
Van Wely et al. (2014) conducted a physical activity
stimulation program for children suffering from cerebral
227
palsy. The aim of this program was to increase their social
participation and quality of life, because, as research shows,
children with cerebral palsy are usually characterized by both
lower social participation and lower well-being than healthy
children. Cerebral palsy is a complex of symptoms including
movement and posture disorders resulting from permanent
nonprogressive brain damage early in development. Most often
it manifests itself with coordination problems, muscle stiffness
or laxity, swallowing and speaking issues. The intellectual
sphere of people with cerebral palsy is similar to that of the
general public.
Method
The study was conducted in 2009-2011 in the Netherlands. The
study involved 49 children, aged 7-13, with cerebral palsy,
able to walk with and without walking aids. The children were
randomly divided into two groups: intervention and control.
The intervention group participated in a six-month activity
stimulation program, as well as a motivational interviewing
and four-month fitness training. Children in the control group
underwent only standard rehabilitation for this disease.
The intervention program included individual counselling
(both for children and parents) to motivate the child to
adopt an active lifestyle, as well as physical therapy at home,
which was individually tailored to the needs of each child.
Another element was a fitness training program, which was
aimed at strengthening the muscles and anaerobic fitness
– children exercised in groups of 2-5 people for 4 months
(under the supervision of physiotherapists), from 1 to 2 times
228
a week (training load was progressively increased). In the
control group, children received only standard paediatric
physiotherapy. The study lasted 12 months, during which
participants were evaluated three times by investigators (at the
start point, after 6 months, and after 12 months). Moreover, each
time the parents completed a questionnaire about the quality of
life of their children. The design of the trial is presented in the
Figure 3.
Figure 3
Design of the trial
Note. Based on Van Wely et al. (2014).
Results
It turned out that a significant positive effect of physical activity
related to social participation in domestic life was obtained
after 12 months (but not after 6). However, there was no
effect in terms of social participation in recreation and leisure.
This result means that the children in the intervention group
experienced less difficulties in their daily activities. Increasing
229
the quantity and quality of work in and around the home is
one of the elements contributing to the quality of everyday life,
self-service skills, and self-performance. The lack of an effect
on increasing participation in recreation and leisure may be
due to environmental barriers. Researchers indicated that the
combination of home-based physiotherapy and counselling has
the potential to increase social participation. O’Brien et al. (2016)
showed that, despite that programs which meet the stringent
criteria of randomized controlled trials are sparse, other types of
studies show that people with physical disabilities can increase
their well-being and social participation by participating in
exercise-based interventions.
Conclusions
People with physical disabilities are often perceived as unable
to be physically active because of their limitations. However,
despite the fact that physical activity is usually more difficult for
them and they perform it in a slightly different way than people
without disabilities, for them this activity is also something
that gives great pleasure and can result in a feeling of being
accepted.
Exercise:
Think for a while
If you know a person with reduced motor skills, think about

a place where you can invite this person to, a place where
you can be physically active – go to a club, go bowling or
maybe play volleyball? What could you do to encourage this
person to do this?
230
2. Empowering Youth Towards Employment
Important aspect of counteracting the exclusion of people with
disabilities is improving access to the labour market. Being
unemployed increases the negative effects of disability through
a reduced financial capacity (i.e., a lower average income), social
isolation, and decreased psychological health (Cassiani et al.,
2020). According to the European Union Labour Force Survey,
in 2011, 47% of people aged 15-64 with basic activity difficulties
were employed, compared to 67% of people not experiencing
these kinds of difficulties. In this context, the Empowering
Youth Towards Employment (Cassiani et al., 2020; Lindsay et
al., 2019) intervention provided young people with physical
disabilities with online peer support in preparation for their
future employment.
A peer e-mentoring method was implemented to create a
relationship in which a more experienced youth provided
support for employment preparation to another young person
with physical disability. This kind of solution is considered
convenient because support comes from someone of similar age
facing similar difficulties and the asynchronous character of
contact gives more space for group interactions. The Electronic
Socio-emotional Support framework was implemented to
assess and describe support given during intervention in both,
e-mentored and non-e-mentored groups. This approach defines
an optimal e-mentoring process and includes four types of
support: informational (i.e., advice about a certain problem),
emotional (i.e., reassurance, respect, caring statements), social
231
(i.e., belonging to a group with similar interests), and tangible
(i.e., offering goods or services in relation to a problem). This
framework is useful when categorizing support in this context
(Cassiani et al., 2020).
Method
The study was designed as a mixed methods pilot RCT within
an interpretive paradigm with a qualitative descriptive method.
In the case of this intervention, public forum content generated
by the participants was analyzed. Data was collected during the
12-weeks e-mentoring intervention.
Participants were 16 adolescents aged 15-21 with physical
disabilities, who speak English and live in the Greater Toronto
Area, being in or just after high school education with no paid
work experience and having access to a computer and Internet.
Nine participants were assigned to the intervention group
(mean age of 17.8), and seven participants were assigned to the
control group (mean age of 16.1). Both groups received general
group posts each week with the topic and thematic resources. In
addition, the intervention group obtained personalized mentor’s
responses. The mentors were two young people (a 20-year-
old female and a 19-year-old male) with disabilities who had
employment and post-secondary school experiences.
Results
The gathered materials included 151 discussion posts on 35
pages. On the base of a four-steps procedure four experts
developed a schema of the themes. The final solution and the
description are presented in Table 3.
232
Conclusion
The intervention showed that on-line peer support in
employment preparation for youth with physical disabilities
was more effectively provided in the mentored group. Taking
into account the implemented ESES conceptual framework,
the theme “solution-focused support” was found only in the
mentored group. The second theme “catalyst for support” was
instead found in both groups
Important limitations should be noted. The effectiveness
of this intervention was assessed by qualitative methods only,
the number of participants was small, and their selection was
widespread (i.e., different kinds of disability and no control
of its influence on everyday functioning). Moreover, only one
mentored group and one non-mentored group were used
for data analysis. Additionally, due to ethical issues, private
discussion between participants were not included in the
analysis.
233
Table 3
Schema of Themes
Occurrence
Themes Subthemes Description Non-
Mentored
mentored
Advice given based on personal

(1) Solution-focused experiences, and tackling anticipated
support challenges related to one’s future
employment.
Form of providing advice where
participants describe what they
Sharing
have done, or how they would
personal YES NO
hypothetically cope, manage, and
strategies
prepare for a variety of situations
related to employment.
Distinct posts from participants that
proposed potential resolutions to
Offering expressed and hypothetical issues,
YES NO
solutions concerns, and questions surrounding
the employment preparation weekly
topic.
Encompasses the parts of discussion
that were not direct sentiments of
(2) Catalysts for support
support, but rather, were a means to
receive support.
Entailed participants posts about their
difficulties preparing for employment
Challenges YES YES
as it related to each topic of the weekly
forum.
Participants discussed and described
Plans for
their aspirations, and goals for the YES YES
the future
long and short-term future.
Note. Based on Cassiani et al. (2020).
234
Exercise:
Too shy to go out
Try to remember a moment when you truly wanted to go out

after meeting new people, but you were afraid and ashamed.
However, someone encouraged you to go. How did you feel
then?
Then, imagine, that you notice that Maria, whom you met
at the beginning of the module, fears socialising. Think about
how you can encourage her to go out.
Exercise:
Is your home/classroom accessible for a wheelchair-bound person?
Please prepare a measuring tape and some type of stick.

Imagine that you sit in a wheelchair. If you prefer you can
sit on a regular chair. Typically, a wheelchair is 75 cm wide
— i.e., a wheelchair without a space for turning right or left.
Wherever you are, check whether a wheelchair-bound person
fits in the door, can turn on the light, sit on a table, remove
clothes from the hanger, or make tea/coffee.
What emotions do you experience when failing in simple
daily activities? What types of difficulties do you think
people with physical disabilities experience? What can we, as
a society, do to include them in typical everyday functioning?
235
Reflection moment
Do you remember the first association exercise at the

beginning of this module? We asked you to list as many
associations as you could on ‘disability’ and ‘people with
disability’. If we were to ask you again on this matter, how
do your answers relate to disability now? What comes to
your mind now about disability and its drawbacks? Please
take some time and reflect on what you learned from the
present module.
236
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for Welfare and Health.
Solli, H. M., & Barbosa da Silva, A. (2012). The holistic claims
of the biopsychosocial conception of WHO’s international
classification of functioning, disability, and health (ICF):
A conceptual analysis on the basis of a pluralistic – Holistic
ontology and multidimensional view of the human being.
Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 37(3), 277-294. https://doi.
org/10.1093/jmp/jhs014
Stern, S. E., Mullennix, J. W., Fortier, A. D., & Steinhauser, E.
(2010). Stereotypes of people with physical disabilities and
speech impairments as detected by partially structured
attitude measures. In J. W. Mullennix & S. E. Stern (Eds.),
Computer synthesized speech technologies: Tools for aiding
impairment (pp. 219-233). IGI Global.
Tough, H., Siegrist, J., & Fekete, C. (2017). Social relationships,
mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: A
systematic review. BMC Public Health, 17(1), 1-18. https://doi.
org/10.1186/s12889-017-4448-8.
United Nations General Assembly. (2007). Convention on the
rights of persons with disabilities: Resolution / adopted by the
241
General Assembly, 24 January 2007, A/RES/61/106. https://www.
refworld.org/docid/45f973632.html
Van Wely, L., Balemans, A. C. J., Becher, J., & Dallmeijer, A.
(2014). The effectiveness of a physical activity stimulation
programme for children with cerebral palsy on social
participation, self-perception and quality of life: A
randomized controlled trial. Clinical Rehabilitation, 28(10),
972-982. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215513500971
World Health Organisation (WHO). (2011). World report on
disability. World Health Organization.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2002). Towards a common
language for functioning, disability and health ICF. World Health
Organization.
242
Summary
• Nearly 15% of the world’s population lives with disabilities,

and this number increases annually—almost everyone
experiences at least a temporary physical disability during
their lifetime.
• Different approaches have been proposed to explain
disability. The biopsychosocial approach considers the
interaction of biological and social factors in explaining
disability and is currently used by WHO.
• People with physical disabilities are particularly at risk of
being stereotyped because their dissimilarity is usually easily
visible to other people; if we see someone looking different,
we expect him or her to behave or think differently.
• People with disabilities encounter many barriers in their
lives—from environmental to financial and health-related to,
above all, social issues—making their isolation deeper.
• People with disabilities are perceived stereotypically as warm
but incompetent by both people with and without disabilities.
• Physical disability reduces mental well-being and can lead to
depression and suicidal thoughts.
• People with mobility impairments may increase their
satisfaction with life differently than persons without a
disability.
• Social inclusion, which is associated with providing the
public with reliable information on how to help people with
disabilities overcome difficulties, is central to the full social
rehabilitation of people with disabilities.
243
• Interventions aimed at the social inclusion of people
with disabilities should be undertaken at multiple levels:
governments, NGOs, service providers, and educational
institutions and should include social activities, adaptation
activities, working with the whole community, and
promoting well-being.
• Social inclusion is one of the most important elements related
to the well-being of people with disabilities. The intervention
programs conducted have shown that it can be increased,
inter alia, by increasing physical activity as well as by
increasing social support.
• Social support given by peers via online text communication
facilitates preparation for employment and coping in the
labour market.
People with disabilities experience many more problems

in everyday life than those without disabilities. Although
their educational needs may be special, their social needs
are usually similar (and thus more difficult to achieve).
Counteracting social exclusion involves not only the
elimination of environmental barriers and providing proper
medical care, but, above all, daily activities related to
acceptance, tolerance, and social inclusion that each of us can
contribute to.
244
Questions
• How can you promote the social inclusion of people with

disabilities in your surroundings (such as at a university)?
• In your opinion, what are the barriers that are the most
difficult to overcome for people with physical disabilities?
• How can social exclusion affect the health (physical, mental,
and social) of people with disabilities?
• What do you think can be done to change the stereotypical
perception of people with physical disabilities?
• What do you think is crucial regarding the attitudes towards
disability from the perspective of people with physical
disabilities?
Exercise:
Let’s go for a trip, freshers
Your task is to organize an integration trip for first-year

students. Do you remember Maria? She is also going to
participate. What do you need to remember? How do you
organize it? What entertainment/cultural/sporting activities
can you offer to everyone? How can you ensure that all
people, including people with disabilities, are involved in
joint activities? Suggest a location plan, key aspects that
require attention when choosing accommodations, as well as
an example of a daily schedule.
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Resources
Films and series

The Intouchables (2011)
The story of a paralysed (because of an accident) millionaire
who hires a young man from the suburbs, an immigrant, who
was recently released from prison. The film shows that, in the
face of illness, other people and relationships with them are
more important than the world’s largest wealth. It shows that
people with physical disabilities do not want to limit their lives,
although society does not always allow them to achieve this
goal. This story is a lesson on tolerance and acceptance.
So Much So Fast (2006)

A documentary film about 5 years in the life of Stephen
Heywood, diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis),
who wanted to live a full life, form a family, and at the same
time had to struggle with the lack of therapy options. A history
of progressive dependence on other people and a collision
with a system that fails in providing innovative and effective
treatment.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

An intriguing story about tolerance towards otherness. The
story is about the physically distorted Quasimodo, hidden
from the world because of his otherness and not accepted by
society that considered him a monster. He found acceptance
from the beautiful Esmeralda, also stigmatised by society
246
because of her gypsy origin. The “halo effect” is demonstrated
in the story—a situation when someone’s external difference
is extended to other aspects of life, creating fear in others. The
film is about acceptance of otherness, friendship, tolerance,
and the tragic consequences that social exclusion can have. It is
worth watching as one of the few stories in which disability is
addressed to the youngest viewers.
The Theory of Everything (2014)

The story of the life of the scientist Stephen Hawking, diagnosed
with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The film shows not
only the life of the great physicist and his relationship with
a beloved woman, but also the progression of the disease, its
acceptance, and the daily life of a person who has ALS.
Glee (2009-2015)
A musical comedy-drama series about a school’s glee club. Each
member experiences some difficulties in everyday life or belongs
to a minority group. One student is in a wheelchair, another is
homosexual, and another is facing a teenage pregnancy. It is a
bitter-sweet history showing how challenging it is to be different
but also that all of us are different in some ways.
Videos
“Our Fight for Disability Rights-and Why We’re not Done Yet”
| TEDx Talk by Judith Heumann
(https://www.ted.com/talks/judith_heumann_our_fight_for_
disability_rights_and_why_we_re_not_done_yet)
Judith Heumann, international disability rights activist and
polio survivor, speaks about her own story: The restrictions she
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experienced in her own life related to her disability and how
they led her to fight for the rights of people with disabilities, to
respect their independence, dignity, and the right to a normal
life.
“What I Learned When I Conquered the World’s Toughest

Triathlon” | TEDWomen Talk by Minda Dentler
(https://www.ted.com/talks/minda_dentler_what_i_learned_
when_i_conquered_the_world_s_toughest_triathlon)
A moving story about a woman who swam 2.3 miles, rode a
bicycle for 112 miles, and ran a full-length marathon without
legs. Minda Dentler, who survived polio disease, describes her
inspiring life, fighting the fears and achieving the dreamed
goals.
“TED Talks Devoted to Disability”

(https://www.ted.com/talks?topics%5B%5D=disability)
These talks depict the real lives of people with disabilities, their
problems, struggles, dreams, and successes.
“Kulawy Alladyn (Lame Alladin)”

(https://www.youtube.com/channel/
UCNmrmGOF9AqoAQoRDL4 VIpA)
A humorous YouTube channel about the everyday life and
problems of Alan—a wheelchair user who is also a student of
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, one of the
partners of the PROMIS programme. If you are curious about
the everyday life of a wheelchair user, Alan will gladly and
humorously tell you about it. You will also learn that people
with physical disabilities are not “different”, although they may
248
experience other problems and difficulties in everyday life and
deal with it with a huge dose of optimism and humour.
“Included and Active (Włączeni i aktywni)”

(https://lublin.tvp.pl/30126927/wlaczeni-i-aktywni)
‘Included and Active’ is a television journalistic programme
with elements of education, counselling and information
focused on people with disabilities and those at risk of
social exclusion. This series presents the everyday lives
and extraordinary activities of people with disabilities. The
programme was created in cooperation with the State Fund
for Rehabilitation of Disabled People in Poland. Currently, the
series is only in Polish. Can you find something similar in your
country?
Further Readings
Barnes, C. & Mercer, G. (2005). Disability, work, and welfare:
Challenging the social exclusion of disabled people. Work,
Employment and Society, 19(3), 527-545. The paper presents the
social model of disability, the associated academic literature and
consequences of excluding people with disabilities from social
life.
Cotteril, T. (2019). Principles and Practices of Working with Pupils
with Special Educational Needs and Disability. A Student Guide.
Taylor & Francis. A comprehensive guide for those who work
with pupils with special educational needs. The guide presents
approaches to the social inclusion and integration of youth with
disability, good practices, challenges, and current research.
249
McMaster, C. & Whitburn, B. (Eds.). (2019). Disability and the
University: A Disabled Students’ Manifesto. Peter Lang Publishing,
Inc. A guide for students with disabilities: what they should
know about university life, what they should expect and what
they can demand. The guidebook is for both students and
universities. The book addresses the right to universal access
to education, the rights of people with disabilities, life at a
university, ways to overcome restrictions and barriers, and
shows what should be done to create an inclusive space for
teaching and learning.
Barnes, E. (2016). The minority body: A theory of disability.
Oxford University Press. Currently, when discussing disability
possessed by people, the term ‘people with disabilities’ is
considered a more appropriate term than ‘disabled people’.
However, Barnes claims in the book that the term ‘disabled
people’ has the same form and function as the names of other
social minority groups—i.e., ‘gay people’ or ‘Jewish people’.
Barnes (2016) postulates that disability has a neutral intrinsic
value and being disabled or abled body is a mere difference as
religious or sexual differences.
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Social Inclusion of Youth with Autism
Lyda Lannegrand & Cyrille Perchec
LabPsy EA 4139, Faculty of Psychology, University of

Bordeaux, France
Learning outcomes
After this unit the students will be able to understand:

• How The International Classification of Functioning,
Disability and Health (World Health Organization, 2001) and
the bioecological model of Bronfenbrenner (1979, 2005) can be
applied to youth with autism
• The interactions between people with autism and their
environments
• Empirical research on social inclusion of people with autism
across life
• Interventions for promoting self-determination and social
communication skills of youth with autism
252
Exercise 1.
Please indicate 5 typical characteristics of people with autism
(list what comes to your mind most quickly without doing any
research!).
1. __________________________________
2. __________________________________
3. __________________________________
4. __________________________________
5. __________________________________
Exercise 2.
True or false quiz (for each sentence below, please indicate which
sentences are false and which are true).
1. People with autism can’t communicate.
2. They are in their own world and do not understand others.
3. They are unable to make decisions for themselves.
4. People with autism do not feel any emotion.
5. People with autism do not express emotion.
6. They cannot be autonomous in the acts of daily life.
7. You can’t have a job when you have autism.
8. A person with autism doesn’t look into the eyes.
9. People with autism are more intelligent than the general
population and have extraordinary abilities.
10. A person with autism has no empathy and does not
understand others.
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Problem Statement
“People with autism can’t communicate, are unable to make decisions

for themselves, don’t look into the eyes, have no empathy and don’t
understand others.” Here are some of the strong and tenacious
false beliefs about autism reported by the French High
Authority for Health in 201811. The fact is that the generalized
and frozen vision conveyed in the sentences in exercise 2 does
not correspond to the great diversity that exists among people
with autism. But if you have these representations in mind, how
are you going to interact with a person with autism? Will you
imagine him or her going to university or finding a job?
Autism is nowadays considered a spectrum disorder because
the symptoms can range a lot in severity from person to person.
Thus, the support a person requires in everyday life may vary a
lot, from being autonomous to being highly dependent. Autism
Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are the result of neurodevelopmental
specificities and refer to “a range of conditions characterised by
some degree of impaired social behaviour, communication and
language, and a narrow range of interests and activities that
are both unique to the individual and carried out repetitively”
(World Health Organization, 201912). It is estimated that
between one in 160 children and one in 100 children has an
ASD (Elsabbagh et al., 2012; Ha et al., 2020). There is a lack of
official and harmonized data at the European level, but the
prevalence of autism could be explored in 12 countries within
11
https://www.has-sante.fr/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-09/autisme_
adulte_guide_appropriation_fevrier_2018.pdf
12
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders
254
the framework of the ASDEU project (Autism Spectrum
Disorders in the European Union, 2015-2018: http://asdeu.
eu13). In France, 700,000 people are estimated to be affected,
of which approximately 100,000 young people are under the
age of 2014. Inclusion in regular schools is still a challenge for
children and adolescents with ASD. In 2016, approximately
32,000 individuals with ASD were enrolled in school, from
kindergarten to high school15, which is about one-third of the
estimated number of children and adolescents with ASD living
in France. Access to vocational training, higher education and
employment is also considered to be difficult in France. In 2017,
only 461 students with ASD were registered in universities.
Regarding employment, only 0.5% of people diagnosed with
ASD work in the mainstream workplace16.
Clark et al. (2004) underlined how much autonomy and self-
determination are important for the future of individuals with
developmental disabilities, while reporting that they often
experience the “lack of opportunities for self-determination,
personal expression and consideration of personal preferences”
(Clark et al., 2004, p. 143). Compared to the general population,
individuals with ASD face significant obstacles regarding
autonomization and transitioning to adulthood.
13
The executive summary of this program is accessible at the following address:
http://asdeu.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/
ASDEUExecSummary27September2018.pdf.
14
https://www.inserm.fr/information-en-sante/dossiers-information/autisme
15
https://handicap.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/strategie_nationale_autisme_2018.pdf
16
https://handicap.gouv.fr/autisme-et-troubles-du-neuro-developpement/
vivre-avec-l-autisme-84/article/formation-et-emploi
255
Case study
Hugo is a 17-year-old adolescent boy diagnosed with autism

spectrum disorder (ASD). He was diagnosed only at the age
of 8, after a long journey with many health professionals
being consulted. When the diagnosis was announced, his
parents were simultaneously relieved to have an answer and
shocked by the announcement. They very quickly joined an
association of parents of children with autism. Exchanging
with other parents in the same situation helped them a lot to
accept the situation and to get to know a network of health
professionals who are already aware of autism. When he
was a child, Hugo was not really interested in the activities
offered by this association. But for the past 2 years, he has
enjoyed taking part in the weekly discussion group during
which adolescents with autism share their experiences and
exchange on how to deal with stressful situations. He writes
down all the solutions, by classifying them by category of
situation, in a special notebook and always keeps it with him.
At school, his social relationships are quite different. Hugo
has very few persons he considers as friends in his class. His
classmates complain that he talks about the same thing all
the time. He indeed has a great passion for the marine world
(in particular the movement of the tides and the seahorses on
which he is an expert). He actually visits the aquarium near
his home every Saturday morning, an unavoidable ritual for
him!
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Attending school was very difficult for Hugo in primary
school. Teachers complained about his inability to follow
the rules, his inappropriate behaviour, and his repeated
episodes of anger. The fact is that he had great difficulty
understanding what was expected of him. Fortunately,
after being recognised as a person with autism, he received
individualised help from a professional in charge of
supporting students with disabilities in the classroom. He
benefited from this support right up to secondary school,
but it suddenly came to an end 6 months after his arrival
at the high school. Despite his parents’ protests, Hugo has
not received any further help from a trained professional
in the classroom since then because there are not enough
candidates for the job. In spite of this lack of support, he
manages to follow the courses and obtains good marks,
often very good marks, especially in biology.
As for any adolescent, striving for autonomy is a major
developmental task for Hugo. This task is particularly
important for him at the moment as he attends senior year in
high school and has to make decisions on the next step of his
academic career. His parents are worried about his future,
both professionally and personally. They fear that Hugo
will choose a path in which he will not thrive or in which
he will face greater difficulties. Hugo also finds it difficult
to project himself on what is the best option for him after
high school. His parents accompanied him to meet with a
guidance counsellor but he remains lost and very stressed by
the rapidly approaching deadline for applying to university.
257
To fully understand the challenge Hugo experiences, we
need both to apprehend his personal resources and limitations
and to examine the extent to which his environment offers him
opportunities to make choices and decisions free from undue
external influence or interferences regarding his everyday
life as well as important decisions impacting his life trajectory
(Wehmeyer et al., 1996).
258
There are many conceptions of disability. The two most

frequently mentioned are probably the ‘social’ and the
‘medical’ approaches. According to Solli & Barbosa da Silva
(2012), the medical approach, in which disability is seen as a
social disadvantage resulting from an intrinsic characteristic
of the person, has long prevailed. In this perspective, it
is the intrinsic characteristics of the person that limit his
or her ability to evolve in his or her environment (not the
characteristics of the environment). In contrast to this first
perspective, the social approach does not consider disability
as an intrinsic characteristic of the person, but as the result of
the characteristics of the environment that create barriers to
the participation of people with disabilities in social life (Solli
& Barbosa da Silva, 2012). In this perspective, the solution
lies in adapting the environment to make it more accessible.
Each of these two approaches offers a simplistic view of the
situation. By integrating the medical and the social model, the
holistic and multidimensional model looks at the human being as
interacting with society (Solli & Barbosa da Silva, 2012). In
such a biopsychosocial approach, disability is thought to be
the result of the interaction between the characteristics of the
individual and those of the environment. This perspective
reconsiders the place of disabled people in society, moving
from integration (e.g., asking youth to adapt to the school and
its operating standards rather than having the school adapt
to youth) to inclusion (e.g., it is considered that it is primarily
259
the responsibility of the school to adapt in order to take into
account the diversity of youth and that disability is a barrier to
participation resulting from the interaction between individual
characteristics and the requirements of the environment).
This later framework constitutes the theoretical basis of the
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and
Health (ICF model; World Health Organization, 2001).
The ICF Model to Describe the Functional Profile of a

Youth with ASD
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability
and Health, known more commonly as ICF, aims to provide
a standard language and framework for the description of
health and health-related domains. Instead of emphasizing
people’s disabilities, this universal classification proposed by
the World Health Organization (2001) focuses on their level
of health17. The ICF allows the conceptualization of a person’s
level of functioning as a dynamic interaction between her or
his health conditions, environmental factors, and personal
factors. The elements or components of this complex model
are the following: (1) health condition, (2) body functions and
structures, (3) activity, (4) participation, (5) environmental
factors, (6) personal factors. The ICF model considers the
bidirectional interactions between these components (see
Figure 1).
17
An adapted version for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) has been developed
(WHO, 2007) but the WHO finally decided in 2012 to merge ICF-CY into ICF
in order to address all aspects of functioning across the lifespan (work in
progress).
260
Figure 1
Interactions between the Components of the ICF Model (World Health
Organization, 2001)
Disability and functioning are viewed as outcomes of

interactions between health conditions (in our case ASD) and
contextual factors. As the figure indicates, contextual factors
include external environmental factors (e.g., social attitudes, legal
and social structures) and internal personal factors, which include
gender, age, coping styles, level of education, occupation, past
and present experience, overall behaviour pattern, personality
and other factors that influence how the individual experiences
his or her disability. Three levels of functioning are classified
by ICF: functioning at the level of the body or part of the body
(i.e., body functions and structure), the person as a whole (i.e.,
activity), and the person as a whole in a social context (i.e.,
participation). Disability therefore implies dysfunction at one
261
or more of these levels: impairments, activity limitations and
participation restrictions, respectively.
On the basis of the ICF, adapted checklists and specific
assessment instruments have been developed in order to
describe the situation of youth with ASD (e.g., de Schipper et al.,
2016; Mahdi et al., 2018). A major contribution of this model is to
emphasize that an individual may be able to achieve an activity,
but may not have opportunities to do so. As mentioned by Clark
and colleagues (2004), youth with developmental disabilities
often face the “lack of control over many aspects of daily life and
the inability to affect future goals and substantively direct planning”
(Clark et al., 2004, pp. 143-144).
In the ICF model, environmental factors range from proximal
elements, such as social support and family, to social attitudes,
institutions, public policies and laws. This catch-all domain can
therefore include very different factors that may themselves
be interacting with each other, restricting the possibility of
apprehending the complexity of the interrelationships between
the person and his or her environments. The ecosystem
approach proposed by Bronfenbrenner (1979, 2005) can be of
great help in understanding environmental factors in more
detail.
An Ecosystem Approach to Better Understand

Environmental Factors
The model developed by Bronfenbrenner is fully compatible
with the ICF model since it proposes a holistic vision of the
person in his or her environment by considering biological,
social, psychological and cultural dimensions that characterize
262
the person-environment interactions. The great advantage
of this model is that it provides a more precise description of
socio-environmental factors than that proposed in the ICF,
especially regarding the interrelationships between socio-
environmental factors. In the following, we present the six
interconnected systems comprised in Bronfenbrenner’s model,
while specifying the important elements in the context of
youth with ASD (Cappe & Boujut, 2016). The entire ecosystem
model is shown in Figure 2.
The Ontosystem is defined by the personal characteristics
of the person, namely his or her competencies and skills, as
well as his or her deficits or limitations. In our case, it refers
to the personal characteristics of a young person with ASD
(stereotypies, resistance to change, cognitive and language
skills, particular interests, etc.). This corresponds to the
functional profile that can be obtained with ICF, which is
marked by great heterogeneity among young people.
The Microsystem corresponds to the physical environments
in which the person evolves and the interactions that take
place in these environments. Of course, taking into account the
family context matters a lot, both because having a child with
ASD affects the family’s functioning and quality of life (Derguy
et al., 2016), but also because the family obviously plays an
important role in youth’s development. In the school context,
youth with ASD in France may experience different types of
schooling: inclusion (partial or total) of the young person in
an ordinary class, inclusion in a special education unit in the
ordinary environment, or inclusion in a pedagogical unit in a
specialized institution outside the national education system.
263
Teachers may also be more or less aware and trained to welcome
young people with ASD into their classrooms. Moreover, the
healthcare system can also be a specific microsystem, with
characteristics that can vary greatly from one place to another,
even if recommendations for good practice exist.
Exercise:
Put yourself in the shoes of a teacher who welcomes a young person
with ASD into his or her classroom!
Let’s use the “TSARA” application, an educational video

game created in Bordeaux to understand and learn how
to accompany youth with autism, available for free on iOS,
Android or online: https://play.tsara-autisme.com/login.html.
Choose “Teacher” as your character. What is your score?
The Mesosystem refers to the relationships between the

different microsystems in which a person evolves. The issue
of partnerships (e.g., between family and professionals) and
coherence between microsystems seems particularly important
regarding youth with ASD (e.g., Gomes & McVilly, 2019).
Coherence between professionals themselves is sometimes, if
not often, a challenge when each one misunderstands the role
and functions of the other.
The Exosystem refers to the social and decision-making
structures to which the person does not contribute directly.
Government policies on disability and autism are included
in this system. For instance, in France the current National
264
Autism Strategy (2018-202218) focuses on 5 key commitments:
strengthening research and training, implementing early
interventions prescribed by recommendations of good practice,
guaranteeing effective schooling for children and young people,
promoting the inclusion of adults and supporting families.
Of course, such political decisions influence the future and
trajectory of the adolescent or young adult with ASD.
The Macrosystem encompasses the norms, values, and
ideologies of the culture in which the person develops. This
system acts on all the others and is the slowest to change. Here,
we can underline the work carried out by associations to change
representations and attitudes toward people with ASD (e.g.,
Autism Europe campaign 2020-2021 “I can learn. I can work”19).
The Chronosystem emphasizes that systems are not static: they
change more or less quickly over time. In the context of ASD,
this last system reminds us to recognize that disorders and like
skills develop and change in their expression over time (Brun
& Mellier, 2016). The consideration of time refers in particular
to the importance of the developmental trajectory of the young
person with ASD, especially in certain periods of transition. But
change exists at all levels. For instance, representations about
autism may also evolve from being more to less negative, even if
the time scales are not the same.
18
https://handicap.gouv.fr/archives/ancienne-rub-autism/strategie-nationale-
pour-l-autisme-2018-2022/
19
https://www.autismeurope.org/blog/2020/03/10/i-can-learn-i-can-work-
campaign-toolkit
265
Reflection moment
This model applies to all developing individuals. Let’s see if

you can apply it to yourself.
Which microsystems are important to you and which
mesosystems apply to you?
This ecological and systemic model sheds light on the various

challenges related to the social inclusion of youth with ASD,
ranging from the specific needs of youth and their proximal
environments to public policies and attitudes about autism,
while considering the interactions between these different
systems.
266
Figure 2
Adaptation of the Ecosystem Model from Bronfenbrenner (1979, 2005)
to the Situation of Youth with ASD
Exercise:
Think about Hugo
Let’s go back to Hugo. Please read the case study again and
identify the microsystems and the mesosystems that matter
for him.
What do you think about the similarities and differences
between you and Hugo?
267
Empirical Research
We commonly imagine that youth and adults with autism have

poor social inclusion due to their problems in communication
and that they are highly dependent on their caregivers. But
what do we know about changes in autism symptoms across the
life-span? In other words, do maladaptive behaviors increase,
decrease or remain stable? What are the characteristics of the
occupational and relational life and the independent life of
people with autism (what is called the “social outcomes”)? What
are the factors that foster social inclusion? Empirical research
provides answers to these questions.
Knowledge about Changes in Autism Symptoms and

Maladaptive Behaviors
Do you think that autism symptoms and maladaptive behaviors
can change across life? In order to answer this question we
need to look into empirical research that examines if autism
symptoms and maladaptive behaviors change, either increase or
decrease, or if they remain stable over time. Studies examining
changes require a longitudinal design, that means they follow
and monitor the development of individuals with autism
for a certain period of time. Some studies focused on these
questions during adolescence and adulthood and they observed
improvements across time, even if a high variability existed.
For example, one study was conducted among 241 adolescents
and adults with autism during a 4.5 years period in order to
observe change in autism symptoms and maladaptive behaviors
(Shattuck et al., 2007). Autism symptoms and maladaptive
268
behaviors were reported by mothers through two assessments.
The Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R; Lord et al.,
1994) includes items to assess 4 autism symptoms: nonverbal
communication impairments (e.g., pointing to express
interest, nodding head to indicate yes); verbal communication
impairments (e.g., social vocalization); impairments in social
reciprocity (e.g., social smiling, interest in people); and
repetitive behaviors and stereotyped interests (e.g., compulsions
and rituals, hand and finger mannerisms). Maladaptive
behaviors were assessed by a Problem Behavior scale (Bruininks
et al., 1996), which assesses internalized behaviors (e.g., hurtful
to the self), externalized behaviors (e.g., hurtful to others,
destructive to property), and asocial behaviors (e.g., socially
offensive behaviors). Results showed decreases in the mean-
level of each dimension of autism symptoms and of maladaptive
behaviors, revealing change in terms of improvement during
adolescence and adulthood. However, they revealed a high
variability between individuals. For instance, regarding
repetitive behaviors and stereotyped interests in autism
symptoms, 58.5% significantly decreased, 24.1% remained
stable and 17.4% increased. Overall, regarding all the assessed
dimensions, many symptoms remained stable for around half
of the sample, but declines in the level of symptoms were more
frequent than increases. A more recent study expanded the
time course to 8.5 years, including 5 waves of data collection
among 313 adolescents and adults with autism, using the same
indicators (Woodman et al., 2015). It lead to similar results. In
sum, on average autism symptoms and maladaptive behaviors
decline over time, but there is a high variability between
269
individuals regarding their level of symptoms and their rate of
change.
Knowledge on Social Outcomes in Autism

(Occupation, Relationships, Independent Living)
Generally, researchers in autism suggest rating a global social
outcome based on three indicators: occupation, friendships, and
independent living. Regarding occupation, work can be rated
from being employed or self-employed to being in a special
center or having no occupation; friendships can range from
having close friends to having no friends; and independent
living from living independently to living in a hospital or
institution. Using these indicators, a study conducted by Eaves
and Ho (2008) among 48 young adults with ASD and a mean age
of 24 years old showed that 4% of their sample had a very good
outcome (i.e., achieving a job, having some friends, and a high
level of independence), 17% had a good outcome (i.e., working,
but requiring support in daily life, having some friends)
whereas 46% had a poor outcome (i.e., requiring a high level
of support, without friends outside of the special residence).
Overall, a recent review reported that 20% of adults with ASD
had a good or very good outcome whereas 48% had a poor or
very poor outcome (Howlin & Magiati, 2017).
Focusing on social participation, a study conducted on a
large group of adolescents and young adults with disabilities in
the US showed that youth with ASD were more likely to never
“see friends”, to never “get called by friends” and to never
“be invited to social activities”, compared to youth with other
disabilities (speech/language impairment; learning disability;
270
mental retardation) (Orsmond et al., 2013; Shattuck et al., 2011).
These results highlight the specificities of difficulties in social
inclusion encountered by youth with ASD.
Focusing on post-education outcomes, research conducted
in the US indicated that youth with ASD were at risk for being
disengaged from post-secondary education. That risk was
highest compared to youth with other disabilities, such as
youth with learning disability or speech/language impairment
(Shattuck et al., 2012), highlighting the need for fostering
transition planning and promoting ASD youth participation in
that transitional process.
Exercise:
Think about Hugo
Think about Hugo (remember, he is a 17-year-old adolescent

boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and
attends senior year in high school). What do you think a
good social outcome could be for him?
Factors Fostering Social Inclusion

Social inclusion of youth with ASD is associated with personal
and contextual factors. For adolescents for example, an
empirical study underscored that participation in social and
recreational activities was influenced by personal characteristics
(such as a greater independence in activities of daily living,
and less impairment in social interaction abilities) and by
environmental ones from different micro-contexts: family
(greater participation of mother in social activities), services
271
(greater number of services received), and school (inclusion
integrated settings) (Orsmond et al., 2004).
Exercise:
Think about Hugo
Think about Hugo. How can his social inclusion within the
classmates be fostered? What can his teachers do? What can
his classmates do?
…You can find some help from what you learned by gaming on
TSARA and choosing the teacher character…
BOX 6.1. Research in France: “An emotion

regulation app for school inclusion of children with
ASD: Design principles and evaluation” (Fage et al.,
2019)
In order to favor school inclusion, the aim of this study

was to design and evaluate a tablet-based application to
support emotion regulation of adolescents with ASD in
mainstream inclusive classrooms. All the design process
was participatory, involving stakeholders (i.e., families,
teachers, school aides, and psychotherapists). The application
includes two steps. The first step is dedicated to emotion
identification: the adolescent clicks on emoticons and then
selects a level of emotional intensity using a thermometer
with a scale from 1 to 4 (see Figure 3). The second step
consists in co-regulation strategies: each intensity level is
associated with a coping strategy designed in a multimedia
272
content (see Table 1). Concretely, the application delivers
a personalized multimedia content previously provided
by specific stakeholders. For instance, when an adolescent
selects the level of intensity 3, a personalized video is
displayed. The video was previously chosen by the parents
and their child in order to co-regulate the emotional
intensity.
Figure 3
First Step: Emotion Identification
Note. Extracted from Fage et al. (2019, p. 7).
Table 1
Second step: Co-regulation Strategies
Note. Extracted from Fage et al. (2019, p. 7).
273
To assess the effects of this application, 3 groups of French
adolescents in secondary schools aged from 12 to 17 year-
old were recruited: 14 adolescents with ASD, and another
group of 19 adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities used the
application during three months in mainstream schools. The
third group was composed of 15 adolescents with ASD who
didn’t use the application. For each group, evaluations were
done before the intervention (one week before the application
use) and after it (one week after the application use).
Overall, the results showed that the application could be
used by adolescents with ASD in mainstream classrooms in
an autonomous and successful way and that it constituted a
useful support for them to self-regulate their emotions.
However, an important characteristic to improve is the self-

determination of children and adolescents with ASD, since
self-determination fosters positive outcomes such as academic
performance, employment rates, independent living, social and
recreational inclusion (e.g., Hodgetts et al., 2018; Shea et al.,
2013). Self-determination “refers to the ability to be in charge
or in control of making decisions on one’s own life. It involves
having the intrinsic motivation to make choices independent
of external pressures or interferences” (Hodgetts et al., 2018, p.
2372). Moreover, as people with autism are more likely to have
difficulties with periods of transition due to their preferences
of no change and routines, it is particularly important to foster
their self-determination before the transition to adulthood
(Hatfield et al., 2017a, 2017b).
274
A concrete way of learning and practicing self-determination
is the participation of adolescents with ASD in transition
planning in secondary school (Test et al., 2004). Transition
planning consists in preparing students for leaving school in
order to involve them in other activities such as vocational
training, university or employment. But their active
participation remains difficult to implement as, in comparison
with other students with disabilities, they are less involved
in this process (Wagner et al., 2012). An active participation
of adolescents with ASD in transition planning is associated
with higher self-advocacy as perceived by teachers, with
more discussions on post-school plans at home reported by
parents, and spending more time in general education (Griffin
et al., 2014). Thus, in order to increase the active participation
of a student with ASD, teachers and parents should also
perceive that he or she can do it. Also, the way that children
and adolescents with ASD perceive their teacher’s autonomy
support enhances their self-determination in school that in turn
fosters their school competence (Shea et al., 2013).
Researchers investigated the point of view of parents and
professionals regarding preparing adolescents with ASD “for
leaving school” (e.g., Hatfield et al., 2017a) and “for the future”
(Hodgetts et al., 2018), and they reported that they valued the
importance of autonomy in goal setting while recognizing the
existence of barriers because they had to meet the transition
planning specific needs of adolescents with ASD. Parents also
identified as a barrier the attitude and ignorance of autism by
others (Eaves & Ho, 2008).
275
BOX 6.2. Project Research in France: “Creating
and evaluating an Aspie friendly university
environment in French universities” (https://aspie-
friendly.fr)
The project “Aspie Friendly: Building an inclusive

university” is a wide French 10-year project beginning in
2018 and involving 14 French universities. This project aims
to offer an individualized course to each student with autism.
It includes specific actions: creating a national center of
resources and support for all the stakeholders; developing
and using digital technologies to foster learning; planning
the environment of the students with ASD (family,
university, student living conditions); developing transition
planning programs; building a partnership with companies
in order to foster progressive professional integration.
All these concrete actions will be scientifically assessed in
order to prove their effectiveness for enhancing inclusion of
ASD students.
276
Source: Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
A national experiment of university inclusion for

persons with autism without intellectual disabilities, an
Aspie-friendly approach that contributes to building an
inclusive university for all.
Reflection moment
Based on the ecological model developed by

Bronfenbrenner, what empirical study could be relevant to
understanding the role of convergent interactions between
ecosystems in university inclusion of students with autism?
277
Interventions
Transitions constitute critical periods for individuals with ASD.

Transition from high school to post-secondary education and
to employment should be supported by enhancing the self-
determination and social communication skills of youth with
ASD. Hereafter, two interventions are presented. The first one
focuses on reinforcing self-determination by an online transition
planning program dedicated to adolescents with ASD, with
the aim of preparing the transition from high school to post-
secondary education. The second one aims to enhance social
communication skills in job interviews of youth with ASD in
order to support the transition to employment.
1. The BOOST-A™ Online Transition Planning

Program for Adolescents with ASD: Presentation and
Evaluation
In order to support adolescents with ASD to plan their transition
from high school to post-secondary education (i.e., college,
university), a specific online interactive program, the “Better
OutcOmes & Successful Transitions for Autism (BOOST-A™)”,
was developed and its effectiveness was assessed in a quasi-
randomized controlled trial (Hatfield et al., 2016; Hatfield et al.,
2017b).
Presentation of the Intervention Program

The design of the program was based on three theoretical
frameworks: the self-determination model (Wehmeyer & Abery,
2013), a strengths-based approach (focusing on the strengths
278
rather than the deficits of the individual) (Russo, 1999), and
a technology-based approach (Grynszpan et al., 2014). The
program is structured in four successive modules (see Table 2),
after an introductive module that focuses on the presentation of
the purpose of transition planning, the importance of engaging
in transition planning, and the description of the process
into the program. The first module “About Me” comprises
activities to identify the adolescent’s interests, strengths, work
preferences, training goals, etc., and involves the adolescent
and his/her parents. The second module, “My Team”, helps
the adolescent in identifying the team members who may
support him/her in the transition planning, for organizing the
first meeting of the team, and for defining how he/she wants
to actively participate in the meetings. In this module, the
adolescent and his/her parents are involved with the objective
to support and develop the active role of the adolescent in the
transition program. The third module, “First Meeting”, helps
the team (adolescent, parents, and their team) to develop goals
based on the adolescent’s strengths. Finally, the fourth module,
“My Progress”, consists in reviewing how the adolescent’s goals
are progressing. This is completed by the team at all subsequent
team meetings.
279
Table 2
Overview of the BOOST-A online Transition Planning Program
Module Description
1.About me Adolescents completed 6 activities to

identify their interests, strengths, work
preferences, life skills, training goals, and
learning style.
2. My team Adolescents and parents identified a

team of people to support their transition
planning, and then booked the first
meeting. Adolescents selected their level of
involvement in team meetings.
3. First meeting The team met to review career options and

formulate goals, based on best practice
recommendations that are built into the
program.
4. My progress The team met once per school term following

the first meeting to review goal progression
and positive learning experiences.
Note. Extracted from Hatfield et al. (2017, p. 3).
Evaluation of the Intervention Program

Method. Participants were 94 adolescents with ASD in high
school and their parents: 49 of them were allocated to an
intervention group (using the BOOST-A™) and the other ones to
280
a control group (using a regular practice). They were blinded to
the trial hypotheses.
It was expected that participation in the intervention would
impact several outcomes. Assessed outcomes were: self-
determination, career planning and exploration, quality of life,
environment support and active engagement in the transition
planning program. Adolescents and parents reported on all the
outcomes at the baseline (before the intervention) and twelve
months after the intervention.
Results. Analyses were conducted to compare the two
groups, before and after the intervention (see Figure 4).
Career exploration significantly increased for the intervention
group, compared to the control group. This result was found
considering both adolescents’ own reports and their parents’
reports. In addition, according to the parents’ reports, self-
determination at home and active engagement in the transition
planning program increased for the intervention group,
compared to the control group.
281
Figure 4
Results of the BOOST-A Program
Note. T1= pre-intervention, T2 = post-intervention

To conclude, the BOOST-A™ online transition planning
program can foster some specific outcomes related to career
exploration (that is an important dimension of personal identity
formation) and to self-determination aspects directly linked
to the context program. It also involved both adolescents and
parents into the program, as well as persons they identified as
supportive in the transitional process, highlighting how the
onto-system and the microsystems are embedded for positive
change.
282
2. JobTIPS: A Transition to Employment Program for
Youth with ASD
As mentioned in the empirical research section, youth with
ASD are particularly at risk for poor employment outcomes
after leaving high school. Job interview represents the first
hurdle to get a job and mobilizes the social competence of the
individual. In order to improve job interview skills, a specific
program “JobTIPS”, associated with a virtual reality practice on
responses to employment interview questions, was developed
and assessed in a randomized study (Strickland et al., 2013).
Presentation of the Intervention Program

The intervention consists of two phases: participation in a
multimedia employment training program for individuals with
ASD and participation in a virtual world practice session.
JobTIPS program (from the JobTIPS website: https://do2learn.
com/JobTIPS/) originally includes five sections describing
the employment process: “determining career interests”,
finding a job”, “getting a job”, keeping a job” and “other job
topics” (such as “leaving a job”). Seven specific subsections
targeting employment interview skills were developed and
added for this intervention: ‘‘Interview Overview,’’ ‘‘Think
Like the Interviewer,’’ ‘‘Respond Like a S.T.A.R.,’’ ‘‘Rehearsing
Responses to Questions,’’ ‘‘Greetings and Handshakes,’’
‘‘During the Interview’’ and ‘‘The End of the Interview.’’
They included videos showing in a given situation what an
appropriate response and a less appropriate one could be,
and printable materials. When reviewing the entire program,
participants had to complete a form assessing their knowledge
283
about the interview procedures and the required abilities. Then,
the second phase consists in a virtual world practice session
in order to simulate interview practice, with the feedback of a
clinician who assumed the role of the interviewer avatar, the
participant assuming the role of the ”interviewee” avatar.
Feedbacks were provided on the contents of the responses and
on social communication skills such as body language, facial
expressions and handshake (see Figure 5).
Figure 5
Venugen4 Virtual Reality Interview Space. Interviewer’s Avatar is
Seated at Desk and Shown in the Upper Right in Inset. Participant’s
Avatar (Facing the Viewer) is Being Interviewed.
Note. Extracted from Strickland et al. (2013, p. 2476)
284
Evaluation of the Intervention Program
Method. Participants were 22 youth with high functioning
ASD aged from 16 to 19 years old. Half of them were randomly
assigned to the intervention group and the other half to the
control group (without intervention). They participated in two
similar job interviews for a specific position whose written
description was provided to them. One interview took place at
the beginning of the study before the intervention dedicated to
the intervention group and another one approximately 9 days
later at the end of the intervention.
All interviews were videotaped and rated by four
professionals blinded to the group assignment. Rating scales
focused on the response content (content of the participant’s
response to each question ranging from poor = no response to
excellent = fully satisfied all aspects of the question) and on the
response delivery (behaviors related to greetings and farewells
and non-verbal appropriate behaviors ranging from never or
almost never to almost always). Thus, at two-time points, raters
assessed the interviews of the group they were assigned to,
using a scale measuring the content and another one measuring
the delivery.
It was expected that participating in the intervention
program would improve the skills involved in the content of the
responses and the way in which this content was delivered.
Results. Compared to the control group, mean change
in content from interview 1 to interview 2 was significantly
higher for the intervention group. A trend toward a significant
positive effect on the delivery rating was also observed for the
intervention group.
285
To conclude, this intervention program can foster job skills
interviews of youth with ASD and can be useful in transition to
employment and favors their social inclusion.
Reflection moment
Remember the first exercise you did at the beginning of this

module? We asked you to indicate 5 typical characteristics
for people with autism. If we were to ask you again on this
matter, how do you relate to autism now? What comes
to your mind now about people with autism? Please take
some time and reflect on what you learned from the present
module.
286
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Wagner, M., Newman, L., Cameto, R., Javitz, H., & Valdes,
K. (2012). A national picture of parent and youth
participation in IEP and transition planning meetings.
Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 23(3), 140–155. https://doi.
org/10.1177/1044207311425384
Wehmeyer, M. L., & Abery, B. H. (2013). Self-determination and
choice. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 51(5), 399–
411. https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-51.5.399
Wehmeyer, M., Kelchner, K., & Richards, S. (1996). Essential
characteristics of self-determined behavior of individuals
292
with mental retardation. American Journal of Mental
Retardation, 100, 632–642.
Woodman, A. C., Smith, L. E., Greenberg, J. S., & Mailick, M.
R. (2015). Change in autism symptoms and maladaptive
behaviors in adolescence and adulthood: The role of
positive family processes. Journal of Autism and Developmental
Disorders, 45(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-
2199-2
World Health Organization. (2001). International classification of
functioning, disability and health: ICF. WHO IRIS. https://apps.
who.int/iris/handle/10665/42407
293
Summary
• People with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are often

described by static strong inability. This is a tenacious false
belief. Rather, autism should be considered as a spectrum
disorder because the symptoms can range a lot in severity
from a person to another.
• Empirical research highlighted high variability between
individuals with ASD regarding levels in autism symptoms
and their change across life, and also in social outcomes in
adulthood such as occupation, friendship and independent
living.
• The functional profile of a person with ASD is the result of
a dynamic interaction between her or his health conditions,
environmental factors, and personal factors. Disability and
functioning are to be considered as outcomes of interactions
between health conditions (e.g., ASD) and contextual factors.
• An ecological and systemic model can shed light on the
various challenges related to the social inclusion of youth
with ASD, ranging from the specific needs of youth and their
proximal environments (such as family, school and health
care professionals) to public policies and attitudes about
autism while considering the interactions between these
different systems.
• Youth with ASD face significant obstacles regarding
autonomy and the transition to adulthood. In order to
prepare them for the future and favor their social inclusion,
their proximal environments (teachers, parents, etc.) should
294
promote their active participation regarding decisions and
choices in their own life, in other words, promote their self-
determination. The two interventions presented in this
module showed that transition from high school to post-
secondary education and to employment could be supported
by enhancing self-determination and social communication
skills of youth with ASD.
Rather than picturing people with autism by focusing on a

static strong inability, we should focus on ways to promote
autonomy and self-determination and thus favor their social
inclusion. This results from the dynamic interaction between
the individual profile (with her / his needs, resources, and
limitations), her/his proximal environments (particularly
family, school, peers, and health care professionals) and their
interconnections, taking into account public policies and
attitudes about autism.
295
Questions
• Let’s take a look at the image below.
Source: Image from Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus
Maguire
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike
4.0. International License
• What has changed between the two situations (both for each
person and for relationships between people)? What message
does this image convey? What concepts seen in the module
can you mobilize here to discuss this image?
• Here comes a third version of the situation. What has
changed? To what extent does this third image change your
analysis based only on the first 2 images?
296
Source: Image from Center for Story-based Strategy| Artist: Angus Maguire
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike
4.0. International License
• What links can you draw between these images and the issue
of the social inclusion of youth with autism?
• What is the situation regarding school inclusion of persons
with autism in your country (from kindergarten to
university)?
• Think about Hugo. How can his transition to university be
fostered? What could a teacher do? What about his parents?
What could be the resources and the barriers to consider?
• Imagine Hugo is now in your university and one of your
classmates.
• Can you think about the way that you could interact
with him? Do you identify any barriers? If yes, how
can you explain them? What could you do in order to
overcome them? Do you need help for that?
• What can you do in order to favor his inclusion?
297
Resources
Films, series, and comics

Atypical
Atypical is a coming-of-age television series focusing on the life
of an 18-year-old adolescent with autism spectrum disorder.
“Normal People Scares Me”

(https://youtu.be/IYu-s8VVCKk)
This is a documentary film about autism. An adolescent with
autism, Taylor Cross, interviews children and adolescents with
autism aged from 9 to 19 years old on their perspective on
themselves and on the world. The link presents the short version
of the film. This film was co-directed by Taylor Cross, and his
mother.
“Invisible Differences”
Invisible Differences from Julie Dachez and Mademoiselle
Caroline is a French comic that presents the deeply moving
and intimate story of what it’s like to live day to day with ASD
(published in English in 2020).
Videos
“Can You Imagine a World Where You are the Minority?” |
TEDx Talk by Julie Dachez
(https://www.ted.com/talks/julie_dachez_can_you_
imagine_a_world_where_you_are_the_minority_jan_2018)
Julie introduces a neurotypical person to us. Questioning the
298
very concept of normality in our society, she also underlines the
importance of understanding ourselves in order to accept it. She
has been diagnosed as autistic - Asperger syndrome - at the age
of 27. Since then, her life changed and she has reconciled with
her inner self.
“How Autism Freed me to be Myself?” | TEDx Talk by Rosie

King
(https://www.ted.com/talks/rosie_king_how_autism_freed_me_
to_be_myself?referrer=playlist-the_autism_spectrum)
Rosie King is a person with autism aged 16 year old. She talks
about her experience and autism stereotypes. She questions
normality and emphasizes diversity.
“Autistic Self-Determination and Using College Disabilities

Offices”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LlcWpm-hbA)
A graduate student with ASD takes you into the Disability
Office on his campus at his university.
“Autism Transition to College”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl7ct4_IqHs)
This video presents a program for helping high school youth
with Autism to find a new path in college.
Online resources
TSARA (http://www.tsara-autisme.com),
TSARA is a serious game in which players are invited to help
Adam, a young person with autism, when he encounters
difficulties in everyday life at home and at school. This serious
299
game allows us to better understand people with autism.
TSARA is available in French and English versions on the
internet, on Appstore and GooglePlay.
Autism Europe Campaign “I can learn. I can work”

(https://www.autismeurope.org/blog/2020/03/10/i-can-learn-i-
can-work-campaign-toolkit/)
Autism Europe is an international association which has the
objective to promote the inclusion of people with autism. The
current annual campaign is focused on “promoting access
to quality inclusive education (including to university and
vocational training) and access to employment”. A specific
campaign dedicated to this objective is titled: “I can learn. I can
work.
European Project “Autism Spectrum Disorders in the European

Union” (http://asdeu.eu)
This European programme conducted from 2015 to 2018
involved universities, charities and expert institutions with
the aim to increase understanding of autism in Europe. The
website of the project offers many resources, for instance on
the prevalence of autism in 12 European countries, the analysis
of economic and social costs of autism, proposals for early
detection programmes, policies to promote harmonised support
for people with ASD across EU member states.
JobTIPS website (https://do2learn.com/JobTIPS/)

The JobTIPS program presented in the Interventions subsection
is accessible on this website.
300
Further Readings
Shogren, K.A., Gross, J.M.,Forber-Pratt, A.J. et al. (2015). The
perspectives of students with and without disabilities on
inclusive schools. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe
Disabilities, 40(4), 243-260. Conducting focus groups among
students with and without disabilities from inclusive schools,
this study examines their experiences and their perceptions of
the inclusive practices implemented in their school. Implications
of the findings for disseminating inclusive practices in schools
are discussed.
Shogren, K.A., Wehmeyer , M.L. (2015). A Framework for
research and intervention design in supported decision-making.
Inclusion, 3(1), 17–23. This article proposes a framework for
research and intervention in order to support people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities in their decision
making. The “Supported Decision Model” (SDM) model aims to
enhance the self-determination and quality of life of people with
disabilities.
Wehmeyer, M.L., Palmer, S.B., Lee, Y., Williams-Diehm, K., &
Shogren, K.A. (2011). A randomized-trial evaluation of the effect
of whose future is it anyway? on self-determination. Career
Development for Exceptional Individuals, 34(1), 45-56. This article
presents and demonstrates the effect of an intervention using
the “Whose Future is it Anyway?” process on adolescents with
intellectual and developmental disabilities.
301
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Book · June 2021

Elisabetta Crocetti Susan Branje

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Rasa Erentaitė Ewa Topolewska-Siedzik

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Building inclusive societies

In the PROMIS Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project, 7 organizations from 6 countries

The project partners are Babes-Bolyai University (Romania, coordinator), University of

Editors: Oana Negru-Subtirica & Elisabetta Crocetti

Layout design: Georgiana Savin

Publishing House: Editura ASCR

Learning outcomes 105

Learning outcomes 148

Learning outcomes 196

Learning outcomes 252

Susan Branje is a Professor at the division of Youth and Family,

The curriculum “Building inclusive societies: Promoting

Isabelle Dielwart, Belinda Hibbel, & Susan Branje

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department

After this unit, students will:

“Hi, my name is Hamza El Amrani and I am seventeen

Today’s world is composed of complex and dynamic societies,

From the Polder Model to Polarization: Demarcation

‘In your own backyard’

Where do you belong?

How Children Become Members of a Group

About the apple and the tree

Inter-group Conflicts and How to Resolve Them

Developing Attitudes towards Diversity: The Role of

BOX 1.1. Research in the Netherlands:

Background: This research departs from the statement that

Although parents and teachers play an important role in the

Inter-group Conflicts and How to Resolve Them

BOX 1.2. Research in the Netherlands:

Background: Schuitema and Veugelers (2011) have

In the Netherlands, there are no examples of interventions

Extended Class Exchange Program in Israël –

The Peaceable School

• Polarization is the sharpening of contrasts between groups in

BOX 1.3. Take Home Message

Films and series

Entre les Murs (The Class)

Dear White People

The Great Debaters

“Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes”

“The Urgency of Intersectionality” | TEDx Talk by Kimberlé

“I am not Your Asian Stereotype” | TEDx Talk by Canwen Xu

Savaş Karataş & Elisabetta Crocetti

Department of Psychology, Alma Mater Studiorum

After this unit, the students will be able to understand:

Please indicate 5 typical characteristics of people with a migrant

2. Migrants bring crimes and violence to our

3. Migrants carry diseases. ❍ ❍

4. Migrants work in low profile jobs. ❍ ❍

5. Migrants are a huge burden for our

6. Migrants have to be assimilated within our

7. Our countries enriched because of

8. Migrants cannot pursue their traditions

Migration flows have rendered modern societies increasingly

Note. Derived from ISTAT (2020).

Check out this interactive website, to see how the migration

Learning outcomes 105

Learning outcomes 148

Learning outcomes 196

Learning outcomes 252