"When birds of a different feather flock together" - intercultural socialization in adolescents' friendships

Intercultural friendships are a powerful form of intergroup contact to reduce prejudice (Pettigrew, 1998). Little is known about if and how intercultural friendships may also foster intercultural competence. An important prerequisite for the development of intercultural competence is that adolescents reflect on cultural variations. We refer to the degree to which adolescents discuss cultural variations in intercultural friendships as intercultural socialization and explore the following research questions: (1) Does intercultural socialization in friendships mediate the relation between age, intercultural friendship characteristics (friendship group composition, and length, quality, and interaction frequency of the closest intercultural friendship), and adolescents' intercultural competence? (2) Do these relations depend on the adolescents' self-identification with majority and minority culture(s)? The sample included 571 adolescents in Germany (48% female, M-age = 13.69 years, 52% identifying only as members of the cultural majority, 48% (also) as members of a cultural minority. Intercultural competence was measured using a self-report questionnaire and open-ended questions capturing the adolescents' interpretation of and reaction to intercultural situations. Quantitative measures tapped into friendship characteristics (friendship group composition, and length, quality, and interaction frequency of the closest intercultural friendship). To test our model, we employed multigroup path analysis with latent variables in Mplus. Results showed that intercultural socialization linked age and intercultural friendship characteristics with adolescents' intercultural competence. The relations partly varied depending on student's cultural self-identification. We conclude that intercultural friendships are associated with important skills that are needed in increasingly multicultural societies if students experience and discuss cultural variations in these friendships.