Does Personality Functioning Influence Perception of Social Distance amongst Czech Students Studying in an International University, a State University and the General Population?

Published: 30 October 2024| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/rkd9xbrpcc.1
Contributors:
Su Luo,

Description

The primary hypothesis of this study posited that Czech students enrolled in an international university would perceive less social distance towards minority groups in the Czech Republic compared to their counterparts at a state university and the general population. Our secondary hypothesis was that university students, regardless of institution type (international or state), would exhibit different levels of personality functioning impairments relative to the general population, although we did not anticipate the direction of these differences. Our findings indicate that Czech students attending an international university indeed differ in their perceptions of social distance and attitudes towards minority groups. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, students at international universities displayed greater perceived social distance and higher scores on scales measuring racist expressions compared to those at state universities and the general population. The latter two groups, state university students and the general population, exhibited comparable levels of social distance and racist attitudes, with most parameters not demonstrating significant differences. In terms of personality functioning, both university cohorts displayed higher levels of impairment in personality functioning than the general population. We interpret this result as partially attributable to the younger age of university students, who are approximately a decade younger than the general population sample. Additionally, differences in personality traits among university students may also contribute to more maladaptive perceptions and attitudes towards minority groups.

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Steps to reproduce

We randomly draw participants from general population and from two universities, one international and one state university. Total number of participants is 130, 55 from general population, 45 from students from international university and 30 from state university. After informed consent, our trained experts conducted semi-structured interviews to collect information on personality functioning (STIP-5.1) . All experts have gone through the training of STIP-5.1. We also did three trial interviews to unify the scoring standards. After the interview, participants were provided with a link to online battery to collect questionnaire data, including Bogardus social distance scale, Modern Racism scale, Blatant and Subtle prejudice scale and demographic data. And we used SPSS to compute our data.

Institutions

Univerzita Karlova, Narodni ustav dusevniho zdravi, University of New York in Prague

Categories

Psychology

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