Xenophobia

The fall of the Iron Curtain and the forces of globalization have brought rapid sociopolitical change to many parts of the world. The former East Germany is experiencing unique changes, because as it adjusts to forces of globalization, it faces the tasks of both restructuring and unifying its economy and population with those of the former West Germany.

For adolescents such times have proven to be exceptionally challenging. Not only do young people have to cope with the rapid intraindividual change typical of the adolescent years, but they must also respond to more surrounding societal change than the generations of adolescents born in earlier decades. Xenophobia seems to be one of the responses of adolescents to the uncertainties experienced.

Xenophobia is defined here as an attitudinal orientation of hostility against nonnatives in a given population. In a way, it is a form of racism that does not use the concept of race as a defining element. It is also closely connected to right-wing extremism, though not sharing that concept's reference to the left-right dimension in politics. Looking back at earlier work by Hagan, Merkens, and Boehnke (1995), one could argue that all right-wing extremists are prone to be xenophobic, but that the reverse relation does not necessarily hold. Xenophobic incidents have occurred with disproportionate frequency in Central European countries, especially in Germany, and young people are the primary perpetrators (Willems, 1993).

Numerous explanations of xenophobia could be given in these circumstances, but two seem most plausible. The first explanation is rooted in a theory of subterranean values, as described, for example, in the sociological work of David Matza (1964). The second explanation is more psychodynamic in nature and is best expressed in the work of Erik H. Erikson (1968) on identity, youth, and crisis.

The first explanation, rooted in the theory of subterranean values, argues that times of rapid social change weaken social controls that can otherwise keep deviant societal traditions in check. In such times "subterranean values" inherent in a given society or culture (Matza & Sykes, 1961), such as in-group favoritism and outgroup violence, are expressed more freely. Those parts of the population bound by the fewest restraints are most prone to act on these values. Adolescents and youth who have neither entered the job market nor formed families may be uniquely free of constraints. In particular, they may be inclined to embrace and act out some of the "darker" subterranean themes that otherwise remain below the surface of Western market-oriented societies.

Psychodynamic theories see adolescence as a time of identity crisis (Caplan, 1964) and of high self-consciousness (Rayner, 1971). Many adolescents feel ill at ease in a frequent and recurring way. These feelings, according to psychodynamic theorists, may lead adolescents to look for other individuals and/or groups whom they perceive as being of a lower status. These are individuals and groups that the ill-at-ease adolescents can look down upon as a means of self-enhancement: If there is a group to look down upon, one's own status appears elevated and thereby one's self-esteem is increased. Depending on age and developmental status, xenophobia can serve the function of reducing feelings of inferiority (e.g., in Stage 4 of Erikson's 1963 ego development sequence) and role confusion (in Stage 5 of Erikson's sequence).

To be sure, there is much conceptual controversy among psychologists who work in the field of self-esteem and self-concept (Wylie, 1979). A central controversy is whether self-esteem is in principle a unidimensional or a multidimensional construct. According to the unidimensional conceptual approach, a person with high self-esteem will be self-confident in any given life situation. In contrast, the multidimensional approach assumes that domain-specific self-concepts exist and that self-esteem can therefore differ greatly among different domains of life. A person can have high self-esteem in the academic domain, for example, and low self-esteem with regard to his/her outer appearance. Low self-esteem and high self-consciousness have long been shown to be closely related to anxiety and reduced general well-being (Rosenberg, 1965). Toch (1969/1993) depicted low esteem and violence as being in a compensatory relationship.

Nonetheless, and in spite of the controversies just stated, self-esteem is a fairly well recognized and understood concept. In contrast, the notion of subterranean traditions in Western, market-oriented societies and their impact on adolescent xenophobia requires further elaboration. As Coleman (1987) pointed out, capitalist cultures are strongly competition oriented. Individual pursuit of economic self-interest and the personal effort to surpass others in the accumulation of wealth and status are widely deemed of critical importance for a well-functioning market-oriented economy. However, such competitive and acquisitive prerequisites for the success of capitalism may frequently if not regularly produce pervasive feelings of insecurity. In times of rapid social change these feelings of insecurity may increase further and overpower forces that can channel striving for success in more ordinary times in more socially acceptable and productive ways. Some adolescents, in order to resolve special feelings of insecurity, may be especially inclined to overemphasize the basic values of competitiveness. Xenophobia and xenophobic acts may be among the results of feeling and acting on the basis of these extreme value orientations.

In our earlier work we have referred to the exaggeration of subterranean principles of market-oriented economies as hierarchic self-interest (HSI) (Hagan, Hefler, Classen, Boehnke, & Merkens, 1998). We see HSI as a second-order construct measuring an individual's inclination to agree with a number of basic principles of Western culture, namely materialism, competitiveness, individualism, or the acceptance of inequality as merit based and therefore just.

Empirically, the two conceptual approaches (subterranean value theory and psychodynamic theory) mean that those adolescents who are most willing to endorse exaggerated expressions of Western, market-oriented values and who have the lowest self-esteem should at the same time be the most xenophobic. These two expectations are our central hypotheses. That is, we expect that adolescents who express high degrees of hierarchic self-interest (Hypothesis 1) and low self-esteem (Hypothesis 2) will also express stronger xenophobic attitudes.

Not only, however, do we propose that hierarchic self-interest and self-esteem influence levels of adolescent xenophobia to a substantial degree, but we also assume that they exercise an influence on intraindividual development of xenophobia during the adolescent years. It has frequently been reported that adolescence is a time of increasing, though sometimes unstable, self-confidence (O'Malley & Bachman, 1983; Silbereisen & Zank, 1984). Therefore, those who already have little self-esteem often tend to fall even farther behind their teenage peers, and thus, they may increasingly need mechanisms (such as xenophobia: Hypothesis 3) to enhance their self-esteem. Also, adolescence is a time when social inequality becomes more salient to young people. Competition and (economic) success become more important than they had been in late childhood (Leahy, 1990). Thus, especially for those who are less successful and at the lower end of the social hierarchy, embracing hierarchic self-interest and as a consequence xenophobia (Hypothesis 4) will tend to become more important.

Having now stated our central hypotheses, some special comments are in order about the German situation. Studies by Heitmeyer (1989), Heitmeyer et al. (1995), Schnabel (1993), and Willems (1993), as well as the present authors (Hagan et al., 1995; Hefler & Boehnke, 1996; Hefler, Rippl, & Boehnke, 1998), have shown that xenophobia among adolescents has increased in recent years, that it is considerably higher among boys than among girls, that it is higher in East Germany than in West Germany, and that it is substantially lower in university-bound school tracks than in other school tracks. When age effects are found in these studies, they indicate that xenophobia is higher among younger than among older adolescents. We expect to replicate these findings in the current study and will therefore first present descriptive analyses of xenophobia among East and West German adolescents between 1991 and 1995. Confident that we can replicate the findings of earlier research, we do, however, further suggest that all effects mentioned are somehow related to inter-individual differences in hierarchic self-interest and self-esteem/self-deprecation.

We have shown elsewhere (Hagan, Rippl, Boehnke, & Merkens, in press) that whereas right-wing extremism, a construct closely related to xenophobia, is lower among girls and among West Germans, these relationships virtually disappear or even reverse when HSI is introduced as a predictor. Boys and East Germans exhibit higher levels of HSI, which in turn is a powerful predictor of right-wing extremism. We assume that the same will hold true for xenophobia. Moreover, we suggest that differences in hierarchic self-interest are also at the core of school track differences in xenophobia. Adolescents in disadvantaged school tracks, being unsuccessful academically, tend to overemphasize the subterranean traditions of market-oriented economies. This then also makes them more prone to adopt xenophobic attitudes. Hierarchic self-interest may even be involved, when trying to account for the increase in xenophobia in Germany in recent years. The German economic situation has deteriorated during the 1990s. The euphoria that accompanied unification has not endured. In a time of increasing insecurity, stronger emphasis on the subterranean traditions of materialism, competitiveness, and individualism is highly probable, as is, consequentially, increasing xenophobia.

We furthermore assume that several of the documented effects can also be attributed to variation in levels of self-esteem. The often-found increases in self-esteem over the adolescent years lower the necessity to seek relief from inferiority feelings and role confusion in the form of support for xenophobic attitudes. School track differences in xenophobia may also in part be accounted for by differences in self-esteem. Silbereisen and Zank (1984), for example, have shown that self-esteem is higher among Gymnasium students than among students from non-university-bound tracks.

In summary, we presume that xenophobia will be higher among boys than among girls, in East than in West Germany, in those in non-university-bound than in university-bound school tracks, in the mid- than in the early 1990s, and among younger than among older adolescents. We do expect, however, that all of these effects will be influenced by individual levels of hierarchic self-interest and self-esteem and that they will be considerably reduced if not disappear when these two variables are introduced as predictors of xenophobia.

Method

In order to test our hypotheses, we analyzed data from an ongoing panel study of which the first author and Hans Merkens from the Free University of Berlin are principal investigators (see introductory note to article).

Sample

Data reported in this article are from the East-West Youth Study. The study began in early 1990, about two-and-a-half months after the Berlin Wall came down. Social scientists from the Free University of Berlin and from the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (APW) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) worked together to design a survey of processes of individual adolescent development in times of rapid societal development in Germany. The speed of change in Germany quickly surpassed the pace of preparations for the survey, and by the time the study saw its first preliminary wave of data collection in the late fall of 1990, Germany had united, and the APW was about to be dissolved.

The study nevertheless was launched successfully. It surveyed approximately 600 seventh- to tenth-grade youth in East and West Berlin, about 150 from each of the four grades, each grade encompassing both parts of the city. All major types of schools were included in the study. In the beginning students came from 19, and later from 16 schools, with no apparent loss of representation. Schools were sampled from the socially most diverse districts in East and West Berlin. As shown by data available in the planning phase of the study (Statistisches Landesamt, 1991), the chosen districts can be seen as microcosms of the diversity of all of East and West Berlin, residentially and with regard to many important social indicators.

The East-West Youth Study employed a modified cohort-sequential design. All participants were surveyed again after a year except for the tenth graders. New seventh graders from the same schools replaced the existing tenth graders. This strategy was employed in the years 1990 to 1994. From 1994 on, no new seventh graders were brought into the study. Seventh graders were surveyed for four successive years, that is, in Grades 7, 8, 9, and 10. Eventually five independent panels of seventh graders became available. Furthermore, independent samples of students from one and the same grade can be compared over time at least from 1990 to 1994 (seventh graders) or even to 1997 (tenth graders). Data gathered four years apart, for example, 1991 and 1995, also allow a cross-sectional comparison of independent samples of students from the four grades at two different historical times.

As in all longitudinal studies, survey instruments changed over time. Also, not all students were asked all questions every year. This fact limits the subsets of data that can be analyzed in relation to the topic of the current article, namely xenophobia. Figure 1 documents the design of our study (for the years 1991 through 1995) and specifically marks the subsamples that are analyzed in the present article.

Figure 1 shows that eighth and tenth graders from 1991 and 1995 were included in an analysis of cross-sectional age differences in xenophobia at two historical times, the first early after German unification, the other well into the 1990s. We refer to these analyses as Study A. In a second set of analyses (Study B) we followed the eighth graders from 1991 (a subset of the 1991 eighth graders included in Study A) to when they were tenth graders, in 1993, comparing this group to the eighth graders of 1993, whom we also followed for two years until they, too, were tenth graders, in 1995 (that latter group being a subset of the sample included in Study A). Study A, thus, is a two-wave cross-sectional study, and Study B is a two-cohort longitudinal study.

The subsamples of Study A have the following sizes, average ages, and proportions of girls: Grade 8/1991: n = 344, 13.7, 48.2%; Grade 10/1991: n = 211, 15.7, 60.5%(1); Grade 8/1995: n = 414, 13.6, 52.2%; Grade 10/1995: n = 354, 15.7, 52.5%.

The pertinent information for the two longitudinal subsamples of Study B is as follows: Grade 8 [greater than] 10 (1991 [greater than] 1993): n = 214, 13.7, 49.5%; Grade 8 [greater than] 10 (1993 [greater than] 1995): n = 289, 13.6, 52.9%. Two-year attrition rates were 31.8% for the 1991 [greater than] 1993 panel and 36.3% for the 1993 [greater than] 1995 panel. In spite of the fairly high attrition, there is no evidence of a selection bias with regard to the variables of interest here. Mean scores of xenophobia, for example, were not significantly different between participants and dropouts from 1991 and 1993 in Study B.

Instruments

In looking at development and change of xenophobia among German adolescents in the 1990s, we are primarily concerned with the role that two phenomena play, namely hierarchic self-interest and (low) self-esteem, as introduced earlier.

Hierarchic self-interest is a second-order construct encompassing various aspects of adolescents' value orientations. We have shown in earlier work (Hagan, Rippl, et al., in press) that this construct unites "competitiveness" (as described in the work of Suls, 1977), "materialism" (as conceptualized in the work of Inglehart, 1977), "individualism" (as understood in the work of Hui & Triandis, 1986), and "acceptance of inequality" (as portrayed in the work of Mayer, Kraus, & Schmidt, 1992). For our current purposes, measures of competitiveness and of acceptance of inequality could not be used, because they were not available for all subsamples analyzed in Studies A and B. Instead we have formed an adapted measure of hierarchic self-interest using scale scores from a materialism scale, an individualism scale, a scale on instrumental work orientations, and a scale of "econophilia," that is, an unquestioning acceptance of the policies of a market economy.

The three-item materialism scale is related to Inglehart's (1977) materialism/postmaterialism work but uses items suggested by the first author (Boehnke, 1988) to measure the construct among adolescents. The "marker item" reads, "Success in school and later on the job is the most important thing in life."

The three-item individualism scale is taken from work by Hui and Villareal (1989) and encompasses items like "We would all be better off if everybody would just care for him or herself."

The five-item scale of instrumental orientations toward work was taken from earlier research conducted at the Akademie der Padagogischen Wissenschaften (APW, 1989). A sample item reads, "The main thing is that you have a job that earns you a good salary."

The econophilia scale (two items) captures a second facet of Inglehart's materialism concept, namely the unquestioning acceptance of the policies of the market sector of society: "What's good for our industry is good for us." It is taken from earlier work of the first author (Boehnke, 1988).

All items of all scales were answered on a four-point rating scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Scores for the second-order construct of hierarchic self-interest were formed by first averaging item scores within scales and then averaging scale averages. All original scales had reliabilities of greater than .60 in all subsamples analyzed, and so did the second-order hierarchic self-interest scale.

Our self-esteem scale measures low self-esteem and might, thus, also be labeled as a self-derogation scale; in the following, we use these labels interchangeably. It consists of items adapted from the German version of Spielberger's State-Trait Personality Inventory as proposed by Schwarzer and Spielberger (1986). It encompasses between 11 (1991 and Panel 1) and 16 items (1995 and Panel 2). Typical items read, "I have no self-confidence," "I feel like a failure," and "I feel I am incapable." Reliabilities were above .80 in all subsamples.

The central dependent variable of interest, xenophobia, is measured by a six-item scale. Sample items read, "Only in his or her home country can a human being be really happy," and "It is not good to have many foreigners in the country because they are unpleasant and obstinate." The scale has a reliability of greater than .70 in all subsamples.

Results

The hypotheses presented in the introduction to this article were examined in two separate analyses. Study A gave information on mean values of xenophobia among eighth and tenth graders from East and West Berlin in 1991 and 1995. Study B considered the role of hierarchic self-interest and self-consciousness in influencing levels and changes in xenophobia in students between the eighth and tenth grades.

Study A

In Study A we examined mean levels of xenophobia. Subsamples included in our analysis [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] were eighth graders and tenth graders from 1991 and 1995, respectively. Our hypotheses were that we would find higher xenophobia in the mid- than in the early 1990s, among younger than older students, among East as contrasted with West Berliners, among students of non-university as compared to university-bound school tracks, and among boys relative to girls. We ran a five-factor analysis of variance with year of measurement (1991/1995), grade (8/10), part of city (East Berlin/West Berlin), school track (university-bound track/other tracks), and gender (girls/boys) as independent variables and the scale score for xenophobia as the dependent variable. Table 1 documents all effects that were significant at the p [less than].01 level and summarizes the substantive meaning of the results.

When examining the results reported in Table 1, one first has to stress that xenophobia was not particularly high among the surveyed youth. In no subgroup did the mean score exceed 1.28 on a scale ranging from 0 to 3. The table shows that - as assumed - xenophobia was higher in 1995 than it had been in 1991. There was no significant main effect of age group, but there was a significant interaction of age group and year, with eighth graders (having slightly lower means than tenth graders in 1991) showing a steeper increase between years in xenophobia. The expected age difference thus did not emerge as clearly as we had expected, but was moderated [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] somehow by historical time. There was a striking difference in xenophobia between the university-bound students and students in other school tracks. Approximately 12% of the variance was explained by this factor. This confirmed our expectations. However, the largest effect was found for East Berliners compared to West Berliners. Xenophobia of the former exceeded that of the latter by two thirds of a standard deviation, and 13% of the variance was explained by the East-West factor. In addition to the hypothesized main effects and the reported interaction of grade and year of measurement, one triple interaction also was significant: The steepest increase in xenophobia over time was found among students from Gymnasium, the university-bound school track, which shows the lowest xenophobia scores among school tracks.

Study B

Our second study pursued the question of how levels and changes in xenophobia among German adolescents related to levels of hierarchic self-interest and self-esteem. Subsamples used for Study B [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] were eighth graders from 1991 resurveyed in 1993, and eighth graders from 1993 resurveyed in 1995. Our hypotheses were that adolescents showing a strong hierarchic self-interest and/or low self-esteem would experience both higher levels and steeper increases in xenophobia.

We tested these hypotheses with multiple regression equations. In a first analysis, we estimated xenophobia at Time 1 (1991 for the eighth graders from the first cohort, 1993 for the eighth graders from the second cohort) with equations that included cohort, gender, part of city and school track (all dummy coded) [Step 1] and simultaneously measured hierarchic self-interest [Step 2] and self-derogation [Step 3]. The results are presented in Table 2, which also gives raw correlations of all variables included.

An inspection of the raw correlations reveals that both hierarchic self-interest and self-esteem were related to xenophobia. Contrary to our expectations, however, self-derogation (= low self-esteem) was negatively related to xenophobia: Those adolescents who expressed little self-esteem exhibited less xenophobia. For Step 1 of our regression analyses, Table 2 shows essentially the same results as were reported for Study [A.sup.2]: Xenophobia was higher in the older cohort ([Beta] = . 12), in the non-university-bound school tracks ([Beta] = -.45), in East Berlin ([Beta] = -.39), and among boys ([Beta] = -.08).

As hypothesized, the addition of hierarchic self-interest to the regression equation altered the estimated effects noticeably. Hierarchic self-interest was a strong predictor of the level of xenophobia ([Beta] = .27). Its inclusion lowered the impact of all prior predictors. The predictive power of school track and of gender dropped most noticeably when the degree of hierarchic self-interest of an adolescent was introduced. This means that school track differences partially can be explained in terms of the different levels of hierarchic self-interest in the two types of school track. This pattern was even more pronounced for gender: the gender difference essentially disappeared when hierarchic self-interest was included as a variable. That finding suggests that higher levels of xenophobia among boys were almost entirely a consequence of boys' higher levels of hierarchic self-interest.

The additional inclusion of self-derogation (low self-esteem) as a predictor of the level of xenophobia did not affect the predictive capacity of the other variables substantially. Although sizably correlated with hierarchic self-interest, self-derogation was a significant predictor of xenophobia in its own fight and seemed to be a largely independent source of disdain for out-groups. To our great surprise, however, low self-esteem was related in the unexpected direction of lowering levels of xenophobia. Expressed the other way, those youth who indicated by their answers that they were least ill at ease were the ones who were most xenophobic.

A second set of regression analyses focused on intraindividual change in xenophobia over time. In these analyses we used Time 2 xenophobia (1993 for 1991 eighth graders, 1995 for 1993 eighth graders) as the variable to be predicted. In a first step we entered Time 1 xenophobia as a predictor. Step 2 included cohort, school track, East/West location, and gender. Step 3 entered hierarchic self-interest and Step 4 entered self-derogation. Results are presented in Table 3.

Table 3 shows that, first and foremost, xenophobia was quite a stable construct among the adolescents studied. Xenophobia at 15 was primarily determined by the level of xenophobia at 13. Even after all other predictors had been entered into the regression, Time 1 xenophobia was still by far the strongest predictor of Time 2 xenophobia ([Beta] = .49). Further results are quite striking: Not only was the level of xenophobia influenced by historic time, school track, dwelling region, and gender, but so was change in xenophobia. Increases in xenophobia between early and middle adolescence were steeper in the mid- than in the early 1990s; they were stronger among students from non-university-bound school tracks, stronger for those who lived in East Berlin, and stronger for boys. And these findings persisted when hierarchic self-interest and low self-esteem were added to the equations.

However, in contrast to our analyses of level of xenophobia and in contrast to our expectations, hierarchic self-interest did not predict change in the level of xenophobia during adolescence. Self-derogation, however, did. It not only predicted level of xenophobia, but those who exhibited less self-esteem were also the ones [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 3 OMITTED] who had decreasing scores of xenophobia over time. So self-derogation was a significant factor in the determination of level of xenophobia as well as of the degree of change in xenophobia during adolescence. It must, however, be added that its predictive capacity was not particularly high. In contrast, hierarchic self-interest was strongly predictive of level of xenophobia, but it did not discernibly result in change in xenophobia in the early to middle teens.

Summary and Conclusions

Our analyses have focused on the question of what impact individual levels of hierarchic self-interest and of self-esteem have on levels and gradients of change in adolescent xenophobia. Our hypotheses were that higher levels of hierarchic self-interest and low self-esteem would result in high levels and steep increases in xenophobia for adolescents in their early to mid teens. Besides replicating earlier findings with regard to gender, age, cohort/time, school track, and dwelling context (East vs. West Germany), we anticipated that we would be able to show that the effects of these variables were also results of individual differences in hierarchic self-interest and self-esteem.

Strong support for our hypotheses emerged in one instance, whereas other results were more mixed and sometimes even turned our expectations on their heads. Before discussing the latter results, however, the continuities in our findings with regard to gender, cohort/time, dwelling context (East/West), school track, and age are worth noting. The most substantial of the expected differences were found for Gymnasium students versus students from other school tracks and for East versus West Berliners. Higher xenophobia among boys and in later years of the 1990s could also be confirmed. More surprising and alarming, however, is the fact that our study is one of the first to show not only that these expected mean differences exist, but that these respective contexts of life course experience also have developmental socialization effects. Living in East Berlin, being on a non-university-bound school track, or being a boy influences not only the level of xenophobia, but also the development over time of xenophobic attitudes. Youth from different milieus seem to drift apart within the two years of early to mid-adolescence that we have been able to examine. That is, our study provides evidence that living in East Berlin, being on a lower school track, and living the life of a boy leads these adolescents to become more xenophobic in the course of two years. In accordance with discussions at a recent Carnegie Foundation workshop on the improvement of intergroup relations among youth (Jackson, 1997), we see this as evidence of the devastating effect school tracking and other types of segregated youth life have on xenophobia and racism.(3) One might further interpret the East/West and the boy/girl findings in this way. That is, as there is little contact between East and West Berlin adolescents (Boehnke, Hefler & Merkens, 1996), and as same-sex everyday contact still predominates at the ages studied (Auhagen & von Salisch, 1996), gender and dwelling context may also be seen as segregated environments that have developmental socialization effects in the teenage transitional years.

Let us now turn to our other efforts at hypothesis testing. As proposed, hierarchic self-interest indeed emerged as a strong predictor of levels of adolescent xenophobia. It also proved to be a variable that explained substantial parts of the effects owed to school track, dwelling context (East/West), and gender. The inclusion of hierarchic self-interest as a predictor of xenophobia reduced the impact of school track and of dwelling context by more than 15%. Gender differences in xenophobia were no longer significant once hierarchic self-interest was included as a predictor. Could it be that differences in xenophobia between boys and girls emanate from boys' stronger internalization of the core values of capitalism? All this confirmed our expectations. One might additionally mention that an inspection of the raw correlations of the four subelements of hierarchic self-interest (materialism, individualism, econophilia, and an instrumental work orientation) showed that they all were related to xenophobia to a substantially lower degree, thus emphasizing the overarching importance of the value syndrome we call hierarchic self-interest.

However, when we turned to our analyses of change, the results were not as expected. Changes in hierarchic self-interest could not in themselves account for changes in xenophobia, at least during the earlier teenage years studied here, and they could not mediate the impact of other variables either. Our results would appear to indicate that hierarchic self-interest, the operationalization of some of the darker subterranean traditions of capitalism, does have a strong impact on xenophobia, but before the age of 13 that begins our study. The extremely high stability of xenophobia between 13 and 15 (the raw correlation is .65) emphasizes the point that these teenage attitudes are well established, apparently in part by hierarchic self-interest, by the beginning of adolescence. It would seem clear that further research on the interplay of hierarchic self-interest and xenophobia should focus on formative influences that operate at earlier ages.

Meanwhile, the most surprising finding of our study was perhaps that low self-esteem, as we have measured it, predicted xenophobia in the opposite direction expected. The higher levels of self-derogation were, the lower the levels of xenophobia were, and the stronger the decrease was over 2 years. Although the effect was not very strong (less than 1% of the variance in xenophobia is explained by self-derogation) the sign of the effect was still surprising.

We see two explanations for this counterintuitive finding. One is that self-reports of adolescent self-derogation measure the willingness to admit deficiencies of the self and not the deficiencies themselves. What may thus, at first glance, appear as an indication of low self-esteem could very well be a measure of ego strength in the sense of indicating the willingness to (in a nonanonymous questionnaire) admit semipublicly to weaknesses. Early work of Katz and Zigler (1967) showed that the willingness to admit to deficiencies increases with age and is correlated to intelligence, thus being an indicator of a more advanced maturation process.(4)

A second, partially related explanation entertains an argument made by the German psychoanalyst Horst-Eberhard Richter (1993). He proposed that although self-esteem is indeed related to xenophobia in the way that we also hypothesized, that is, low self-esteem covarying with high xenophobia, the tendency to be critical about oneself is not primarily an indicator of low self-esteem, but of the ability for self-criticism. That ability is emphasized by Richter as being the primary safeguard against xenophobia. It helps that the self is juxtaposed with "the other" on equal terms. In analyses of data from a later wave of the East-West Youth Study, Hefler, Boehnke, and Butz (in press) underscore this notion. They explicitly show the dual character of self-derogation when they point out that, on the one hand, it also predicts low levels of xenophobia in their study, whereas, on the other hand, it predicts stronger anomic aspirations that in turn predict higher xenophobia. Baumeister, Smart, and Boden (1996), in a groundbreaking review article, put forward the argument that high self-esteem, not low self-esteem, should be seen as a source of violence. They propose that people who entertain high self-appraisals - or, as they call it, "egotism" - show the highest probability of having to defend the self-image against a downward revision. These defensive acts, so goes the argument by Baumeister, Smart, and Boden, facilitate the use of violent force. This explanation may carry over to verbal violence - xenophobia.

Taken together, the two parts of our study showed that hierarchic self-interest and self-esteem are indeed important for the development of xenophobia in adolescence. Contextual variables such as school track and living in the eastern part of Germany, however, have an impact that is at least equally strong. The question of why the impact - and even the socializing influence of these contexts in early to mid-adolescence - is so strong needs further research attention. It is plausible to conclude from the kind of evidence we have presented that lower school tracks as represented in the Hauptschule (see Boehnke, Hefler, Merkens, & Hagan, in press), and East Germany (see Watts, 1996), in and of themselves, engender a culture of xenophobia that needs political and pedagogical attention.

1 The high percentage of girls in Grade 10 in 1991 is attributable to peculiarities of the school system in East Berlin at that historical time, with more boys than girls going to Hauptschule, that school being particularly rare in East Berlin, thus lowering the chances of boys to become part of the sample.

2 Minor differences stem from the fact that - because of attrition - the longitudinal samples were only subsamples of the cross-sectional samples analyzed in Study A and from the fact that interaction effects were not separated from main effects in multiple regression as it was set up here.

3 School tracking in Germany has a long tradition. Historically it was meant as an optimization of the training for professional jobs (Gymnasium) as opposed to blue-collar jobs (lower track). Unlike in North America, however, students and parents have to decide very early (after Grade 6 at the very latest) on which school track a child is sent. Also, being on different school tracks means not only that different courses are taken by students, but that students are taught at different schools at different locations. Thus, school tracking in Germany has an element of ghettoization: Students with fewer chances for success in their adults lives all go to one type of school, whereas students with more a priori chances go to another school.

4 Katz and Zigler speak of self-image disparities. They measure disparities between real self and ideal self. In the light of contemporary views of adolescents as playing an active part in their own development, we see disparity as a measure of willingness to admit to deficiencies.

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KLAUS BOEHNKE received his Ph.D. in psychology from Berlin University of Technology. He is currently Professor of Socialization Research and Methodology at Chemnitz University of Technology. His research interests are in youth research and methodology with particular emphasis on question of adolescents' political orientation.

JOHN HAGAN received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Alberta. He is currently Professor of Law and Psychology and Director of the Institute for Human Development, Life Course and Aging at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in crime and inequality with emphasis on youth and gender questions.

GERD HEFLER received his Ph.D. in political science from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University at Frankfurt on the Main. He worked as a Research Scientist at Chemnitz University of Technology before recently taking up a position at a marketing and public opinion agency in Munich. His interests are in political socialization and behavior of adolescents.

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