Psychological Characteristics of Adolescents Prone to Xenophobia

The article presents the results of the study aimed at determining xenophobic dispositions and their intensity level in adolescents as well as their relation with the level of development of moral reasoning and individual psychological characteristics of the adolescents. It was hypothesized that the intensity and nature of these phenomena have gender specificity and differ among adolescents with conventional normative and deviant behavior. The obtained results confirm these hypotheses and suggest that the manifestations of xenophobia among adolescents have correlates in the development of moral consciousness and in the individual psychological sphere, have significant gender specifics. Adolescents with deviant behavior have a greater risk for xenophobic dispositions development than their socially adapted peers. Based on these results it is concluded that in order to prevent xenophobia among adolescents special attention should be paid to the overall personality development of the child, to the development of his/her moral consciousness, to the increasing level of empathy and reducing the aggression.

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