Однос младих према припадницима појединих друштвених група и верских заједницa

Abstract

The paper considers the results of investigations on the attitude of youth to certain social groups and social distance to some religious groups. The attitudes to different social groups (ethnic, racial, marginal) show that in principle youth are tolerant to those who are different but intolerant to certain, specific display of diversity. To examine religious distance in secondary school students, we employed the Bogardus scale of social distance, where students had to state the members of religion they wouldn’t like to contact and have relations with. It proved that the degree of manifested distance and intolerance depend on the type of supposed relations, sociodemographic characteristics and students’ religiousness. The obtained data can be useful for program planning and initiation of appropriate actions in school and broader social community, whose aim would be to reduce social distance, biases, and intolerance and recognition of diversity, respectively. Since the development of mutual understanding among different social groups and recognition of diversity is an important educational goal, a question is raised on how much newly introduced school subjects (citizenship education, religious edication) contribute to the recognition of diversity and tolerance in youth, mutual understanding and trust between different social groups.