How Does Interracial Contact in Childhood Impact Adult Interracial Relationships?

Findings by Researchers at the University of Antwerp, the Paris School of Economics, and Freie Universität Berlin. No 299/2019 from Oct 14, 2019 According to a recent study, interracial contact in childhood leads to more diverse social relationships in adulthood. In particular, racial composition in schools impacts romantic relationships later in life. The findings were published by Prof. Luca Paolo Merlino, PhD (University of Antwerp), Prof. Liam Wren-Lewis, PhD (Paris School of Economics), and Max Friedrich Steinhardt (Freie Universität Berlin) in the Journal of Labor Economics ( https://doi.org/10. According to Max Friedrich Steinhardt, an obvious explanation might be that a racially diverse environment increases the opportunities for getting to know people of other races. However, this cannot be a decisive factor, as the researchers observed a correlation between childhood contacts and adult social relationships regardless of location, time, and social networks. The findings indicate that neither performance in school, educational level achieved, nor later success in the labor market is significant in determining whether adults have racially diverse social relationships.