Ethnic composition of school classes, majority-minority friendships, and adolescents' intergroup attitudes in the Netherlands.

The relationships between the proportion of ethnic minority adolescents in school classes, the proportion and quality of majority-minority friendships and intergroup attitudes were examined using multi-level analysis (N = 2386 adolescents in 117 school classes in the Netherlands). In school classes with high proportions of ethnic minority adolescents, both ethnic majority and ethnic minority adolescents reported more negative out-group attitudes. Moreover, in these school classes, ethnic majority adolescents showed more positive in-group attitudes, whereas ethnic minority adolescents showed less positive in-group attitudes. The proportion of majority-minority friendships was related to less negative out-group attitudes for ethnic majority adolescents only. The quality of majority-minority friendships was related to less negative out-group and in-group attitudes for both the ethnic majority and ethnic minority adolescents. The results are discussed in the light of contact theory and ethnic competition theory.