Ethno-National Attitudes as Intercultural Competence Predictors in University Students: Gender Differences

Abstract

The search for predictors of intercultural competence (ICC) development is one of the important challenges of modern psychology in connection with globalization in all the spheres of modern life, including university education. The purpose of the present research is to show that the ethno-national attitudes (ENA), which Khukhlaev et al. consider as an individual’s predisposition to assess the nationality/ethnicity can determine the severity of ICC features in male and female university students. The sample includes 219 (75% female) first−third year Russian university students. ICC was measured with the author’s modification of the intercultural sensitivity scale (ISS) by Khuhlaev and Chibisova. ISS is based on the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, (DMIS) by Bennett and includes 4 subscales: Minimization, Absolutization, Ambivalence, Acceptance. ENA (Nationalistic, Patriotic, Neutral, Negativistic) were determined with the “Scale of ethno-national attitudes” by Khukhlaev, Kuznetsov, and Tkachenko. Descriptive statistics methods, Wilcoxon W-test, and multiple regression analysis were used for statistical analysis in the R software environment, version 3.5.2. The findings of our research showed that Nationalistic and Patriotic ENA are the strongest predictors of studied ICC scales and have an opposite negative impact on Acceptance and Absolutization in both male and female students. This fact should be taken into account in the context of ICC developments.

Keywords

• intercultural competence
• intercultural sensitivity
• developmental model of intercultural sensitivity
• ethno-national attitudes
• university students
• gender differences