Summary: This paper investigates whether xenophobic attitudes in Germany are determined by personal characteristics and by individual social situations. To this end, the influence on xenophobia of attachment style as a personal characteristic and of social disintegration as a variable of the social structure is tested. The analysis of a sample of 1779 persons indicates that attachment styles can be considered as predispositions for the occurrence or not of social disintegration, which simultaneously determines the extent of xenophobia (complete mediation): a secure attachment style decreases the degree of social disintegration which then reduces the extent of xenophobic attitudes. An insecure attachment style induces an increasing degree of social disintegration and xenophobia. A consideration of the subscales "anxiety" and "avoidance" and of categorical values of attachment style (secure, anxious-preoccupied, fearful-avoidant, dismissiveavoidant) specifies this finding. The extent of avoidance and the fearful-avoidant attachment style are particularly important for the effects which we were able to identify.
Einleitung
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