6 Conclusions

This study aimed to assess the extent to which socialization processes influence Chilean students’ attitudes toward social diversity. Specifically, it examined whether family and school socialization processes, along with certain territorial characteristics, affect students’ attitudes. Overall, the findings highlight the role of intergenerational transmission of attitudes within the family socialization process, as well as the importance of civic knowledge and perceived openness to classroom discussion within the school socialization process.

According to the literature, families’ socioeconomic characteristics play a central role in shaping students’ development. However, the findings of this study do not align with that assumption. Instead, it is parental attitudes that influence students’ own attitudes. This supports the hypothesis of the intergenerational transmission of political inequality, whereby only students with more tolerant parents are likely to develop tolerant attitudes through the family socialization process. This presents significant challenges for the subsequent process of school socialization, as it becomes the responsibility of schools to equitably foster tolerance among all students.

In the school socialization process, civic knowledge emerges as a key factor in fostering favorable attitudes toward social diversity among students. This highlights the importance of promoting pluralism and tolerance as shared societal values within the school curriculum. The transmission of tolerant attitudes through the curriculum underscores the critical role of the Citizenship Education Law No. 20.911, which aims to foster students’ appreciation of the country’s social and cultural diversity, as well as tolerance and pluralism. Nevertheless, the analysis shows that most students with high levels of civic knowledge come from families where parents have completed higher education—raising further concerns about inequality within the Chilean educational system.

Similarly, students’ perceptions of openness to classroom discussion also influence their attitudes, underscoring the importance of everyday spaces for interaction, dialogue, and debate within schools. However, it is only in schools with a high perceived openness to discussion that the relationship between parental and student attitudes is strengthened. This broadly suggests that if civic attitudes are not practiced on a daily basis—by focusing solely on the formal curriculum while neglecting students’ everyday experiences of school life—there is a risk of promoting knowledge that feels disconnected from students’ lived realities. Furthermore, this may fail to address the inequalities inherent in the intergenerational transmission of attitudes, as the results show that in schools lacking a supportive environment for discussion and debate, it is more difficult to improve the attitudes of students whose parents show low levels of acceptance of diversity.

One of the main limitations of this study is the low variance observed in the tolerance variables for each of the social groups analyzed (prior to the construction of the index), which prevents a more detailed analysis of the dimensionality of the dependent variable. Additionally, the lack of data identifying the specific neighborhoods or census units in which students reside limits the findings, as the absence of significant effects from territorial variables may be due to the use of municipal-level aggregations that do not adequately capture the actual contextual influences of students’ living environments.

Finally, just as classroom discussion and debate influence students’ attitudes, it would be valuable to explore whether participation in out-of-school spaces—such as neighborhoods and local communities—can also shape tolerance and acceptance of diversity. Moving beyond the School as the sole agent of civic formation and identifying other factors that may influence the socialization of attitudes represents an important agenda for future research.

In summary, the results provide additional evidence regarding the factors and conditions that have the potential to help schools and teachers promote tolerance. Therefore, schools continue to play a fundamental role in the socialization of new generations, and the focus must be on ensuring that these mechanisms are embedded across the entire educational system. In doing so, it will be possible to build a more inclusive, respectful, and equitable society—one that accepts and values people for who they are, both inside and outside of school, regardless of their national, cultural, ethnic, religious, or class differences.