5 Discussion

The results are consistent with some of the hypotheses proposed. First, regarding the family socialization process, the findings do not support Hypothesis 1 concerning the relationship between family socioeconomic resources and greater acceptance of diversity in students’ neighborhoods. On the contrary, the only statistically significant result among the socioeconomic variables indicates that students whose parents have completed secondary education are less likely to accept diversity in their neighborhood compared to those whose parents have only primary education. With respect to parental attitudes, the results support the proposed hypothesis (H2): students from families in which parents express higher acceptance of different social groups living in their neighborhoods also tend to exhibit greater acceptance of diversity in their own neighborhoods.

Second, the results support the hypotheses related to the school socialization process. Students with medium or high levels of civic knowledge show greater acceptance of diversity in their neighborhoods compared to those with low civic knowledge, which is consistent with Hypothesis 3. Regarding the index of perceived openness to classroom discussion, the findings indicate that students who perceive a greater openness to discussion and debate in the classroom also demonstrate higher levels of acceptance of diversity—thus supporting Hypothesis 4. As for Hypothesis 5—whether the school can mitigate or strengthen the effects of the family socialization process—the results suggest that only the index of perceived openness to classroom discussion moderates the relationship between parental and student attitudes. Although the initial descriptive analysis showed that most students with high civic knowledge came from families where parents had completed higher education, the multilevel interaction analysis does not confirm a statistically significant relationship between these variables.

Third, the results of the multilevel model estimations do not support the hypotheses related to the characteristics of the municipalities where students reside. Specifically, the proportion of people who identify with an ethnic group (H6), the proportion of immigrants (H7), and the average level of educational attainment in the municipality (H8) do not appear to influence the political socialization of students’ attitudes.