Universität zu Köln

Wingen, Andrea ORCID: 0000-0002-5781-7252 and Kroneberg, Clemens ORCID: 0000-0001-8838-1087 (2026). How classroom composition affects social trust in secondary schools: The role of attribute alignment. Journal of Trust Research, 16 (1). pp. 78-101. Taylor & Francis. ISSN 2151-5581

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Abstract

This study examines how the alignment of ethnic origin and gender in school classes affects adolescents’ social trust. We argue that adolescents whose co-ethnic classmates tend to be of a different gender than classmates of other ethnic origin are less likely to trust unknown others – compared to students in classes where both boys and girls are well represented within their ethnic ingroup and outgroup. Moreover, previous scholarship suggests this impact of attribute alignment to vary between ethnic majority and minority students, as majority students’ higher levels of social trust may be particularly reduced by the experience of attribute alignment. We evaluate these hypotheses using data from a large-scale school survey among 8th-grade students in Germany. Our analyses show that the alignment of ethnic origin and gender in the school class reduces generalised trust in people as well as context-specific trust in unknown grade mates among majority students, whereas for minority students no significant relationship was found.

Item Type:	Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Wingen, Andrea UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5781-7252 UNSPECIFIED Kroneberg, Clemens UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8838-1087 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-811870
Identification Number:	10.1080/21515581.2025.2502737
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Trust Research
Volume:	16
Number:	1
Page Range:	pp. 78-101
Number of Pages:	24
Date:	2 January 2026
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
ISSN:	2151-5581
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Weitere Institute, Arbeits- und Forschungsgruppen > Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS)
Subjects:	Social sciences
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Adolescence; ethnic diversity ; gender ; faultlines ; consolidation ; generalised trust English
['eprint_fieldname_oa_funders' not defined]:	Publikationsfonds UzK
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/81187