The influence of nationalism and national identity on well-being of Bulgarian and Romanian youth

This study explores relations among nationalism, ethnic identity, perceived threat and attitudes towards the Roma among 178 Bulgarian and 211 Romanian adolescents (age: M = 16.96, SD = .75). Results indicated that Bulgarian youth revealed stronger nationalism, ethnic identity, perceived threat and negative attitudes toward Roma than their Romanian peers. A path model showed that perceived threat was a positive predictor of Romaphobia for both groups. Furthermore, we observed that Romaphobia was strongly related to adolescents’ nationalism and this relationship was mediated by perceived economic, symbolic and physical threat. Findings are discussed in terms of difference in salience and similarity of relations between nationalism and romaphobic attitudes for youth in two neighbor countries with a similar post-communist history.