Family determinants of intercultural communication competence for today’s youth

Current processes of globalization and increased mobility of people have caused that the competencies for intercultural communication become a condition for proper functioning of society. Together with a group of researchers from the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, University of Bialystok, we undertook a research on conditions of intercultural communication competence of young people in the Northeastern Poland. These competencies result from four dimensions: knowledge of cultural differences, reaction to situations involving cultural differences, position on the continuum of ethnocentrism - relativism and attitudes toward cultural diversity. In the text, I present the analysis of selected factors that influence the family which result in the development of communicative competence in the studied group. The main idea is that family, in spite of social changes, is still the most important socializing group which creates life attitudes of young people.Katedra Edukacji Międzykulturowej, Wydział Pedagogiki i Psychologii, Uniwersytet w Białymstok