In recent years, Croatia, like other EU countries, has been facing increasing numbers of migrants and asylum seekers. At the same time current research indicates predominantly negative attitudes towards immigrants in Croatia (Franc, Šakić, & Kaliterna-Lipovčan, 2010; Čačić Kumpes, Kumpes, & Gregurović, 2012; Gregurović, Kuti, & Župarić-Iljić, 2016; Matić, Löw & Bratko, 2018). In such social context, it is particularly important to explore young peoples' attitudes towards immigrants, i.e. towards a group that may differ from the domicile population with regard to ethno-cultural and other characteristics. As for the young peoples' behaviour and attitudes towards others, research suggests the relevance of social and emotional competencies (Durlak et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2017). These can be described as core competencies to recognize and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, respect the perspectives of others, establish and maintain positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle interpersonal situations constructively (Elias et al., 1997). According to the CASEL model, social and emotional competencies include the following dimensions: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making (Bridgeland, Bruce, & Hariharan, 2013). The aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between attitudes towards immigrants and selected dimensions of students' social and emotional competencies. It is assumed that more developed social and emotional competencies are associated with more positive attitudes towards immigrants. The analysis draws on data collected during the school year 2018/2019 on a sample of 267 8th-grade students from 12 elementary schools in the city of Zagreb, Croatia. The questionnaire assessed attitudes towards immigrants, as well as mindfulness, self-control, empathy, caring and aggressiveness as indicators of social and emotional competencies. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis revealed higher caring and lower aggressiveness as the key predictors of positive attitudes towards immigrants. Empathic concern was also a significant predictor, but it lost its predictive power after caring and aggressiveness were added in the last step of the regression analysis. Mindfulness and self-control did not contribute to the explanation of the attitudes towards immigrants at all. The results of this research point to the importance of social competencies in the reduction of negative attitudes towards immigrants.

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