Modern societies are increasingly culturally complex, and the role of teachers is to adapt tosuch a context and prepare students for living with numerous cultural differences and the challengesthat arise from them. The development of intercultural competences is greatly influenced by theacquisition of multicultural experiences, but also by some psychological determinants that influencethe development of its affective part, the so-called intercultural sensitivity. The aim of this study wasto examine the relationship and contribution of psychological determinants (personality traits andemotional competence) and multicultural experiences as predictors of the self-assessed level ofintercultural sensitivity. The study included 235 participants, mostly female, who were students ofteacher education at six universities in the Republic of Croatia. Participants completed a series ofquestionnaires that examined attitudes towards members of other cultures, personality traits,emotional competence, multicultural experiences, and sociodemographic characteristics. The resultsshow that participants highly rate their own level of intercultural sensitivity, and that it is higheramong participants who are currently in contact with members of other cultures, who have travelledabroad several times, who speak multiple foreign languages, and those who have completed highschool. Bivariate analyses showed significant correlations between all variables examined, and amultivariate hierarchical regression analysis showed that the traits Agreeableness and Extraversion,the ability to perceive and understand emotions, speaking multiple foreign languages (as thestrongest predictor), a larger number of friends, and schooling with members of other cultures significantly contribute to the self-assessed level of intercultural sensitivity (32% of the varianceexplained). Encouraging and implementing teaching practices within the education system in linewith the obtained results could increase the level of intercultural sensitivity, and more generally,intercultural competences.
