“This Is How We Heal These Divisions”: Exploring Prosocial Outcomes of College Students’ Boundary-Crossing Friendships

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 4:55 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Fostering Unity and Openness: Exploring Diversity Outcomes, Social Justice, and Experiential Learning in Higher Education (Table 35)

Abstract

Aiding college students in cultivating friendships across social boundaries is a critical educational imperative for achieving the civic mission of higher education. Using data from 55 focus groups with college students at 18 U.S. institutions and a conceptual framework rooted in the contact hypothesis and theory of civic friendship, we explored how participants describe learning and growing through their boundary-crossing friendships and the processes within these relationships that facilitate their learning and growth. Participants described four friendship outcomes: humanizing difference, developing empathy, shifting attitudes, and desiring justice. We also identified 12 processes that facilitated these outcomes, noting patterns we observed across participants. Our findings provide rich evidence of students’ lived experiences learning and growing through these educationally powerful peer relationships.

Authors

• Tara D. Hudson, Kent State University

• Alyssa N. Rockenbach, North Carolina State University