School Diversity and Social Capital: Conditions That Foster Bridging Ties in Schools

• In Event: Reimagining the Use of Standard Education Data to Signal Economic Mobility

Abstract

Bridging ties, friendships that cross lines of race and class, can be powerful sources of social capital. Recent studies have found that the information and resources often provided by bridging ties can lead to more educational opportunities, economic mobility, and increased academic outcomes for underrepresented students, and improved racial attitudes and civic engagement overall (Chetty et al., 2016; Chyn & Katz, 2021; Graham et al., 2014; Hallinan & Williams, 1990; Mani & Riley, 2019; Nunn, 2014; Gaias et al., 2018; Powers & Webster, 2023). Educational settings can be key sites for facilitating opportunities for children to create and strengthen bridging ties. There is thus a critical need for a stronger understanding of what conditions support the formation and strengthening of bridging ties in school peer networks in order to advance equity and improve economic mobility. 

In this study, we explore what conditions foster bridging ties in high school by drawing on merged administrative and social network survey data from 11th grade students (n=948) in five high schools in the metropolitan Detroit area. Administrative data includes information on courses taken, test scores, gender, race, free-and-reduced price lunch (FRPL) status, and home address location. We administered roster-style social-network surveys to all 11th grade students, capturing their strong and weak ties to peers. To supplement the survey data, we randomly selected 8 students from four high schools (n=32) to follow up with 45-minute semi-structured interviews regarding further details on strong and weak ties, future ambitions, and school attitudes and climate. We are currently in the process of analyzing interview data and conducting dyadic data analyses, including exponential random graph models, on merged survey and administrative data to explore what factors predict the formation of a tie between two students in a school.

Preliminary analyses of a student-level subsample (n=245) of survey and administrative data using conditional logistic regression models suggest that mutual friendships are significantly less likely to form across racial lines (OR = -0.87, p = 0.000), and distance between home addresses reduces the odds of mutual friendship in cross-race dyads (OR = -0.03 per mile, p = 0.031). However, shared extracurricular activities are a strong predictor of mutual friendship (OR = 2.17, p = 0.000), with no significant interaction by cross-race or cross-class tie, suggesting these environments may support both same-group and bridging ties. Ongoing further incorporation of shared course enrollment data to assess the role of academic exposure in friendship formation and various strength-of-tie indicators will provide a more complete picture of how structured school contexts influence social integration.

Results from these ongoing analyses may have important implications for school design and policy. By identifying actionable conditions that support bridging ties, findings can inform efforts for school leaders to create socially cohesive school environments that foster equity and economic mobility.

Author

• Tara Blagg, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author