Ethnically and Racially Diverse Classrooms, Friendships, and Their Developmental Consequences: Contributions of Social Network Analysis

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

A growing ethnic-racial diversity within the U.S. has increased students' diversity in school settings, where adolescents develop, befriend others, and learn in their company. Cross-ethnic and cross-racial friendships promote the development of positive intergroup attitudes and social skills needed to succeed in a diverse society. However, growing evidence indicates that cross-group friendships contain both opportunities and challenges for adolescent development (e.g., Yip et al., 2019). To help clarify these paradoxical effects, this symposium brings together social network analysis (SNA) informed research to elucidate how the structure and dynamics of cross-ethnic and cross-racial relationships promote, protect, and interfere with adolescent development.

Paper 1 leverages the SNA perspective to describe how peer network structure in diverse classrooms represents theorized social mechanisms that make diversity beneficial for adolescent development.

Paper 2 focuses on peer network dynamics and integrates the SNA and developmental perspectives to understand how cross-group connections are selected in peer networks and influence adolescent development (e.g., intergroup attitudes, ethnic-racial identity).

Paper 3 investigates peer network consequences of exposure to ethnic-racial discrimination and documents the effects of discrimination on how adolescents select same- and cross-ethnic friends and how these friends influence each other over time.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Olga Kornienko, George Mason University

Discussant

• Joanna Lee Williams, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Individual Presentations

• Leveraging Social Network Analysis in the Study of Ethnically & Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms - Presenting Author: Haley E. Johnson, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Joanna Lee Williams, Rutgers University - New Brunswick; Non-Presenting Author: Lauren Molloy Elreda, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Cross-Group Connections, Peer Network Dynamics, and Development of Diverse Youth - Presenting Author: Olga Kornienko, George Mason University; Non-Presenting Author: Deborah Rivas-Drake, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• A Relational Approach to Ethnic-Racial Discrimination: Testing Selection, Influence, and Group Membership - Presenting Author: Johannes Ashwin Rambaran, Universiteit Utrecht; Non-Presenting Author: Deborah Rivas-Drake, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor; Non-Presenting Author: David Schaefer, University of California - Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Allison M Ryan, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Author: Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University