Holding Fast or Coming Undone: What Makes Same- and Cross-race Friendships Stick in Middle School

• In Event: Young people's inter-ethnic group perceptions and relations across contexts

Abstract

Cross-ethnic friendships are associated with positive developmental outcomes including lower prejudice toward racial/ethnic outgroups (Turner & Feddes, 2011) and less social anxiety in intergroup contexts (Graham et al, 2014). Despite the importance of these friendships for social adjustment in an increasingly diverse society, much of the empirical evidence documents that cross-ethnic friendships are less stable than same-race friendships, potentially limiting their ability to provide significant long-term benefits for youth. A small body of research, however, suggests there may be contextual and other factors that improve the stability of cross-ethnic friendships (see Graham & Kogachi, 2020). Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine factors such as features of the school context and characteristics of friendship networks that may support the longevity of these important friendships.

Participants in this study were 742 students from two middle schools in Southern California participating in a longitudinal study of school ethnic diversity and peer relations. As part of a peer nomination protocol administered each year of middle school, students recorded the names of their good friends in the same grade at their school. Friendship nominations at each wave of the study (6th, 7th, and 8th grade) were transformed into social networks for each school, and self-reported race/ethnicity was used to determine whether friendships were same or cross ethnic. Other self-report measures included socioeconomic status and participation in extracurricular activities. School records were used to obtain GPA and class schedules.

A Jaccard index was used to measure the stability of same- and cross-ethnic friendships across adjacent waves in both schools (see Table 1). In School 1 the stability of same- and cross-ethnic friendships was nearly equivalent. In School 2 same-ethnic friendships were more stable than cross-ethnic friendships. Longitudinal social network modeling in Siena was then used to examine the factors associated with friendship ties over time and explore reasons why the stability of cross-ethnic friendships may have differed across schools (see Table 2). In School 1 sharing classes increased the likelihood of both same- and cross-ethnic friendships over time. In School 2, reciprocity was particularly important for the stability of cross-ethnic friendships. Subsequent analyses will explore features of the school context that may foster or constrain opportunities for cross-ethnic features to persist over time. For example, the schools in this study differed in the level of academic teaming students experienced throughout the school day which may have impacted their exposure to cross-race peers (see Echols, 2015).

Authors

• Leslie Echols, Missouri State University
  Presenting Author

• Thoa Khuu, University of California Irvine

• David Schaefer, University of California - Irvine

• Sandra Graham, University of California, Los Angeles