A Relational Approach to Ethnic-Racial Discrimination: Testing Selection, Influence, and Group Membership

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

Abstract

Introduction
Ethnic-racial discrimination continues to be a problem in society that disproportionally affects persons of color, including youth (Benner et al. 2018; Lee et al. 2019). Facing racism in adolescence is particularly alarming, as it is during this period that youth of color develop a sense of self in close interaction with others in their social (peer) networks (Santos et al. 2017). How do perceptions of discrimination affect youth’ social relationships, and how do their social relationships affect perceptions of discrimination? Employing a novel bivariate network science perspective (multivariate stochastic actor-oriented modeling: Snijders et al. 2013, 2020) to this question, we examine the relational consequences of exposure to discrimination.

Hypotheses
Youth of color may feel stigmatized and rejected by outgroup members in the broader society, school, or peer context who discriminate against them, consequently resulting in low connectivity and low preference for establishing social relationships with cross-race peers (repulsion hypothesis) (Branscombe et al. 1999). Simultaneously, ingroup members likely share experiences, values, and views in regard to discrimination that help facilitate and reinforce group identification processes (Byrne 1971; Byrne & Nelson 1965), consequently resulting in high connectivity and high preference for establishing social relationships with same-race peers (attraction hypothesis) (Branscombe et al. 1999). In addition, students may be exposed to discrimination that their friends experience as they are likely to be shared and discussed within friendship networks, consequently strengthening or validating students’ own experiences with discrimination (influence hypothesis).

Methods
We draw on two large, diverse U.S. high schools (total N = 4454; 50% girls) with students in 9th to 11th grade followed across three waves of data within 12 months of high school (April 2017-2018). Besides naming their ten closest friends at school, students also reported the extent to which they experienced ethnic-racial discrimination (Fisher et al., 2000) from peers (3 items: e.g., “Called insulting names by other kids”; αs.71-.74), school (3 items: e.g., “Put in a lower ability class or group”; αs.68-.74), and, society (4 items: e.g., “Treated unfairly by a store clerk or security guard”; αs.77-.81) on a 5-point scale (1 = Never, 5 = A whole lot). Answers were recoded into a binary item that indicated whether the youth had ever experienced each type of discrimination (Rivas-Drake et al. 2008). The resulting summary indicator consisted of the number of different types of discrimination youth had ever encountered.

Results
There was hardly any effect of similarity in discrimination from peer, school, or society on friendship selection in the same-ethnic and cross-ethnic networks (Table 1), providing little support for either the repulsion hypothesis or the attraction hypothesis. Conversely, all three types of discrimination showed a positive average similarity effect in the same-ethnic and cross-ethnic networks (except for societal discrimination), providing evidence for the social influence hypothesis: adolescents grew increasingly similar to their same-ethnic or cross-ethnic friends in experiences of discrimination over time. Findings illustrate how perceptions of ethnic/racial discrimination are shared across social networks. New analyses should clarify whether the processes are similar for different ethnic-racial groups (minorities versus majorities).

Authors

• Johannes Ashwin Rambaran, Universiteit Utrecht
  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
  Non-Presenting Author