Raley R Kelly, Sullivan M Kate
Population Research Center, University of Texas - Austin. Austin, TX USA.
Sociol Spectr. 2010;30(1):65-89. doi: 10.1080/02732170903346205.
This research explores white-black differences in adolescent heterosexual romantic involvement and how these differences are shaped by social context. We find that, parallel to patterns of marriage in adulthood, Non-Hispanic white girls are more likely to be in a romantic relationship than African American girls. This is particularly true when we focus on heterosexual romantic relationships formed with schoolmates. Among boys, African Americans are more likely to be romantically involved than Non-Hispanic whites. We investigate the contribution of two broad types of social-demographic factors to these race-ethnic differences, population composition and normative climate. We develop theory about why being a numerical minority should lead to lower levels of relationship formation, especially when interracial relationships are rare. Results support the population composition hypotheses but not the idea that race-ethnic differences arise because of differences in normative climate.
本研究探讨了青少年异性恋恋爱关系中的白人与黑人差异，以及这些差异是如何受到社会背景影响的。我们发现，与成年后的婚姻模式相似，非西班牙裔白人女孩比非裔美国女孩更有可能处于恋爱关系中。当我们关注与同学建立的异性恋恋爱关系时，这种情况尤为明显。在男孩中，非裔美国人比非西班牙裔白人更有可能处于恋爱关系中。我们研究了两类广泛的社会人口因素对这些种族和族裔差异的影响，即人口构成和规范氛围。我们提出了理论，解释为什么作为少数群体在数量上会导致恋爱关系形成水平较低，尤其是在跨种族恋爱关系很少见的情况下。研究结果支持了人口构成假设，但不支持种族和族裔差异是由规范氛围差异导致的这一观点。
