Chan Mei-Ki, Benner Aprile D
Department of Psychology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2025 Apr 3. doi: 10.1007/s10964-025-02182-z.
Cross-racial/ethnic friendships are associated with positive outcomes related to social cohesion; however, attention to the specific school contextual factors that promote these friendships during adolescence and how such factors vary by adolescents' social positions is lacking. This study examined how school diversity and interracial climate were related to students' friendship diversity and whether these associations differed by immigrant status. The participants were from a diverse sample of 591 U.S. 9th graders who were approximately 14- to 15-year-old across 29 schools (10% Asian American, 4% Black, 34% Latino/a/x, 40% White, and 12% other or multiple races/ethnicities; 53% female). The results indicated that higher school racial/ethnic diversity was linked to greater friendship diversity. However, this relation diminished as school diversity increased and was less pronounced among adolescents from immigrant families. Youth from immigrant families who perceived a more positive interracial climate among peers reported having more diverse friendships compared to their counterparts from immigrant families in the same schools. The findings highlight the facilitating roles of school diversity and peer interracial climate in positive interracial interactions and the varying influences of adolescents' immigrant status.
跨种族/民族的友谊与社会凝聚力方面的积极成果相关；然而，目前缺乏对在青少年时期促进这些友谊的具体学校环境因素的关注，以及这些因素如何因青少年的社会地位而有所不同。本研究考察了学校多样性和跨种族氛围如何与学生的友谊多样性相关，以及这些关联是否因移民身份而异。参与者来自591名美国九年级学生的多样化样本，他们分布在29所学校，年龄约为14至15岁（10%为亚裔美国人，4%为黑人，34%为拉丁裔/拉丁裔/x，40%为白人，12%为其他或多种种族/民族；53%为女性）。结果表明，学校种族/民族多样性越高，友谊多样性越大。然而，随着学校多样性的增加，这种关系减弱，并且在移民家庭的青少年中不太明显。与同一学校中来自移民家庭的同龄人相比，那些认为同龄人之间跨种族氛围更积极的移民家庭青少年报告称拥有更多样化的友谊。研究结果凸显了学校多样性和同伴跨种族氛围在积极的跨种族互动中的促进作用，以及青少年移民身份的不同影响。
