Promoting Cross-Racial and Ethnic Friendships in Schools: Roles of School Diversity and Interracial Climate and Intersections with Immigrant Status

Abstract

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.