School and Neighborhood Friendship Patterns of Blacks and Whites in Early Adolescence

Abstract

This research examined the school and neighborhood friendships of 292 black and white children who attended an integrated junior high school. Most students reported having a close other-race school friend, but only 28% of the sample saw such a friend frequently outside of school. Reports of an interracial school friendship that extended to nonschool settings were significantly more common among black students than whites and among children who lived in integrated neighborhoods rather than segregated ones. Race differences in reported friendship behavior were also found on other friendship variables. Compared to whites, blacks reported more extensive neighborhood friendship networks but indicated that they talked to fewer friends during the school day. In addition, the study replicated prior findings that white girls report more peer social support than white boys but failed to find a gender difference in peer support among blacks. The discussion emphasizes the importance of the school/nonschool ecology and the need for further comparative study of white and black children's friendship patterns.

Friends in the ‘hood: Should peer-based health promotion programs target nonschool friendship networks?

“…Our findings, generated by a probability survey in a high-risk neighborhood, extend prior school-based opportunistic surveys showing that many inner city youth had close friendship networks that were unrelated to their school of attendance [11,12]. Our study also suggests that neighborhood and school may be relevant points of intervention for inner city African-American youth.…”

“…Several school-based studies have found that ethnic minority youth, including African-Americans, report having their closest friends in the neighborhood, rather than at school [11,12], and African-Americans report less connection to school networks than do white youth [13]. Because these prior studies were based in schools, they provide minimal information about students' nonschool friendships.…”

Cross-race peer relations and friendship quality

“…The frequently reported decline with grade in cross-race friendships was evident in these data (e.g., DuBois & Hirsch, 1990;Hallinan & Teixeira, 1987a;Shrum et al, 1988;Singleton & Asher, 1979). Older students had more samerace friends than younger students, and more than their own cross-race friends.…”

Social Categorization and the Formation of Intergroup Attitudes in Children

“…Prejudice and stereotypic beliefs concerning body weight (e.g., Lerner & Gellert, 1969), age (e.g., Seefeldt, 1984), and attractiveness (e.g., Langlois & Stephan, 1977) also emerge during the preschool and elementary school years. Further, the development of negative intergroup attitudes has important implications for a wide range of children's behavior, including peer relations (e.g., DuBois & Hirsch, 1990), memory (e.g., Liben & Signorella, 1980), helping behavior (e.g., Katz, Katz, & Cohen, 1976), and the development of personal interests and skills (e.g., Bussey & Bandura, 1992).…”