The friendship networks of multiracial adolescents

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Abstract

We investigate the friendship networks of multiracial adolescents through a comparison of the size and composition of the friendship networks of multiracial adolescents with single-race adolescents. We consider three hypotheses suggested by the literature on multiraciality and interracial friendships: (1) that multiracial adolescents have smaller friendship networks than single-race adolescents because they are more often rejected by their single-race peers, (2) that multiracial adolescents form more racially diverse friendship networks than single-race adolescents, and (3) that multiracial adolescents are especially likely to bridge (or socially connect) friendships among members of their single-race heritage background groups. Using data on adolescent friendship networks from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we find that multiracial adolescents are as popular as non-white adolescents and have social networks that are as racially diverse as the single-race groups with the most diverse friendship networks. Biracial adolescents with black ancestry have an especially high rate of friendship bridging between black persons and persons of other races, relative to black or white adolescents. The results hold using both self-identified and parental race definitions.

Introduction

The growth in the number and prominence of persons who identify with more than one racial group, the multiracial population, has led to increasing speculation about the consequences of this trend for American race relations. Some view the growing multiracial population as an indicator that racial divisions are weakening, and argue that a growing multiracial population is likely to contribute to a reduction in the salience of race (e.g. Lee and Bean, 2004, Alba and Nee, 2003). Others see the multiracial population as a group who, because of the rigidity of racial relations in the U.S., will not be accepted by their single-race counterparts and will have difficulty managing their racial identities (e.g. Stonequist, 1937, Gibbs, 1987, Brown, 1990).

As these viewpoints suggest, multiraciality has implications for individuals, for social relations, and for society-wide understandings of race. Yet empirical research on multiracial persons has focused mostly on psychological well-being (e.g. Cooney and Radina, 2000) and racial identity (e.g. Harris and Sim, 2002, Brunsma, 2005, Hitlin et al., 2006), with only spotty attention to other topics. The little research there is on multiracial persons and social relations has generally approached these topics from the standpoint of individual psychology. While a well-established sociometric literature examines interracial friendship (e.g. Hallinan and Williams, 1989, Joyner and Kao, 2000, Moody, 2001, Quillian and Campbell, 2003, Mouw and Entwisle, 2006), these studies have generally excluded multiracial persons.

In this study, we examine the relatively neglected topic of the social relationships of multiracial persons, specifically the friendship networks of multiracial adolescents. We consider three hypotheses motivated by prior discussions of the multiracial population and the structural factor of high racial friendship segregation: (1) that multiracial adolescents have smaller friendship networks because they are often socially rejected by single-race peers, (2) that multiracial adolescents have racially more diverse networks than single-race persons, and (3) that multiracial adolescents often bridge the social relationships of members of their single-race heritage backgrounds.

We do so through analyzing the friendship networks of multiracial adolescents in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a large school-based study of students in grades 7–12. While several prior studies have used the Add Health data to examine multiraciality, most of these studies have focused on racial identity or psychological well-being. The Add Health data allows us to examine the friendship networks of a large number of multiracial adolescents using social networks measurement, which allows for more accurate measures of social relationships than possible using only self-reports from unrelated individuals.

Section snippets

Social science studies of multiraciality

Few topics in social science have seen as rapid a growth in research and writing in recent years as multiraciality. The resulting literature is diverse and crosses multiple disciplines, but most of this work can be categorized as engaging one of three major topics: racial identity and identification, psychological well-being, and racial stratification. We discuss these themes briefly, then review past studies of the friendship networks of multiracial adolescents, and finally turn to our plan of

Data

Our analysis is based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a large school-based survey of adolescents (Bearman et al., 1997). Four features of the Add Health data make it nearly ideal for comparing the social networks of multiracial and single-race adolescents. First, the Add Health survey includes an extensive social network survey that asks for friendship nominations from all students in a large number of schools. Second, the Add Health study includes a large, racially

The popularity of multiracial adolescents

In discussions of multiracial persons, the possible social exclusion of multiracial adolescents is a recurring concern. To consider the possibility that multiracial adolescents are excluded by their peers, we created measures of popularity from the Add Health social networks data. Our measure of popularity is the number of other students in the Add Health school survey who name the respondent as a friend; in network studies, this is often referred to as the “in-degree” of a network node (

Discussion

Our results regarding the social networks of multiracial persons are more consistent with the optimistic possibilities suggested by commentators on the growing multiracial population. We find that multiracial adolescents have levels of popularity that are about the same as their non-white single-race peers, thus we conclude there is not strong evidence supporting the idea that multiracial persons are rejected to the point of becoming socially isolated. We also find that multiracial adolescents

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    While working on this study, Rozlyn Redd was supported through the University of Wisconsin Center for Demography and Ecology’s NICHD Training Grant (T32 HD07014). We thank Mary Campbell for helpful suggestions and comments. This research uses data from the Add Health project, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry (PI) and Peter Bearman, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Persons interested in obtaining data files from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth).

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