Students' Interracial Friendships: Individual Characteristics, Structural Effects, and Racial Differences

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of individual-, dyadic-, group-, and classroom-level variables on cross-race friendship choices. It is argued that structural and organizational characteristics of a student's environment influence the likelihood of interracial friendliness. Hypotheses about the nature of these influences are tested with longitudinal data from 359 fourth- through seventh-grade students. The analysis shows that a student's environment does indeed create both constraints on and opportunities for interracial friendship formation. In addition, it reveals that there are sharp differences in how these constraints and opportunities affect both black and white students.