Collaborative Proposal: Friendships, Identity Development, and Adolescent Adjustment in High School

随着美国青少年的种族越来越多样化，所有青少年的社会和学业成功都部分取决于他们在学校与不同种族的同龄人相处的经历。在那些来自少数民族或种族背景的学生中，拥有强烈的种族认同预示着积极的社会和学术成果。民族-种族认同（ERI）是指一个人对自己的民族或种族的信仰和理解，以及他们的民族或种族如何与他们的自我意识相关联。本研究不仅探讨了青少年自身的ERI如何塑造他们的经历，还探讨了同龄人的ERI如何影响他们的发展。该研究将提供重要的新见解，以了解青少年的ERI如何展开，以及青少年彼此之间的互动如何在高中时期支持积极的教育成果。纵向数据将从两所高中的学生中收集，每一所高中都在美国不同的地理区域。假设将测试ERI发展在同伴关系背景下发生交易的程度，以及个人和同伴的ERI和同伴关系特征在调整中的作用。具有较强ERI的青年和有较强ERI的朋友的青年预计会表现出最理想的结果，因为他们不仅利用自己的内部资源，而且还受益于可以利用类似资源的同龄人网络。同伴关系特征有望调解个体ERI与其随时间的调整之间的关联，特别是对于较年轻的青少年。本研究将采用创新的纵向社会网络建模方法。该项目的实施将通过以下方式对多个领域产生变革性影响：(a)影响研究人员在未来工作中如何概念化和操作对ERI发展的背景影响；(b)加深对环境如何调节和调解ERI与调整之间的联系的理解；(c)推动这一领域转向审查同伴网络影响的微观知情机制，而不是只侧重于选择和社会化进程，后者在这一领域目前的讨论中占主导地位；(d)作为跨学科方法的典范。

As U.S. adolescents become more ethnically diverse, all youths' social and academic success depends in part on their experiences with diverse peers in school. Among those from ethnic or racial minority backgrounds, having a strong Ethnic-Racial Identity is predictive of positive social and academic outcomes. Ethnic-Racial Identity (ERI) refers to a person's beliefs about and understanding of their own ethnicity or race and how their ethnicity or race relates to their sense of self. This research investigates not only how adolescents' own ERI shapes their experiences but also how the ERIs of their peers impacts their development. The study will provide important new insights into how adolescents' ERI unfolds and how adolescents' interactions with each other support positive educational outcomes during the high school years.Longitudinal data will be collected from students in two high schools, each in a distinct geographical region of the U.S. Hypotheses will be tested regarding the extent to which ERI development occurs transactionally in the context of peer relationships as well as the role of individuals' and peers' ERI and peer relationship characteristics in adjustment. Youth with a stronger ERI and who have friends with a stronger ERI are expected to exhibit the most optimal outcomes, as they not only draw on their own internal resources but also benefit from by being embedded in a network of peers who can draw on similar resources. Peer relationship characteristics are expected to mediate associations between individuals' ERI and their adjustment over time, particularly for younger adolescents. The study will use innovative, longitudinal social network modeling methods. The implementation of this project will have a transformative effect on multiple fields by (a) impacting how researchers conceptualize and operationalize contextual influences on ERI development in future work; (b) increasing understanding of how contexts moderate and mediate the links between ERI and adjustment; (c) moving the field toward examining micro-informed mechanisms of peer network influence rather than focusing exclusively on selection and socialization processes, which dominates the current discourse in this area; and (d) serving as an exemplar of an interdisciplinary approach.