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

随着美国青少年在种族上变得更加多样化，所有年轻人的社会和学术成功部分取决于他们在学校与不同同龄人的经历。在那些来自少数民族或种族背景的人中，具有强烈的民族-种族认同可以预测积极的社会和学术成果。 种族认同（Ethnic-Racial Identity，ERI）是指一个人对自己的种族或民族的信仰和理解，以及他们的种族或民族如何与他们的自我意识相关。 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。这项研究将为青少年的ERI如何展开以及青少年之间的互动如何支持高中阶段的积极教育成果提供重要的新见解。纵向数据将从两所高中的学生中收集，每一个都在美国的一个不同的地理区域内，关于在对等关系的背景下，ERI的发展在多大程度上发生在事务上，这些假设也将得到检验个体和同伴的ERI和同伴关系特征在适应中的作用。具有较强ERI的青年和有ERI较强朋友的青年预计将表现出最佳结果，因为他们不仅利用自己的内部资源，而且还受益于嵌入可以利用类似资源的同龄人网络。同伴关系的特点，预计调解协会之间的个人的ERI和他们的调整随着时间的推移，特别是年轻的青少年。这项研究将使用创新的、纵向的社会网络建模方法。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将环境对ERI发展的影响概念化和操作化;（B）增加对环境如何调节和调解ERI与调整之间联系的理解;（c）将研究领域转向微观-同侪网络影响的知情机制，而不是只关注选择和社会化过程，这是目前这一领域的主要讨论;以及（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.