Multidimensionality of Race and Social Networks

随着美国种族和民族多样性的不断增加，了解导致族群间冲突、生活结果差异和社会隔离的力量是至关重要的。许多导致群体间分裂和冲突的人际交往过程始于青春期。青少年时期是人生历程中的关键时期，围绕种族/民族群体的身份和信仰开始出现并具体化。与此同时，青少年的注意力从家庭转移到学校和同伴环境，与家庭不同，青少年在选择中发挥作用。这些环境提供了了解来自不同背景的人的机会，并且在适当的条件下，可以减少负面信念并克服对其他种族/民族群体的刻板印象，从而发展真正的跨群体友谊。这就引出了一个问题：合适的条件是如何产生的？在不同的环境中，是什么导致青少年选择不同的朋友或参加不同的活动，而不是拒绝群体外的友谊和同伴？这个项目研究种族/民族身份和其他因素如何影响社会关系，反过来，社会关系如何影响民族-种族身份。然后，该项目将审查这些相互关联的过程如何在社会环境中促成种族/民族隔离的模式。这些发现有助于理解青少年是如何从不同的朋友和不同的活动中获得经验，从而产生积极的群体间接触态度，从而帮助学校和社区领导人在这一生命历程的关键时期促进积极的社会关系。本研究的目的是探讨：(1)种族的不同维度（即民族-种族认同、感知种族和表型特征）在朋友选择中的表现；(2)友谊与课外活动共同参与的相互促进作用及其与种族维度的双向关联；(3)上述选择和同伴影响机制对观察到的友谊和活动中的种族/民族隔离的相对贡献。后一个步骤有助于回答这样一个问题，即不同的途径对再现种族/民族隔离有多大影响。为了实现这些目标，本项目将考虑两种同伴环境：基于学校的友谊网络和课外活动。该项目使用了来自两所种族多元化高中的3000多名学生和200项活动的纵向数据，这些数据最初被纳入青少年身份发展和教育研究（TIDES）。在三次校内数据收集期间，通过调查测量了友谊网络和种族认同。活动参与和表型特征将从学校年鉴编码。该项目的统计分析使用随机因素导向模型来检验友谊网络、课外活动参与和个体民族-种族发展的共同进化。该项目的研究结果将为有关群体间合作、少数群体认同和学校环境在促进青少年发展方面的作用的社会学理论提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As race and ethnic diversity in the U.S. continue to increase, it is vital to understand the forces that perpetuate intergroup conflict, disparities in life outcomes, and social segregation. Many of the interpersonal processes that contribute to intergroup divisions and conflict begin during adolescence. The teen years are a critical point in the life course when identity and beliefs surrounding race/ethnic groups begin to emerge and crystallize. Concurrently, youth attention shifts away from family toward school and peer contexts that, unlike family, teens have a role in choosing. These contexts provide opportunities to get to know people from different backgrounds and, under the right conditions, can reduce negative beliefs and overcome stereotypes about other race/ethnic groups, allowing genuine cross-group friendships to develop. The leads to the questions: how do the right conditions come about? In diverse settings, what leads adolescents to choose diverse friends or join diverse activities, versus rejecting out-group friendships and peers? This project investigates how race/ethnic identity and other factors affect social relationships and, in turn, how social relationships affect ethnic-racial identity. The project will then examine how these interrelated processes contribute to patterns of race/ethnic segregation within social settings. These findings help to understand how adolescents gain experience with diverse friends and in diverse activities that produce positive intergroup contact attitudes, thus assisting school and community leaders in promoting positive social relationships during this critical time in the life course.The goals of the current study are to investigate: (1) how various dimensions of race (i.e., ethnic-racial identity, perceived race, and phenotypic features) manifest during friend selection; (2) how friendships and extracurricular activity co-participation promote one another, and their bidirectional association with dimensions of race; and (3) the relative contribution of the aforementioned selection and peer influence mechanisms to observed race/ethnic segregation in friendships and activities. This latter step helps answer the question of how consequential different pathways are for reproducing race/ethnic segregation. To address these aims this project will consider two peer contexts: school-based friendship networks and extracurricular activities. The project uses longitudinal data on more than 3,000 students and 200 activities from two racially diverse high schools originally included in the Teen Identity Development and Education Study (TIDES). Friendship networks and ethnic-racial identity were measured with surveys during three in-school data collection waves. Activity participation and phenotypic features will be coded from school yearbooks. The project's statistical analysis uses a stochastic actor-oriented model to examine the co-evolution of friendship networks, extracurricular activity participation, and individual ethnic-racial development. Findings from the project will inform sociological theories regarding inter-group cooperation, minority identity, and the role of school settings in promoting adolescent development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.