The changing landscape: diverse friendships and the effects of contextual diversity on youth outcomes

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Within many Western countries and especially in the UK, the social landscape is becoming increasingly ethnically and racially diverse. In 2015, approximately 19% of the resident population in the United Kingdom (UK) identified as racial/ethnic minorities, an increase from 9% in 2001 and 6% in 1991 (ONS, 2015) and school statistics demonstrate that 27% of pupils in state funded secondary schools are of minority ethnic origin (DfE, 2015). However the effects of this growing diversity on important life outcomes for youths are hotly contested; on the one hand some argue that diversity promotes higher educational outcomes and better physical and psychological health, but on the other hand increasing diversity has been found to be negatively related to academic achievement and to poorer physical and mental health. Given the increasing tensions resulting from this growing diversity (e.g., conflict arising from increasing numbers of refugees and asylum seekers as well as perceived levels of immigration, growing number of hate crimes in the aftermath of Brexit), it is both timely and critical to gain a better understanding of how young people negotiate their increasingly diverse environments, and the impact this diversity has on important life outcomes, such as educational aspirations and mental and physical health.To date, the majority of research examining diversity effects has focused primarily on the racial/ethnic composition of educational settings or the neighbourhood but this does not necessarily correspond to meaningful interactions with diverse peers. Therefore, working with the National Children's Bureau, to gain a more nuanced understanding of how diversity might impact young people, we extend the current literature to examine the diversity of youth's friendship networks, in addition to contextual diversity at the school- and neighbourhood-level. We are interested in addressing two key questions: (1) What predicts youth's diverse friendships, parental attitudes and/or exposure to diversity in the school and neighbourhood? (2) What impact does diversity at the interpersonal, school, and neighbourhood level have on educational attitudes and aspirations and health-related outcomes? We also consider the potentially dynamic nature of diversity by examining changes in friendship, school, and neighbourhood composition over time. To address our key research questions, we will use data from a large-scale national longitudinal survey linked to two administrative data sources that in combination provide information on parent attitudes toward diversity, youth diverse friendships, youth educational attitudes and aspirations, youth mental and physical health outcomes, racial/ethnic composition of schools, and racial/ethnic compositions of neighbourhoods. Critically, these surveys include data pertaining to both majority (UK White) and minority (non-UK White, non-White) individuals. This will allow us to examine whether diverse friendships are formed at the same rate, and whether the effects of diversity are equally beneficial (or not) for different racial and ethnic groups. This research will be carried out by academics from the University of Bristol in partnership with the National Children's Bureau, a leading charity that aims to improve the lives of young people and give them a voice to influence policy and practice. Our research findings will be made widely available to an interdisciplinary academic audience via conference presentations and publications in high-impact academic journals, and also to practitioners and policy-makers through user friendly summaries, a policy roundtable and project website. Given the timely nature of our research which seeks to harness the positive power of growing societal diversity for young peoples' lives, we anticipate that this proposed project will appeal widely to academics and lay-persons, encouraging a wide uptake of our research findings lasting beyond the duration of the award.