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

在许多西方国家，特别是在英国，社会格局正变得越来越民族和种族多样化。2015年，英国大约19%的常住人口被确定为少数民族，比2001年的9%和1991年的6%有所增加（ONS, 2015），学校统计数据表明，27%的公立中学学生是少数民族出身（DfE, 2015）。然而，这种日益增长的多样性对年轻人重要生活结果的影响受到了激烈的争论；一方面，一些人认为多样性促进了更高的教育成果和更好的身心健康，但另一方面，越来越多的多样性被发现与学业成就和更差的身心健康呈负相关。鉴于这种日益增长的多样性所导致的日益紧张的局势（例如，难民和寻求庇护者数量的增加所引发的冲突，以及移民的感知水平，英国脱欧后仇恨犯罪的增加），更好地了解年轻人如何适应日益多样化的环境，以及这种多样性对重要生活结果的影响，是及时和至关重要的。比如教育志向和身心健康。迄今为止，大多数考察多样性影响的研究主要集中在教育环境或社区的种族/民族组成上，但这并不一定对应于与不同同龄人的有意义的互动。因此，为了更细致地了解多样性如何影响年轻人，我们与国家儿童局合作，扩展了现有文献，除了学校和社区层面的背景多样性外，还研究了青少年友谊网络的多样性。我们感兴趣的是解决两个关键问题：(1)是什么预测了青少年不同的友谊、父母的态度和/或接触到学校和社区的多样性？(2)人际、学校和社区层面的多样性对教育态度、愿望和健康相关结果有什么影响？我们还通过研究友谊、学校和社区组成随时间的变化，考虑了多样性潜在的动态本质。为了解决我们的关键研究问题，我们将使用与两个行政数据源相关联的大规模全国纵向调查的数据，这些数据结合起来提供关于家长对多样性的态度、青年多样化的友谊、青年教育态度和愿望、青年心理和身体健康结果、学校的种族/民族构成以及社区的种族/民族构成的信息。关键的是，这些调查包括了多数人（英国白人）和少数人（非英国白人，非白人）的数据。这将使我们能够检验不同的友谊是否以相同的速度形成，以及多样性的影响对不同的种族和民族群体是否同样有益。这项研究将由布里斯托尔大学的学者与国家儿童局合作进行，国家儿童局是一家领先的慈善机构，旨在改善年轻人的生活，并给予他们影响政策和实践的发言权。我们的研究成果将通过会议报告和在高影响力学术期刊上发表的文章向跨学科的学术受众广泛提供，并通过用户友好的摘要、政策圆桌会议和项目网站向从业者和政策制定者提供。鉴于我们的研究旨在利用日益增长的社会多样性为年轻人的生活带来的积极影响，我们预计这个拟议的项目将广泛吸引学术界和非专业人士，鼓励我们的研究成果在奖励期限届满后被广泛采用。

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.