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，社会景观正在变得越来越多的民族和种族多样化。2015年，英国约19%的居民被认定为少数种族/族裔，比2001年的9%和1991年的6%有所增加（国家统计局，2015年），学校统计数据显示，国家资助的中学中有27%的学生是少数族裔（教育部，2015年）。然而，这种日益增长的多样性对青年重要生活成果的影响引起了激烈的争论;一方面，有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，日益增长的多样性与学术成就和较差的身心健康呈负相关。鉴于这种日益增长的多样性造成的日益紧张的局势（例如，由于难民和寻求庇护者人数的增加以及人们对移民水平的认识，英国退欧后仇恨犯罪的数量不断增加，因此更好地了解年轻人如何应对日益多样化的环境，以及这种多样性对重要的生活成果的影响，如教育愿望和身心健康，是及时和至关重要的。大多数研究多样性效应的研究主要侧重于教育环境或邻里的种族/族裔构成，但这并不一定对应于与不同同龄人的有意义的互动。因此，与国家儿童局的工作，以获得如何多样性可能会影响年轻人更细致入微的理解，我们扩展了目前的文献，以检查青年的友谊网络的多样性，除了在学校和社区一级的背景多样性。我们有兴趣解决两个关键问题：（1）是什么预测青年的不同的友谊，父母的态度和/或接触到学校和邻里的多样性？(2)人际、学校和邻里层面的多样性对教育态度和愿望以及与健康有关的结果有什么影响？我们还考虑了潜在的动态多样性的性质，通过研究随着时间的推移，在友谊，学校和邻里组成的变化。为了解决我们的关键研究问题，我们将使用一个大规模的全国纵向调查的数据，这两个行政数据来源相结合，提供信息家长对多样性的态度，青年不同的友谊，青年教育的态度和愿望，青年的心理和身体健康的结果，种族/民族组成的学校，种族/民族组成的社区。重要的是，这些调查包括与多数（英国白色）和少数（非英国白色，非白色）个人有关的数据。这将使我们能够研究不同的友谊是否以相同的速度形成，以及多样性的影响是否对不同的种族和民族群体同样有益（或不有益）。这项研究将由布里斯托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，让他们有机会影响政策和实践。我们的研究成果将通过会议报告和高影响力学术期刊上的出版物广泛提供给跨学科的学术受众，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对年轻人生活的积极影响，我们预计这个拟议的项目将广泛吸引学者和外行，鼓励我们的研究成果的广泛吸收持续超过奖项的持续时间。

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.