Bridging the Ethnic Divide: Student and School Characteristics in African American, Asian-Descent, Latino, and White Adolescents’ Cross-Ethnic Friend Nominations

Based on the revised social contact theory, correlates of cross-ethnic friend nomination among 580 African American, 948 Asian-descent, 860 Latino, and 3986 White adolescents were examined. Socioeconomic and academic disparities between ethnic groups differentiated cross-ethnic friend nomination between schools for all groups but African Americans. For all groups, cross-ethnic friend nomination was less likely among students who preferred same-ethnic friends. Academic orientations were associated with cross-ethnic friend nomination positively for African American and Latino, but negatively for White participants. Longer family residence in the U.S. and English language facility was associated positively with cross-ethnic friend nomination for Asian-descent and Latino participants. Results point to the need to differentiate hypotheses by ethnic group, and to consider individual-in-context models in cross-ethnic friend nomination. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 15(1), 21–46 Copyright r 2005, Society for Research on Adolescence