- The authors test five hypotheses of racial/ethnic minority group assimilation with respect to friendship formation. Study finds that students are more likely to select friends from their own group.
- Race is a stronger predictor than SES.
- Busing and tracking did not have significant effects. There are strong racial composition effects for all groups.
- Key findings are that:
- (1) cross-race friendships with Asian and Hispanic students are more common than those between White and Black students, but race and Hispanic background have significant influences on student friendships that persist over immigrant generations; other minority students show own-race preferences that are nearly as strong as the own race preferences of non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks;
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(2) Black or White racial identifications are strongly associated with the friendship choices of Hispanic students; Blacks (including Black Hispanics) are highly segregated from all other racial groups.
- The share of cross-race friends depends on the share of potential friends in the school context who are other race. However, students in schools in which they are members of a small minority substantially increase their odds of own-race friend selection.