Constrict in the School Context: The Impact of Ethnic School Diversity on the Quantity and Quality of Friendships

Abstract

Constrict theory states that, in the short run, ethnic diversity in any context lowers both the quantity and the quality of interpersonal contacts. We test this theory in the school context, expecting that ethnic school diversity yields fewer and lower quality friendships. Moreover, we investigate whether the associations hold when controlling for the school's socioeconomic situation, and whether the relations between ethnic school diversity and the social outcomes differ between natives and immigrants. Multilevel analyses on data from the Flemish Educational Assessment, consisting of 10,546 natives and 1,324 immigrants in 85 secondary schools, show that ethnic diversity yields fewer friendships and a lower attachment to friends. However, this appears to be due to the schools’ socioeconomic composition. For immigrants, moreover, a higher ethnic diversity yields more friendships and a higher attachment to friends. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

The Impact of Adolescents' Classroom and Neighborhood Ethnic Diversity on Same‐ and Cross‐Ethnic Friendships Within Classrooms

“…Students' classroom and neighborhood diversity were not related to a smaller number of friendships. In line with our findings, Demanet et al (2012) also found that middle school diversity was not related to the number of friendships in Belgian schools, once they controlled for the schools' socioeconomic composition. Our study adds to the study of Demanet et al (2012) in two ways.…”

“…Second, next to classroom diversity, we showed that students' neighborhood diversity did not affect the total number of friendships in school either. Demanet et al (2012) and our study focus on European middle schools only (Belgian and Dutch), so more studies are warranted, but so far we find no evidence for Putnam's constrict hypothesis in these European middle schools.…”

“…Hunkering down in the school context might mean that students form fewer friendships with classmates, regardless of whether these classmates have a different-or same-ethnic background (i.e., they socially isolate themselves within the school class). Although people "tend to prefer associating with out-group members to not associating with anybody and remaining isolated" (Blau, 1974, p. 621), Demanet, Agirdag, and Van Houtte (2012) found ethnic diversity to reduce students' overall number of friendship nominations. Unfortunately, Demanet et al (2012) did not assess whether this was solely due to fewer cross-ethnic friendships or also due to fewer same-ethnic friendships, as one would expect based on Putnam's constrict claim.…”

“…Although people "tend to prefer associating with out-group members to not associating with anybody and remaining isolated" (Blau, 1974, p. 621), Demanet, Agirdag, and Van Houtte (2012) found ethnic diversity to reduce students' overall number of friendship nominations. Unfortunately, Demanet et al (2012) did not assess whether this was solely due to fewer cross-ethnic friendships or also due to fewer same-ethnic friendships, as one would expect based on Putnam's constrict claim. Based on Putnam's constrict claim, we hypothesize that the more ethnically diverse classrooms are, the less likely cross-ethnicity peers are to form friendships and the less likely same-ethnicity peers are to form friendships (Hypothesis 3: Constrict).…”

“…Whereas previous studies examined whether the likelihood of same-and cross-ethnic friendships depends on school ethnic diversity (e.g., Demanet et al, 2012;Goldsmith, 2004;Moody, 2001), there is a lack of studies that examined whether this is also affected by ethnic diversity of other contexts, such as the neighborhoods students live in (but see Patchen, 1982;Vermeij et al, 2009). In contrast to classroom diversity, which is the same for all classmates, neighborhood diversity differs among students.…”