Merging top-down and bottom-up influences on fitting in at school : the role of ethnic congruence in overall and interethnic friendship formation

Jannick Demanet, Lore Van Praag, Mieke Van Houtte

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This study assesses whether ethnic congruence associates with studentsu8217 share of cross-group friendships and number of overall friendships. We investigate differences between natives, Western-European immigrants, and non-Western European immigrants. Multilevel analyses on 11,759 students across 83 Flemish secondary schools demonstrated that, for natives and Western-European immigrants, higher congruence linearly related to lower shares of cross-group friendships. For non-Western European immigrants we observed a U-curved relationship. Moreover, for the latter, higher congruence associated with more friendships overall. As such, non-Western European immigrants are better integrated in the peer group when at least a critical share of co-ethnics is present at school.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)544-566
Number of pages23
JournalSociological Quarterly
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

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