Race/Ethnicity and Social Adjustment of Adolescents: How (Not if) School Diversity Matters

Abstract

In this article, I describe a program of research on the psychosocial benefits of racial/ethnic diversity in urban middle schools. It is hypothesized that greater diversity can benefit students' mental health, intergroup attitudes, and school adaptation via three mediating mechanisms: (a) the formation and maintenance of cross-ethnic friendships, (b) the development of complex social identities, and (c) decreases in perceived vulnerability. These hypotheses are examined in a 3-year longitudinal study of approximately 6,000 ethnically diverse 6th-grade students as they enter one of 26 urban middle schools in California. The overarching goal of this article is to present a strong argument that greater school ethnic diversity can buffer many of the normative challenges of early adolescence.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An earlier version of this article was based on an invited address for the E. L. Thorndike Award for Distinguished Psychological Contributions to Education, presented to the author at the American Psychological Association Convention in Washington, DC, August 2014.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this article was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.