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.

NOTES

Notes

¹ We ran several tests to ensure that multicollinearity is not responsible for the results of our analyses. A first measure we took was centering the variables of ethnic heterogeneity and SES composition around their respective means in the analyses, which is known to be effective in reducing multicollinearity in regression models. Second, we tested the same models while introducing interaction terms between the two variables, which is also known to reduce multicollinearity. These analyses produced the same basic results as the ones reported in Table 3.

² While controlling for the variables at the individual level, school size had a modest effect on friendships (γ* = .078; p < .01) and on attachment to friends (γ* = .035; p < .01). However, including this control variable did not affect any of the other associations in the models. As such, the coefficients shown in the tables are based on the entire sample.