{"id":2604,"date":"2009-10-28T20:37:05","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T20:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=2604"},"modified":"2010-04-01T00:49:24","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T00:49:24","slug":"friendship-choices-of-multiracial-adolescents-racial-homophily-blending-or-amalgamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=2604","title":{"rendered":"Friendship choices of multiracial adolescents: Racial homophily, blending, or amalgamation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friendship choices of multiracial adolescents: Racial homophily, blending, or amalgamation?<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Social Science Research
\n2007
\nNumber 36
\npages 633-653<\/p>\n

Jamie Mihoko Doyle<\/a><\/strong>
\nDepartment of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
\nUniversity of Pennsylvania<\/em><\/p>\n

Grace Kao<\/a><\/strong>, Professor of Sociology, Education, and Asian American Studies
\nUniversity of Pennsylvania<\/em><\/p>\n

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health),<\/a> we utilize the concepts of homophily<\/a>, blending, and amalgamation to describe the possible friendship patterns of multiracials.\u00a0 Homophily occurs when multiracials are most likely to choose other multiracials as friends. Blending occurs when friendship patterns of multiracials are somewhere in-between those of their monoracial counterparts. Amalgamation consists of friendship patterns that are similar to one of their monoracial counterparts. All groups exhibit signs of amalgamation such that non-white multiracials resemble Blacks, and White multiracials resemble whites except for Black-White multiracials. Black-Whites, Asian-Whites, and Asian-Blacks also exhibit signs of blending, while only Native American multiracials show signs of homophily. Multiracials have different experiences depending on their specific racial composition, and while they seem to bridge the distance between racial groups, their friendship patterns also fall along Black and White lines.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Robert E. Park<\/a>\u2019s seminal essay in 1928, he argues that a multiracial person lives in \u201ctwo worlds, in both of which he [or she] is more or less a stranger,\u201d (Park, 1928, p. 893).\u00a0 This idea, often referred to as The Marginal Man Theory, has dominated sociological thinking about multiracials and their position in the racial structure of the United States and elsewhere. In the new millennium where multiracial identities are more prevalent and are officially recognized by the 2000 US Census, one emerging question is how multiracial people might self-identify in the modern racial landscape. Do they remain in the racial borderlands or act as a bridge between their two or more racial groups, as Park and Stonequist suggest, or do they simply assimilate into one of their monoracial counterparts?<\/p>\n

To address this question, we investigate the extent to which self-identified multiracials are integrated into single-race groups by examining their best friend choices during adolescence. We know that racial groups are salient in part because peer groups tend to be racially homogeneous. Friendship choice offers a gauge of the social distance between groups; best friends, in particular, show with whom people feel the closest identification and greatest sense of acceptance.<\/p>\n

Our paper proceeds as follows. We first delineate the specific contributions of previous research, focusing on the limited literature on multiracials and research on the determinants of peer selection. Then, drawing on key points from selected literature, we sketch our theoretical approach to this study and outline our hypotheses. We then describe our data, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The survey instrument not only allows individuals to check two or more races, but unlike other datasets, provides linkages to the respondent\u2019s friendship network, making it possible to directly examine survey responses by the respondent\u2019s friends. Race of both the respondent and his\/her best friend is self-reported, reflecting the racial identity of the respondent as well as his\/her best friend. Lastly, we estimate logistic models using Generalized Estimating Equations<\/a> (GEE) to examine the actual friendship choices of multiracial youth, taking into account the opportunities for interaction…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friendship choices of multiracial adolescents: Racial homophily, blending, or amalgamation? Social Science Research 2007 Number 36 pages 633-653 Jamie Mihoko Doyle Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology University of Pennsylvania Grace Kao, Professor of Sociology, Education, and Asian American Studies University of Pennsylvania Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we utilize the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,8,394,20],"tags":[114,351,823,824,825,822],"class_list":["post-2604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-census","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-amalgamation","tag-grace-kao","tag-jamie-mihoko-doyle","tag-robert-e-park","tag-robert-ezra-park","tag-social-science-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}