Racially and Ethnically Diverse Schools and Adolescent Romantic Relationships

Citation

Strully, Kate (2014). Racially and Ethnically Diverse Schools and Adolescent Romantic Relationships. American Journal of Sociology. vol. 120 (3) pp. 750-797 , PMCID: PMC4423808

Abstract

Focusing on romantic relationships, which are often seen as a barometer of social distance, this analysis investigates how adolescents from different racial-ethnic and gender groups respond when they attend diverse schools with many opportunities for inter-racial-ethnic dating. Which groups respond by forming inter-racial-ethnic relationships, and which groups appear to "work around" opportunities for inter-racial-ethnic dating by forming more same-race-ethnicity relationships outside of school boundaries? Most prior studies have analyzed only relationships within schools and, therefore, cannot capture a potentially important way that adolescents express preferences for same-race-ethnicity relationships or work around constraints from other groups' preferences. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I find that, when adolescents are in schools with many opportunities for inter-racial-ethnic dating, black females and white males are most likely to form same-race-ethnicity relationships outside of the school; whereas Hispanic males and females are most likely to date across racial-ethnic boundaries within the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

URL

http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.1086/679190

Notes

American Journal of Sociology

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

American Journal of Sociology

Author(s)

Strully, Kate

Year Published

2014

Volume Number

120

Issue Number

3

Pages

750-797

DOI

10.1086/679190

PMCID

PMC4423808

Reference ID

5554