A cross-sectional design was used to inquire about peer relations of 85 second and fifth grade students in two integrated Anglophone and Francophone schools in Montreal, Canada. Data on same- and cross-ethnic identification, interactive companions and mutual best friends were collected for each student. Overall findings were that students had more companions from their own than the other ethno-linguistic group, but equivalent numbers of mutual best friends. Same- and cross-ethnic mutual friends were rated similarly in terms of friendship quality (as assessed by the McGill Friendship Questionnaire). Exploratory in-depth interviews with 16 students indicated that cross-ethnic relationships ran into two barriers. One was that they were limited to only a few activities and locations and so did not become personalized. The second was that in-group and out-group friends did not always mix well.
Aboud, F.E. (1984). Social and cognitive bases of ethnic identity constancy. Journal of GeneticPsychology, 145, 127—129.
2.
Aboud, F.E., & Doyle, A.B. (1996). Parental and peer influences on children's racial attitudes. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 20, 371—383.
3.
Aboud, F.E., & Mendelson, M.J. (1996). Determinants of friendship selection and quality: Developmental perspectives. In W.M. Bukowski, A.F. Newcomb, & W.W. Hartup (Eds.), The company they keep (pp. 87—112). NY: Cambridge University Press.
4.
Aboud, F.E., Mendelson, M.J., & Purdy, K.T. (2003). Cross-race peer relations and friendship quality . International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 165—173.
5.
Aboud, F.E., & Mitchell, F.G. (1977). Ethnic role taking: The effects of preference and self-identification. International Journal of Psychology, 12, 1—17.
6.
Abrams, D., Rutland, A., & Cameron, L. (2003). The development of subjective group dynamics: Children's judgments of normative and deviant in-group and out-group individuals . Child Development, 74, 1840—1856.
7.
Allport, G.W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
8.
Azmitia, M., Ittel, A., & Radmacher, K. (2005). Narratives of friendship and self in adolescence . In N. Way & J.V. Hamm (Eds.), The experience of close friendships in adolescence. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, no. 107 (pp. 23—39). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9.
Boulton, M.J., & Smith, P.K. (1996). Liking and peer perceptions among Asian and White British children. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships , 13, 163—177.
10.
Bukowski, W.M., & Sippola, L.K. (2005). Friendship and development: Putting the most human relationship in its place. In L. Arnett Jensen & R.W. Larson (Eds.), New directions for child and adolescent development (No. 109, pp. 91—98). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
11.
Cairns, R.B., Leung, M.C., Buchanan, L., & Cairns, B.D. (1995). Friendship and social networks in childhood and adolescence: Fluidity, reliability, and interrelations. Child Development, 66, 1330—1345.
12.
Cameron, L., Rutland, A., Brown, R., & Douch, R. (2006). Changing children's intergroup attitudes towards refugees: Testing different models of extended contact. Child Development, 77, 1208—1219.
13.
Castelli, L., De Amicis, L., & Sherman, S.J. (in press). The loyal member effect: On the preference for ingroup members who engage in exclusive relations with the ingroup. Developmental Psychology.
14.
Cazabon, M.T., Nicoladis, E., & Lambert, W.E. (1998). Becoming bilingual in the Amigos two-way immersion program. Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence.
15.
Cohen, E.G., & Lotan, R.A. (1995). Producing equal-status interaction in the heterogeneous classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 99—120.
16.
Craig, W.M., & Pepler, D.J. (2003). Identifying and targeting risk for involvement in bullying and victimization. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry , 48, 577—582.
17.
Denscombe, M., Szulc, H., Patrick, C., & Wood, A. (1986). Ethnicity and friendship: The contrast between sociometric research and fieldwork observation in primary school classrooms . British Educational Research Journal, 12, 221—236.
18.
Doyle, A.B., Beaudet, J., & Aboud, F.E. (1988). Developmental changes in flexibility of children's ethnic attitudes. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 19, 3—18.
19.
DuBois, D.L., & Hirsch, B.J. (1990). School and neighbourhood friendship patterns of Blacks and Whites in early adolescence. Child Development , 61, 524—536.
20.
Gavin, L.A., & Furman, W. (1989). Age differences in adolescents' perceptions of their peer groups. Developmental Psychology, 25, 827—834.
21.
Genesee, F. (1987). Learning through two languages: Studies of immersion and bilingual education. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
22.
Genesee, F., & Gandara, P. (1999). Bilingual education programs: A cross-national perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 665—685.
23.
Graham, J.A., Cohen, R., Zbikowski, S.M., & Secrist, M.E. (1998). A longitudinal investigation of race and sex as factors in childrens' classroom friendship choices. Child Study Journal, 28, 245—266.
24.
Hallinan, M.T., & Teixeira, R.A. (1987). Students' interracial friendships: Individual characteristics, structural effects and racial differences. American Journal of Education, 95, 563—583.
25.
Houlette, M., Gaertner, S.L., Johnson, K.M., Banker, B.S., Riek, B.M., & Dovidio, J.F. (2004). Developing a more inclusive social identity: An elementary school intervention. Journal of Social Issues, 60, 35—55.
26.
Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R., Dudley, B., & Acikgoz, K. (1994). Effects of conflict resolution training on elementary school children. Journal of Social Psychology, 134, 803—817.
27.
Juvonen, J., Nishina, A., & Graham, S. (2006). Ethnic diversity and perceptions of safety in urban middle schools. Psychological Science, 17, 393—400.
28.
Kenworthy, J.B., Turner, R.N., Hewstone, M., & Voci, A. (2005). Intergroup contact: When does it work and why? In J.F. Dovidio, P. Glick, & L. Rudman (Eds.), On the nature of prejudice: Fifty years after Allport (pp. 278—292). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
29.
Kindermann, T. (1998). Children's development within peer groups: Using composite social maps to identify peer networks and to study their influences . New Directions for Child Development, 80, 55—82.
30.
Lambert, W.E., & Cazabon, M.T. (1994). Students' views of the Amigos program. Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence.
31.
Mendelson, M.J., & Aboud, F.E. (1999). Measuring friendship quality in late adolescents and young adults: The McGill Friendship Questionnaires. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 31, 130—132.
32.
Pettigrew, T.F., & Tropp, L.R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 751—783.
33.
Phinney, J.A. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin,108, 499—514.
34.
Rumbaut, R.G. (2005). Discovering successful pathways in children's development: Mixed methods in the study of childhood and family life. In T.S. Weisner (Ed.), Sites of belonging: Acculturation, discrimination, and ethnic identity among children of immigrants (pp. 111—163). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
35.
Tropp, L.R., & Prenovost, M.A. (in press). The role of intergroup contact in predicting children's inter-ethnic attitudes: Evidence from meta-analytic and field studies. In S. Levy & M. Killen (Eds.), Intergroup relations: An integrative developmental and social psychological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
36.
Turner, R.N., & Hewstone, M. (under review). Reducing explicit and implicit outgroup prejudice via direct and extended contact: The mediating role of self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety.
37.
Verkuyten, M. (2001). National identification and intergroup evaluations in Dutch children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology , 19, 559—571.
38.
Wright, S.C., & Tropp, L.R. (2005). Language and intergroup contact: Investigating the impact of bilingual instruction on children's intergroup attitudes. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 8, 309—328.
