The Integration of Immigrant Youth in Schools and Friendship Networks

Background and purpose

As schools in the United States continue to become more culturally and linguistically diverse, the ability of school communities to respond to this diversity is of mounting concern. This study examines the degree to which immigrant youth are integrated in school settings at dyadic (friend-to-friend), network (popularity, centrality, social status), and institutional levels (connection to school, extracurricular activities).  Two primary questions are addressed:

1)    How are a) race/ethnicity, b) immigrant generation, and c) friend group composition associated with the integration of immigrant youth in friendship networks?

2)    Does immigrant generation moderate the relationships between a) race/ethnicity, b) friend group composition, and c) school factors, and the integration of immigrant youth? 

Methods

The study includes 43,123 youth across 64 schools with immigrant populations from the Wave I in-school survey of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health).  Survey-weighted ordinary least-squares, logistic, and negative binomial regression models are developed to examine the link between immigration status and integration into adolescent peer friendship networks, accounting for the complex survey design presented in Add Health. 

Results

Results indicate that first-generation youth experienced some exclusion in friendship networks, and tended to be more integrated through school structures than their second- and third-generation peers.  Second-generation youth were most integrated at dyadic and network levels – even more so than third generation and native peers.  Forming friendships with same-race, -ethnic, and -immigrant background was associated with greater popularity, centrality, and social status across all racial groups.  The association between immigrant generation and integration was moderated by friendship group composition and school composition, suggesting that these social structures may operate in ways that marginalize first-generation youth and privilege third-generation and native youth. 

Conclusions and implications

Overall, the findings of this study suggest immigrant youth are integrating into American schools through building relationships with their peers, teachers, and administrators, participating in extracurricular activities, and making friends in youth school networks.  While first-generation youth were located somewhat on the margins, second-generation youth occupied bridging positions between first-and third-generation youth that afforded them certain social advantages.  While same-group friendships may be associated with certain psychosocial benefits, such friendships may also have placed constraints on the ability of immigrant youth to integrate into friendship networks beyond those who share a same cultural background.  Interventions at the school level should look to the strengths that immigrant youth bring to school communities to design culturally and linguistically informed interventions.