Our Friends Keep Us Together: The Stability of Adolescents’ Cross-Race Friendships

Abstract

Abstract Substantive racial integration depends on both access to cross-race friendship opportunities (demographic integration) and the development of stable and rewarding social relations (social integration). Yet, we know little about the relative stability of cross-race friendship nominations over time. Cross-race friendships are also experienced within social contexts, where other individual, dyadic, and contextual factors may simultaneously affect whether such ties persist. Based on longitudinal network data on over 2,000 students in multiple communities, we test whether cross-race friendships are more or less stable than same-race friendships. We find that cross-race friendships at first glance appear less likely to persist than same-race friendships, but cross-race ties become no less stable than same-race ties after accounting for other social factors, including reciprocity and shared friends. This pattern suggests a threshold process where strong, socially recognized ties embedded among peers face less threat to maintaining friendship stability.