Interracial Friendships, Multicultural Sensitivity, and Social Competence: How Are They Related?

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Interracial Friendships,Multicultural Sensitivity, and

Social Competence: How AreThey Related?

Lisa HunterAdministration for Children’s Services, The City of New York

Maurice J. EliasRutgers University

The present study used sociometric questionnaires to examine the relationship betweeninterracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competence in fifth-grade chil-dren. Participants completed four questionnaires that provided information about whotheir friends were, friendship quality, racial and ethnic attitudes, and social competence.Results indicated that fifth-grade girls with high-quality interracial friendships indicatedless minority rejection, more diverse social networks, and more sociability and leadershipcharacteristics than their peers with no or low-quality interracial friendships. Similar resultswere not found for boys in the study. These findings have important educational andclinical implications.

The United States is becoming an increasingly diverse nation. By 2000, one in everythree students in the United States will be a member of a racial or ethnic minority(Hart & Lumsden, 1989). Considering the growing ethnic, cultural, and racial diver-sity of students, there is an urgent need to address multicultural issues in schools.Failure to address these issues contributes to racism and stereotyping in the schoolsthat “diverts minority students’ attention and interests from academic pursuits”(Pollard, 1989, p. 73) and also creates a climate detrimental to learning and teachingacross all populations.

The importance of multicultural acceptance extends beyond the classroom. Ascommunities and workplaces become increasingly diverse, the ability to interactcooperatively and respectfully with members of diverse ethnic groups will be aprerequisite for a peaceful and productive existence. Children who fail to acquire

Direct all correspondence to: Lisa Hunter, 60 East 12th Street, #10G, New York, NY 10003.

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 20(4): 551–573 Copyright 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.ISSN: 0193-3973 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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552 HUNTER AND ELIAS

the skills necessary for peaceful and productive interethnic contact will be at aserious disadvantage as the United States becomes a more diverse nation.

Encouraging students to form interracial friendships is one possible method ofpromoting interethnic contact skills. Interracial friendships may help to exposestudents to the value of different cultures and reduce racial stereotyping. Researchin the fields of education and social psychology suggests interracial friendships willpromote multicultural sensitivity and social competence.

Definition of Key Terms

Multicultural sensitivity has been variously defined in the literature (Ridley,Mendoza, Kanitz, Angermeier & Zenk, 1994). Most authors, however, agree theterm has an awareness, knowledge, cognitive, and skills component (Ridley et al.,1994). Garcia (1995) proposed three criteria for multicultural sensitivity:

1. The ability to demonstrate respect for and understanding of people ofdiverse cultural backgrounds.

2. The ability to communicate effectively with people of diverse culturalbackgrounds.

3. The ability to work collaboratively with people of diverse cultural back-grounds.

Garcia’s (1995) criteria for multicultural sensitivity are closely related to theconcept of social competence. Social competence “summarizes an individual’s per-formance across a variety of interpersonal situations” (Gesten & Weissberg, 1986,p. 20). Social skills and social problem solving are two components of social compe-tence. Social skills refer to “the specific patterns of learned, observable behaviorthrough which we influence others” (Gesten & Weissberg, 1986, p. 20). Communica-tion skills, sharing, making requests, and complimenting are all examples of socialskills.

The ability to resolve conflicts with others across a range of real-life situationsdefines social problem solving. Perspective taking, which refers to the ability toidentify signs of feelings in others and infer others’ view of a situation, is a key socialproblem-solving skill that has cognitive, affective, and informational or historiccomponents (Elias & Tobias, 1996). Shantz (1975; as cited by Copple, Sigel, &Saunders, 1979) has identified five types of perspective taking:

1. What is the other seeing?2. What is the other feeling?3. What is the other thinking?4. What is the other intending?5. What is the other like?

A child’s ability to engage in any of these types of perspective taking is largelydependent on his or her developmental stage. For example, preschool children arecapable of visual perspective taking, but are limited in their ability to infer what

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553INTERRACIAL FRIENDSHIPS

the other is feeling, thinking, intending, and is like. As children grow older, theirability to engage in each type of perspective taking increases and as such, the qualityof their social inferences is heightened.

In addition to being an important social problem-solving skill, perspective takingis vital for multicultural sensitivity and friendship. Perspective taking “underliesany genuine understanding of social systems and customs” and is “an implicit basis”for communication skills (Copple et al., 1979, p. 154). Being able to take theperspective of others facilitates the understanding, respect, communication, andcooperation that is necessary for both multicultural sensitivity and friendship.Friendship, particularly interracial friendship, requires virtually all of the skillsthat comprise perspective taking, social competence, and multicultural sensitivity.Friendship can be defined as an ongoing reciprocal liking and behavioral involve-ment between two individuals (McGuire & Weiss, 1982; as cited by Clark, 1985).Friendship, like perspective taking, proceeds along a developmental path. The stagesof friendship as identified by Selman (1981) are outlined below:

Stage 0: Momentary physicalistic playmates. Friends are exclusively playmates in closeproximity.

Stage 1: One-way assistance. Friends perform specific activities the self wants accomplished.Stage 2: Fair-weather cooperation. Friendships become reciprocal at this stage and are

marked by attempts to coordinate likes and dislikes of the self and other.Stage 3: Intimate and mutually shared relationships. Friendships are viewed as a means of

developing mutual intimacy and support.Stage 4: Autonomous interdependent friendships. This stage is marked by a realization

that friendship can continue to develop through each partner’s ability to synthesizefeelings of independence and dependence.

(Selman, 1981, pp. 250–251)

Social competence is a prerequisite for friendship formation. Newcomb andBagwell (1995) cited positive engagement, conflict management, and task activity asimportant variables in the development, maintenance, and dissolution of friendships.Positive engagement includes basic social skills such as making social contact, talk-ing, and cooperation. Conflict management requires social problem-solving skills.Task activity refers to the communication and cooperation required for the jointperformance of a task by friends.

The impact interracial friendships can have on multicultural sensitivity is largelydependent on the friendship stage of a child. The present study is concerned withthe relationship between interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and socialcompetence in fifth-grade children. Children at this age level are typically in Sel-man’s (1981) Stage 3 of friendship. Stage 3 friendships are characterized by continu-ity, conflict resolution, mutual intimacy, and support. Thus interracial Stage 3 friend-ships are likely to provide children with the opportunity to respect, communicate,and work collaboratively with peers of diverse cultural backgrounds.

The potential gains in multicultural sensitivity provided by interracial Stage 3friendships may be limited by the “overemphasis of the two-person clique” (Selman,1981, p. 251) that characterizes these friendships. Children in Stage 3 friendshipdyads tend to be reluctant to form other close friendships and may not be able tobenefit fully from numerous interracial friendships. Nevertheless, it is in Stage 3

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that the trajectory for Stage 4 friendships is formed, when children can more fullybenefit from interracial friendships.

The preceding definitions of multicultural sensitivity, social competence, andfriendship emphasize the relationship between these terms. This relationship, how-ever, has not been directly investigated by previous research. Extensive researchhas been conducted on school desegregation, the contact hypothesis, cooperativelearning, and the racial composition of children’s friendships. The results of thisresearch provide support for the view that interracial friendships in children contrib-ute to enhanced multicultural sensitivity and social competence.

Desegregation and Interracial Friendships

One of the goals of desegregation was to “build positive relations betweenmajority and minority students” (Johnson & Johnson, 1982). An early assumptionin the history of desegregation was that attendance at the same schools would “ipsofacto lead to more positive interactions between black and white students” (Damico,Bell-Nathaniel, & Green, 1981, p. 1). This naive belief was eventually dismissedwhen research on desegregation showed that merely being in the same school orclassroom was not sufficient to engender change in interracial interactions andattitudes.

Research studying desegregation and its effects on interracial associations andattitudes has generally had mixed to negative results. In an extensive review of theliterature, Carithers (1970) found that there was no general agreement about theeffect of interracial contact in schools on attitude change. Gerard and Miller (1975)studied the long-term effects of desegregation in a southern California school districtand reported a tendency for students to “resegregate” within the school alongethnic lines. The mixed results of research studying the effect of desegregation oninterracial interactions and attitudes led Carithers (1970) to conclude “we do notknow what happens to whom under what conditions of desegregation” (p. 43).

The Contact Hypothesis

Allport’s contact hypothesis explains why school desegregation does not neces-sarily lead to positive interracial attitudes. This hypothesis predicts increased interra-cial contact is likely to result in sounder beliefs about minority groups and lessprejudice if the following stipulations are met (Allport, 1954).

1. The status of the groups in contact must be equal2. The contact must be intimate, not superficial3. The contact should encourage cooperative interdependence4. The contact must receive social approval from authority figures

(Rogers, Hennigan, Bowman, & Miller, 1984)

The contact hypothesis has been studied extensively over the past four decades.In a review of the literature, Amir (1969) found that contact between members ofdifferent ethnic groups does tend to produce changes in attitude between thesegroups if the contact has taken place under “favorable” conditions. Amir (1969)

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considered all of Allport’s stipulations (listed previously) as favorable conditions.Amir’s (1969) conclusions emphasize that merely placing students of different racialand ethnic backgrounds in the same schools is not sufficient to cause positivechanges in interracial attitudes and interactions.

Sigelman and Welch (1993) also found that contact does not necessarily leadto favorable interracial attitudes. Through a telephone survey of black and whiteadults, the researchers examined whether contact between blacks and whites con-tributes to a perception of less hostility between the races and a deeper commitmentto the maintenance of interracial social ties. Results indicated that “contact betweenblacks and whites does not always affect racial attitudes and when it does, the effectis not always meaningful” (p. 792).

The results of Sigelman and Welch (1993) do not necessarily cast doubt on thevalidity of the contact hypothesis. The study made no attempt to assess whetherany of the stipulations of the contact hypothesis were met in the interactionsdescribed by participants. Thus even though participants may have had interracialfriends and lived in racially mixed neighborhoods, there is no way of knowingwhether the contact was of equal status, intimate, encouraged cooperative interde-pendence, and was socially approved by authority figures. If these conditions werenot met, then it is not surprising that contact did not always lead to significantchanges in racial attitudes.

Cooperative Learning and Interracial Friendships

Research on the contact hypothesis has led to the development of practicalmethods of enhancing interracial attitudes through carefully designed contact situa-tions in the classroom. Allport’s stipulation that contact should encourage coopera-tive interdependence has guided the development of cooperative learning tech-niques to foster positive interracial attitudes. The efficacy of cooperative techniquesin fostering positive interracial attitudes and interactions has been the focus ofmuch research.

DeVries, Edwards, and Slavin (1978) found that Team-Games-Tournament, acooperative learning technique that encourages students to work together in groupsrepresentative of all academic levels, sexes, and ethnic groups, was more effectivethan control treatments in increasing the number and percentage of cross-racialsociometric choices (DeVries et al., 1978). The authors suggest that if interracialmisunderstanding and hostility are a result of limited communication or friendshipbetween members of different races, the Team-Games-Tournament technique islikely to contribute to “a diminution of racial tension in schools” (p. 361).

Weigel, Wiser, and Cook (1975) studied the impact of cooperative learningexperiences on cross-ethnic relations and attitudes. White, black, and Mexican-American students in seventh and tenth grade were assigned to either small-groupcooperative learning classrooms or control classrooms. Results indicated significantchanges for the experimental group in white students acceptance of their Mexican-American classmates as determined by a sociometric questionnaire assessing cross-ethnic respect and liking and by a cross-ethnic friendship questionnaire (Weigelet al., 1975). There were no changes in white–black acceptance and Mexican-

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American–black acceptance. With regard to racial attitudes, results indicated nodifference between the experimental and control group in terms of their attitudestoward other ethnic groups.

The results of the Weigel et al.’s (1975) study are difficult to interpret because thepositive effects of cooperative learning were only seen for Mexican-American–whiteinteractions. The researchers suggest that the failure of the cooperative learningmethod to show positive changes in white–black and Mexican-American–blackacceptance may be the result of ceiling effects that masked differences. The findingthat cooperative learning did not influence ethnic attitudes suggests that learningto work with, accept and even become friends with students of different racial orethnic backgrounds does not necessarily lead to more positive racial attitudes.

Rooney-Rebeck and Jason (1986) examined the effect of cooperative learningon the interethnic relations of first and third graders. First and third graders in aninner city parochial school were randomly placed in four-person groups that wererepresentative of all ethnic groups in the same proportion that they were representedin the class. The groups participated in cooperative group tutoring sessions. Thecomparison classes of second and fourth graders were taught in the traditionalteacher-centered method.

Results indicated that first-grade students in the experimental group selecteda significantly higher number of other-ethnic children for play mates after the testthan students in the control group. There were also significantly more interethnicinteractions observed in the experimental group. For third and fourth graders therewere no differences on observed interethnic interaction.

The researchers suggested that the cooperative method only had an impact onthe interethnic interactions of first-grade children because the overt ethnic prejudiceof these children is less ingrained than that of the third graders. Although there isa developmental component to the acquisition of racial attitudes, research hasshown that racial attitudes do not crystallize until after at least the fourth grade(Katz, 1976), thus developmental differences do not adequately explain why thecooperative method had no impact on the interracial interactions of the third-gradestudents.

Like Weigel et al. (1975), DeVries et al. (1978), and Rooney-Rebeck and Jason(1986), Slavin (1985) also found that cooperative learning tends to have a positiveimpact on interracial interactions. In a review of the literature on cooperativelearning and intergroup relations, Slavin (1985) reported that research examiningthe relationship between cooperative learning and intergroup relations clearly indi-cates “that when students work in ethnically-mixed cooperative learning groups,they gain in cross-ethnic friendships” (p. 59). These gains tend to be strong andlong lasting.

In all of the studies reviewed by Slavin (1985), the number of cross-race friendsmade by students in a cooperative learning team was compared with those madeby students in a traditional teacher-centered classroom. Cooperative learning wasconsidered effective if students in this condition had more cross-race friends. Al-though an increase in cross-race friends as a result of a cooperative learning situationis a favorable outcome, simply having cross-race friends does not necessarily indicatethat children are multiculturally sensitive. The contact hypothesis states increased

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contact, under specified conditions, will lead to less prejudice and more positiveinterracial attitudes. With a few exceptions (e.g., Weigel et al., 1975) research oncooperative learning only examines if cooperative contact leads to more positiveinterracial contact as determined by the number of cross-race friends reported.Additional research is needed to determine if in fact having cross-race friends doeslead to an increased ability to respect, communicate, and work collaboratively withdiverse racial and cultural groups (i.e., increased multicultural sensitivity).

Research on the efficacy of various approaches to multicultural education sug-gests that in addition to influencing interracial friendship, cooperative learning doeshave an impact on multicultural sensitivity. Human relations is an approach tomulticultural education that aims to foster communication between students ofdifferent backgrounds (Sleeter & Grant, 1987). An inherent assumption of thisapproach is that communication among diverse racial and ethnic groups will reducestereotyping and prejudice. There is some support that a human relations approachdoes reduce stereotyping and prejudice. Foster (1989) reported students participat-ing in “Across the Lines,” a program designed to bring students from differentracial groups together, learned to reject some of the stereotypes they held beforethe program. Research by Pate (1981) indicates that working together in interraciallearning teams promotes the development of positive attitudes and cross-ethnicfriendships. According to Hart and Lumsden (1989), “when children work in groupsnot only do they learn more, but racial and ethnic barriers to friendship dissolve”(p. 17).

Interracial Friendships

Given the emphasis placed on fostering interracial friendships by multiculturaleducation programs and cooperative learning methods, it is important to know howcommon interracial friendships are and what characterizes these friendships inchildren.

Several studies have found that interracial friendships are uncommon amongchildren. Tuma and Hallinan (1979) examined the effect of sex, race, and academicachievement on the formation and stability of school children’s friendships in twopredominantly black, northern California public elementary schools. Results indi-cated that children were more likely to have friends of the same sex, race, academiclevel, or a combination thereof.

Like Tuma and Hallinan (1979), Clark and Ayers (1992) also found that similar-ity plays an important role in children’s friendships. Gender similarity was the mostimportant characteristic of the adolescent friendships studied. Race was anotherimportant variable, and most of the friendship dyads were of the same race.

The work of Clark and Ayers (1992) and Tuma and Hallinan (1979) indicatesthat interracial friendships are significantly less common than same-race friendships.A study by Dubois and Hirsch (1990), however, reports findings that suggest interra-cial friendships are not particularly uncommon.

Using questionnaires, Dubois and Hirsch (1990) studied the differences betweenblack and white seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade adolescents from a Midwesterncommunity in involvement with interracial friendships outside of school. Results

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showed that more than 80% of both blacks and whites reported having an interracialschool friendship. Twenty-five percent reported having a close friend of anotherrace they saw frequently outside of school. Blacks were twice as likely as whitesto report having a close school friend of another race they saw outside of school.Children living in an integrated neighborhood were more likely to indicate havinga close nonschool tie with a school friend of another race.

These results suggest that although students may have interracial friendships,these friendships are not as close as same-race friendships because they tend not toextend beyond the school. The Dubois and Hirsch (1990) results are also significantbecause they suggest that interracial friendships may be more common than otherresearchers (e.g., Clark & Ayers, 1992; Tuma & Hallinan, 1979; Hallinan, 1982;and Hallinan & Teixeira, 1987) have indicated.

Although the consensus is that interracial friendships are less common, theystill occur, and it is important to know what characterizes these friendships. Hallinanand Williams (1987) examined the stability of interracial friendships among fourth-through seventh-grade students. Results showed that interracial friendships werealmost as stable as same-race friendships. White choices of friends of another racewere more stable in classes with a high proportion of black students. Blacks weremore likely to withdraw their interracial friendship choices in classes with a strongemphasis on academic performance. These results suggest that if children can over-come the barriers to having an interracial friendship they will have the opportunityto experience some of the benefits of friendship with a person from a differentethnic or racial background.

The Present Study

The present study examined the relationship between interracial friendships,multicultural sensitivity, and social competence in fifth-grade children. In manyways, friendship has some of the characteristics that are considered favorable forintergroup contact. Friendship can be described as a mutual, enduring, consistentacross settings, and emotionally positive relationship (Rubenstein, 1984) and assuch is an example of intimate contact. Friendship also tends to involve somecooperative interdependence and is an equal status relationship. Parker and Asher(1993) have identified the following dimensions as being important to consider inthe assessment of the quality of children’s friendships:

1. The extent to which the relationship offers children opportunities for play, compan-ionship, and recreation

2. The degree of intimate disclosure and exchange that characterizes the relationship.3. The extent to which the friends share, help, and guide each other.4. The extent to which children find the relationship validating and enhancing of self-

worth (p. 612)

These dimensions resemble the characteristics of favorable contact and can beused to judge friendships on the basis of their similarity to a favorable contactsituation. Only high-quality interracial friendships should exhibit the characteristicsconsidered favorable in intergroup contact situations (i.e, intimacy, equal status,

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and cooperative interdependence) and lead to enhanced multicultural sensitivity.Low-quality interracial friendships should exhibit favorable contact characteristicsto a negligible degree and, as such, be more closely related to having no interracialfriendships in terms of their ability to foster multicultural sensitivity. In addition,low-quality friendships are likely to possess unfavorable contact characteristics thatwould impede the development of multicultural sensitivity.

Previous research on school desegregation, cooperative learning, and children’sinterracial friendships does not directly address whether high-quality interracialfriendships promote multicultural sensitivity. Although the interracial friendship–multicultural sensitivity relationship has not been directly studied, there seems tobe widespread agreement about the need to foster interracial friendships.

“From the earliest discussions of the desegregated situation, it has been assumedthat the production and development of interracial friendship was a major goal anda legitimate measure of the success of ‘integration’”(Cohen, 1980, p. 256). Muchof the research on cooperative learning has used the number of interracial friendsmade as a measure of the efficacy of cooperative methods (Slavin, 1985). Giventhe apparent importance placed on the need for developing interracial friendships,it is surprising that the relationship between interracial friendships and multiculturalsensitivity has not been directly examined.

Based on previous research on cooperative learning, the human relations ap-proach, the contact hypothesis, and interracial friendships among children, thepresent study made two hypotheses about the relationship between multiculturalsensitivity, interracial friendships, and social competence. The first hypothesis pre-dicted that students with high-quality interracial friendships would rate higher onmeasures of multicultural sensitivity than children with no and low-quality interra-cial friendships. The second hypothesis predicted that children with high-qualityinterracial friendships would rate higher on measures of social competence thanchildren with no and low-quality interracial friendships.

METHOD

Participants and Setting

One hundred seventy students in the fifth grade at Martin Luther King (MLK)School served as participants. The MLK School is a public school for fourth andfifth graders located in Piscataway, New Jersey. Only fifth-grade students servedas participants because these students, having attended the school for a year at thetime of assessment, had the opportunity to develop friendships within the school.

The MLK School is racially and ethnically diverse, with a population as follows:49.8% white, 29.6% black, 4.6% Hispanic, 0.2% Native American, and 15% Asian/Pacific Islander. The racial breakdown of the participants was 39.4% white, 37.1%black, 18.8% Asian, and 4.7% Hispanic. Eligibility for free or reduced school lunchserved as an indicator of participants’ socioeconomic status. Approximately 18.2%of participants received free or reduced school lunches.

The MLK School was chosen as the site of this study for several importantreasons. Piscataway is a genuinely multicultural and multiethnic community, with

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meaningful representations of varied racial and cultural groups. Thus the opportu-nity for the formation of interracial friendships exists. Although Piscataway andthe MLK school are racially diverse, racial problems do exist. Approximately 10years ago, the local high school was the site of violent intergroup conflicts both onand off school grounds. At the time of assessment, the staff of the MLK schoolreported an increasing amount of self-segregation among groups, as well as whatthey described as a significant degree of intolerance and insensitivity to differences.Specifically, they stated much negative stereotyping of black males occurred in theschool. The combination of a racially diverse school with existing intergroup tensionsprovided an optimal environment for the examination of the relationship betweeninterracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competence.

Procedure

Participants completed the measurement battery during two in-class assessmentsessions in the fall of 1994. In the first session, participants completed the Who AreYour Friends? questionnaire (Hallinan 1982), the Revised Class Play, and the SocialGroup Survey.

Before the second session, responses on the Who Are Your Friends? question-naires were reviewed to determine whom participants identified as best friends orfriends. This information was added to the Friendship Quality questionnaire, whichwas completed in reference to a specific friend during the second assessment session.

All measures were administered by trained undergraduates who gave partici-pants the following instructions before the assessment session began:

I’m a student from Rutgers and I will be asking you to fill out some questionnaires today.The questionnaires are about different things and I’ll tell you more about them once weget started. When you’re filling out these questionnaires, please remember this is not atest and there are no right or wrong answers. Your responses to these questionnaires willonly be seen by Rutgers students.

Measures

Who Are Your Friends? Questionnaire. Who Are Your Friends? question-naire (Hallinan 1982) lists all the students in a classroom and next to each namethe categories:

Best Friend Friend Know Don’t Know My Name

Participants were asked to circle a category for each name listed and allowedto make as many best friend or friend nominations as they wished. Participants’nominations were checked against school records indicating the race of studentsto determine how many interracial friends or best friends a participant had.

Because students were likely to have school friends that were not in theirclassroom, the Hallinan (1982) questionnaire was supplemented by instructions thatasked students:

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In the space below, please write down the first and last name of other students in thisschool who are your best friends or friends. Next to each name write “BF” if the personis your best friend and “F” if the person is your friend.

Friendship Quality Questionnaire. The Friendship Quality Questionnaire(FQQ) (Parker & Asher, 1993) is a 40-item questionnaire that asks children toindicate on a 5-point scale the degree of truthfulness of a particular quality of theirrelationship with a specific friend. The FQQ has six subscales: validation and caring,conflict resolution, conflict and betrayal, help and guidance, companionship andrecreation, and intimate exchange. Scores on each subscale are based on the averageof the child’s ratings for the relevant items. The FQQ subscales have good internalconsistency (Cronbach alpha ranging from .73 to .90).

Participants completed the FQQ in reference to a different-race friend, a differ-ent-race best friend, a same-race friend, or a same-race best friend, depending onwhom they nominated on the Who Are Your Friends? questionnaire. Participantswho did not nominate any different-race friends or best friends completed the FQQin reference to a same-race friend or best friends chosen at random from the WhoAre Your Friends? questionnaire. Participants who nominated a different-race bestfriend filled out the FQQ in reference to that best friend. If more than one different-race best friend was nominated, the FQQ was filled out in reference to the firstdifferent-race best friend nominated (students names were presented in alphabeticalorder on the Who Are Your Friends? questionnaire). Participants who nominatedonly different-race friends filled out the FQQ in reference to the first different-race friend they nominated.

The Social Group Survey. The Social Group Survey (SGS) (Koyama, 1992)developed by Project REACH is a measure of children’s racial and cultural attitudes.The SGS lists 18 cultural groups and asks students to indicate how they wouldrespond to each group in certain social situations. The SGS is an adapted versionof Bogardus’ Social Distance Scale, which has often been used to track socialattitudes toward minority groups in the United States (Koyama, 1992). The scoreon each item of the SGS ranges from 0, indicating no social distance, to 7, indicatingthe greatest degree of social distance.

For the purposes of this study, social distance scores on four main culturalgroups were assessed. The social distance score for European-American groupswas based on the average of SGS responses to the Irish-American, Italian-American,French-American, and German-American items. The social distance score forAsian-American groups was based on the average of SGS responses to the Korean-American, Japanese-American, Chinese-American, and Indian-American items.The social distance score for Hispanic-American groups was based on the averageof SGS responses to the Puerto Rican, Dominican American, South American, andCuban American items. Lastly, the social distance score for Black-American groupswas based on the average of SGS responses to the African-American and WestIndian-American items.

When filling out the SGS, participants were instructed to write the words I don’tknow next to any social group with which they were not familiar. Social groups

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that were marked “I don’t know” were not taken into account when calculatingthe four main cultural group scores used in the present study.

The Revised Class Play. The Revised Class Play (RCP) (Masten, Morison, &Pellegrini, 1985) is a peer assessment measure consisting of 30 roles reflectingvarious domains of social competence and peer relationships. When filling out theRCP, each participant was instructed to imagine that he or she was the director ofa play starring the students in their classroom. They were then read each role andasked to choose the student who would best fill that role in the play.

Psychometric studies have found that three reliable areas are tapped by theRCP: sociability-leadership, aggressive-disruptive, and sensitive-isolated. Alpha co-efficients across studies have always exceeded .81, with good cross-gender reliability;6- and 17-month stability coefficients have averaged .80 and .64, respectively.

For the purpose of the present study, 10 roles were added to the RCP thatallowed children to “cast” those who are particularly adept (or not adept) at inter-acting with classmates from different cultures and understanding those cultures(i.e., multicultural sensitivity).

The RCP was used as both a measure of multicultural sensitivity and socialcompetence. The number of interracial peer nominations made by participants onthe RCP served as an indicator of social network integration. The added rolesyielded two scores of multicultural sensitivity. One score, the minority acceptancescore, was based on the number of times a participant was nominated for items 2,8, 20, and 31 of the RCP. The minority rejection score was based on the numberof nominations a participant received on items 5, 13, 17, and 27 of the RCP. Togetherthese scores served as an indicator of multicultural sensitivity.

Participants’ scores on the three dimensions assessed by the RCP—sociability-leadership, aggressive-disruptive, and sensitive-isolated—were used as an indicatorof social competence. Research suggests that a pattern of low sociability scores,high aggressive-disruptive scores, and high isolated peer reputation scores indicateslow social competence (Masten et al., 1985).

RESULTS

Participants were divided into two groups based on their responses to the WhoAre Your Friends? questionnaire and the FQQ. The group characterized as havingno or low-quality interracial friendships was composed of 26 participants whonominated no friends of another race or best friends and 75 participants whonominated at least one friend of another race or best friend and rated this friendor best friend below the sample mean on the FQQ. The group characterized ashaving high-quality interracial friendships was composed of 69 participants whonominated at least one different-race friend or best friend and rated this friend orbest friend above the sample mean on the FQQ. Table 1 summarizes the inclusioncriteria of the two groups investigated in this study.

Group membership was the independent variable. Table 2 lists the three generalfactors of interest to this study, the specific dependent variables related to thesefactors, and the measures that assessed these variables. Descriptive statistics for

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Table 1. Inclusion Criteria for Experimental Groups

Group Inclusion Criteria n

No/Low Quality No interracial friendships 101Interracial Friendships –OR–

At least one different-race friend or best friend rated below thesample mean on the Friendship Quality Questionnaire

High Quality At least one different-race friend or best friend rated above the 69Interracial Friendships sample mean on the Friendship Quality Questionnaire

the dependent variables are presented in Table 3. This table reports the descriptivestatistics for the entire sample as well as those for girls and boys, respectively.

The gender breakdown of the experimental groups is presented in Table 4. Achi-square test on this data revealed significant gender differences in experimentalgroup composition (x2 5 6.09, p , .05). Girls were more likely to be in the high-quality interracial friendships group, and boys were more likely to be in the no orlow-quality interracial friendships group. Because of these differences, girls andboys were analyzed separately. Table 5 presents the group means for girls and boys,respectively, and sample means for the dependent variables investigated.

As the correlation matrix in Table 6 indicates, there were several significantintercorrelations between the dependent variables. Because of the high degree ofsignificant correlations between variables, it was not possible to perform a meaning-ful discriminant analysis. Therefore, the relationships between the independent anddependent variables were examined through a series of one-tailed t-tests.

The t-tests performed examined two main hypotheses. The first hypothesispredicted that children who had high-quality interracial friendships would ratehigher on measures of multicultural sensitivity than children who had no and low-quality interracial friendships. According to this hypothesis, which will be referredto as the multicultural sensitivity hypothesis, the high-quality interracial friendsgroup would have lower SGS scores, lower negative minority group acceptance

Table 2. Dependent Variables, Associated Factors, andAssessment Measures

General Factor Dependent Variables Assessment Measure

Multicultural Sensitivity Social Distance toward Social GroupAsians SurveyEuropeansHispanicsBlacks

Minority Acceptance Revised Class PlayMinority Rejection ” ”Interracial Nominations ” ”

Social Competence Revised Class PlaySociabilityAggressivenessIsolated

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Table 3. Descriptive Statistics for Dependent Variables

Variable (Social Distance Towards) Mean SD Minimum Maximum n

Asians 2.22 1.86 0 7.00 170Girls 2.11 1.78 0 7.00 84Boys 2.32 1.94 0 7.00 86

Europeans 1.95 1.74 0 6.00 170Girls 1.83 1.73 0 6.00 84Boys 2.06 1.76 0 6.00 86

Hispanics 2.26 1.92 0 7.00 170Girls 2.12 1.86 0 7.00 84Boys 2.40 1.97 0 6.00 86

Blacks 2.01 1.78 0 7.00 170Girls 2.07 1.86 0 7.00 84Boys 1.96 1.72 0 6.00 86

Sociability .51 .34 0 2.40 170Girls .51 .27 0 1.00 84Boys .51 .40 0 2.00 86

Aggressive .23 .35 0 2.34 170Girls .16 .29 0 2.00 84Boys .29 .39 0 2.00 86

Isolated .21 .30 0 2.25 170Girls .18 .28 0 2.00 84Boys .24 .33 0 2.00 86

Minority Acceptance .11 .10 0 .73 170Girls .11 .08 0 .31 84Boys .12 .12 0 .73 86

Minority Rejection .08 .12 0 .69 170Girls .05 .07 0 .32 84Boys .12 .14 0 .69 86

Interracial Nominations 9.62 3.80 2 22.00 170Girls 10.29 4.06 2 22.00 84Boys 8.97 3.44 2 20.00 86

scores, higher positive minority group acceptance scores, and higher interracialnomination scores than the no or low-quality interracial friendship group. Thesecond hypothesis predicted children who had high-quality interracial friendshipswould rate higher on measures of social competence than children who had no andlow-quality interracial friendships. According to this social competence hypothesis,the high-quality interracial friendship group would rate higher on the sociability,aggressive, and isolated variables than the no and low-quality interracial friendship

Table 4. Gender Breakdown of Experimental Groups

Group Girls Boys Total

No/Low Quality Interracial Friendships 42 59 101High Quality Interracial Friendships 42 27 69Sample 84 86 170

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Table 5. Correlation Matrix for Dependent Variables—Sample

Variables(Social Distance Towards) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Asians —Europeans .81** —Hispanics .87** .85** —Blacks .85** .75** .80** —Sociability 2.11 2.16* 2.15* 2.14 —Aggressive 2.02 2.03 .04 .00 2.19* —Isolated .01 .04 .05 .02 2.28** .13 —Minority Acceptance 2.14 2.14 2.10 2.15 .31* 2.12 .02 —Minority Rejection .06 .06 .04 .07 2.16* .65** .18* .01 —Interracial Nominations 2.10 2.02 2.08 2.01 .16* 2.24** 2.08 .26** .22** —

*p , .05. **p , .01.

group. The results of the t-tests performed to test these two hypotheses are presentedbelow.

Results of t-Tests

Multicultural Sensitivity Hypothesis: Racial Attitudes. For males, there wereno significant differences between the experimental groups on the European, Asian,Hispanic, or black social distance variables. For females, the groups differed signifi-cantly on the European social distance variable (t 5 2.00, p , .05), the Asian socialdistance variable (t 5 2.03, p , .05), and the Hispanic social distance variable (t 52.63, p , .01). Females in the high-quality interracial friends group had significantlylower SGS scores for European, Asian, and Hispanic ethnic groups.

Multicultural Sensitivity Hypothesis: Minority Rejection. For males, thegroups differed significantly on the minority rejection variable (t 5 2.14, p , .05).For females, there were no significant differences between groups on the minorityrejection variable.

Multicultural Sensitivity Hypothesis: Minority Acceptance. For males, nosignificant differences were found between groups on the minority acceptance vari-able. For females, the high-quality interracial friendship group had minority accep-tance scores that were significantly higher than those in the no or low-qualityinterracial friendship group (t 5 22.03, p , 05).

Multicultural Sensitivity Hypothesis: Interracial Nominations. For males,the groups did not differ significantly on the interracial nominations variable. Forfemales, the high-quality interracial friends group made significantly more interra-cial nominations on the RCP than the no or low-quality interracial friends group(t 5 22.80, p , .01).

Social Competence Hypothesis: Sociability. For males, there were no signifi-cant differences between groups on the sociability variable. For females, the high-quality interracial friendship group scored significantly higher on the sociability

p91982$u27 12-28-99 10:03:52 p. 566


Tab

le6.

Mea

nsfo

rE

xper

imen

tal

Gro

ups

and

Sam

ple

Var

iabl

es(S

ocia

lD

ista

nce

Tow

ards

)

Gro

upA

sian

sE

urop

eans

His

pani

csB

lack

sSo

ciab

ility

Agg

ress

ive

Isol

ated

Acc

epta

nce

Rej

ectio

nN

omin

atio

ns

No/

Low

Qua

lity

Inte

rrac

ial

Fri

ends

hips

Gir

ls2.

502.

202.

632.

340.

440.

220.

210.

090.

069.

10B

oys

2.41

2.03

2.44

2.00

0.46

0.30

0.26

0.11

0.14

8.61

Hig

hQ

ualit

yIn

terr

acia

lF

rien

dshi

psG

irls

1.73

1.46

1.60

1.79

0.58

0.10

0.15

0.13

0.04

11.4

8B

oys

2.14

2.11

2.32

1.86

0.60

0.28

0.19

0.13

0.07

9.74

Sam

ple

2.22

1.95

2.26

2.01

0.51

0.23

0.21

0.11

0.08

9.62

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Table 7. Correlation Matrix for Dependent Variables—Girls


Asians —Europeans .82** —Hispanics .85** .84** —Blacks .84** .73** .80** —Sociability 2.29** 2.33** 2.27* 2.26 —Aggressive .12 .09 .23* .17 2.15 —Isolated .04 .05 .04 .05 2.27* .01 —Minority Acceptance 2.49** 2.42** 2.43** 2.36** 2.32** 2.16 2.05 —Minority Rejection .28** .19 .21 .27* 2.21* .62** .11 .17 —Interracial Nominations 2.25* 2.22** 2.25* 2.06 .27* 2.19 2.02 .39** .26** —

*p , .05. **p , .01.

variable than those is the no or low-quality interracial friendship group (t 5 22.43,p , .01).

Social Competence Hypothesis: Aggressive. For males, there were no signifi-cant differences between groups on the aggressive variable. For females, the high-quality interracial friendship group scored significantly lower on the aggressivevariable than those in the no or low-quality interracial friends group (t 5 1.98,p , .05).

Social Competence Hypothesis: Isolated. There were no significant differ-ences between groups for males or females on the isolated variable.

Correlational Analysis

In an attempt to explain the stronger pattern of findings characteristic of femalesin this study as compared with males, correlations between the dependent variableswere calculated separately for boys and girls; the correlation matrices are presentedin Tables 7 and 8. These tables indicate that for girls, significant correlations werepresent between their racial attitudes and both the ratings of social competencegiven to them by peers and minority group acceptance as reflected in their peernominations. For boys, there were no significant correlations between these groupsof variables.

DISCUSSION

Results From Present Study

The results of the present study suggest that fifth-grade girls with high-qualityinterracial friendships have greater multicultural sensitivity and social competencethan fifth-grade girls who have no and low-quality interracial friendships. Theresponses of girls in the high-quality interracial friendship group on the SGS andRCP indicated that these children showed less social distance toward European,

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Table 8. Correlation Matrix for Dependent Variables—Boys


Asians —Europeans .80** —Hispanics .87** .87** —Blacks .86** .76** .83** —Sociability .00 2.05 2.08 2.06 —Aggressive 2.14 2.14 2.12 2.12 2.21* —Isolated 2.03 .02 .04 2.01 2.28** .18 —Minority Acceptance .06 .04 .08 2.00 .30** 2.12 .05 —Minority Rejection 2.05 2.03 2.06 2.01 2.15 .64** .17 .05 —Interracial Nominations .08 .22* .12 .05 .08 2.24* 2.11 .20 2.15 —

*p , .05. **p , .01.

Asian, and Hispanic groups; had significantly less minority rejection; more diversesocial networks as determined by the number of interracial nominations made onthe RCP; and were considered by their peers to be more sociable and less aggressivethan girls in the no and low-quality interracial friendship group. These differenceswere not present for boys in the study.

The differential results for boys and girls in the present study are partiallyexplained by the finding that for girls, there were significant correlations betweenthe racial attitudes variables (i.e., social distance toward Asians, Europeans, Hispan-ics, and blacks) and both the social competence variables (sociability, aggressiveness,and isolated) and the minority acceptance variables (minority acceptance, minorityrejection, and interracial nominations). These correlations were not significant forboys in the study. These results suggest that girls’ attitudes are linked to observablebehavior more than appears to be the case for boys. Thus girls in this study withhigh-quality interracial friendships may have demonstrated greater multiculturalsensitivity because they evaluated other racial groups in terms of the positivebehavior displayed by their interracial friends. Boys’ ratings of competence appearunrelated to their racial attitudes, and these attitudes appear to influence their peernomination patterns.

The Present Study in Comparison With Past Research

Previous research has not directly examined the relationship between interracialfriendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competence in children. There areseveral interesting comparisons between the results of the present study and pastresearch on the contact hypothesis and interracial friendships.

The finding that girls with high-quality interracial friendships showed greatermulticultural sensitivity than girls with no and low-quality interracial friendshipssuggests Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis may be influenced by gender. Accordingto this hypothesis, increased interracial contact is likely to lead to more soundbeliefs about minority groups and less prejudice, provided that the contact is be-

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tween people or groups of equal status, intimate, encourages cooperative interde-pendence, and is socially approved by authority figures.

The present study assessed friendship quality in terms of intimacy; opportunitiesfor companionship, play, and recreation; extent of sharing, help and guidance; andextent of validation and enhancement of self-worth (Parker & Asher, 1993). Thesedimensions are similar to the criteria for favorable contact situations. Thus accordingto the results of this study, girls with high-quality interracial friendships presumablyengage in favorable contact situations, and this contact enhances their multiculturalsensitivity. Girls with low-quality interracial friendships, although in contact withmembers of diverse minority groups, do not meet the criteria for favorable contactsituations and therefore do not make any gains in multicultural sensitivity.

The finding that there were no significant differences in terms of multiculturalsensitivity between boys in the high-quality interracial friendship group and thosein the no and low-quality interracial friends group suggests that boys’ multiculturalsensitivity is not greatly influenced by contact. Thus boys may continue to holdnegative racial attitudes despite favorable contact with members of different racialgroups.

An extensive amount of research has been carried out on the racial compositionof children’s friendships. With few exceptions (Dubois & Hirsch, 1990), this researchhas shown that interracial friendships are a rarity among school children (e.g.,Clark & Ayers, 1992; Hallinan, 1982; Hallinan & Teixeira, 1987; Tuma & Hallinan,1979). The results of the present study are in sharp contrast to those obtained byprior studies indicating children rarely make friends with children of another race.Most participants in the present study nominated at least one different-race friendor best friend. Only 15.3% of participants did not nominate any different-racefriends or best friends.

Schools in prior studies examining children’s interracial friendships often havebeen composed of mainly black or white students (e.g., Hallinan & Tuma, 1979).The present study was conducted at a racially diverse school. This factor partiallyaccounts for why there is such a sharp contrast between the number of studentshaving interracial friendships in this study as compared with other research.

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

The results of the present study do not specify the nature of the relationshipbetween high-quality interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and socialcompetence. The results suggest a causal relationship between these factors. Thatis, high-quality interracial friendships lead to multicultural sensitivity, which in turnenhances social competence in a diverse school setting. This, however, is only oneinterpretation of the data.

There are alternative explanations for why girls in this study with high-qualityinterracial friendships rated higher on measures of multicultural sensitivity andsocial competence. These girls may have high-quality interracial friendships becausethey have multicultural sensitivity. In other words, the positive racial attitudes anddemonstrated acceptance of minority groups characteristic of these girls may makethem more inclined to develop high-quality interracial friendships. If this is the case,

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intervention programs should focus directly on developing multicultural sensitivityrather than promoting interracial friendships.

There may be an intervening variable between the development of high-qualityinterracial friendships and multicultural sensitivity. For example, parental attitudes,a factor that was not assessed in the present study, may influence the developmentof interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, or the impact either of thesefactors have on each other. Another such variable may be socioeconomic status,which may influence the opportunity to develop interracial friendships outside aschool setting.

The inability of this study to specify the exact nature of the relationship betweenhigh-quality interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competenceis a primary limitation. However, the findings give impetus to additional researchto determine whether high-quality interracial friendships lead to multicultural sensi-tivity, multicultural sensitivity leads to the development of high-quality interracialfriendships, or these factors are influenced by another factor, such as parentalattitudes.

Future research on the relationship between multicultural sensitivity, interracialfriendships, and social competence could be enhanced in several ways. Unlikethis study, which relied exclusively on student-completed questionnaires to assessinterracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competence, subsequentstudies may add teacher-completed questionnaires and in vivo observations.Teacher-completed questionnaires would offer another perspective on the socialcompetence of children. Observations on the playground or other contexts in whichchildren are relatively unconstrained in choosing their companions would providean assessment of the racial composition of children’s social networks and the rela-tionship between whom children say are their friends and with whom they actuallyplay.

An assessment of parental racial and ethnic attitudes would also benefit futureresearch. Such an assessment would help determine whether such attitudes serveas a mediating factor between interracial friendships and multicultural sensitivity.

The present study was conducted in a school with an extremely diverse studentpopulation. Future research should be conducted in schools with varying degreesof diversity to determine if the relationship between interracial friendships, multicul-tural sensitivity, and social competence is influenced by the racial composition ofa school.

Longitudinal research would be valuable to specify the nature of the relation-ships between these factors and to indicate whether the higher levels of multiculturalsensitivity and social competence this study found in girls with high-quality interra-cial friendships remain constant over time.

Lastly, the present study provides an impetus to examine gender differencesfurther in multicultural attitudes, friendship patterns, and competence. The findingthat boys in this study with high-quality interracial friendships did not rate higherin multicultural sensitivity and social competence than boys with no or low-qualityinterracial friendships was somewhat surprising and disappointing. Given that theremay be potential benefits of interracial friendships, an examination of gender-linked

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family, school, and peer-based socialization and reinforcement patterns may uncoverthe mechanisms allowing such benefits to be conveyed or withheld.

Implications

Educational. Research on cooperative learning has often used the numberof friends of a different race as an index of the effectiveness of a cooperativelearning method (e.g., DeVries et al., 1978; Rooney-Rebeck & Jason, 1986; Slavin,1985; Weigel et al., 1975). This research typically has not examined whether devel-oping interracial friendships as a result of cooperative learning in the classroomleads to positive racial attitudes and demonstrated acceptance of minority groups.The present study suggests one pathway to conceptualizing the value of cooperativelearning as a method for promoting multicultural sensitivity is through the develop-ment of interracial friendships. Cooperative learning encourages students to workin groups that are heterogeneous in terms of race, gender, ability, and so forth. Ifcooperative learning is applied in a way that incorporates Allport’s (1954) stipula-tions for positive contact situations, the results of the present study suggest that it willlead to greater multicultural sensitivity through its facilitation of the development ofinterracial friendships.

If high-quality interracial friendships facilitate multicultural sensitivity and so-cial competence in girls, as the results of this study suggest, school-based interven-tions aimed at increasing interracial friendships such as cooperative learning tech-niques and the human relations approach are likely to prove successful in reducingthe racial bias and lack of multicultural awareness that pervades schools today. Thegrowing ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity of school populations necessitates thedevelopment of intervention programs that address multicultural issues. The presentstudy suggests that fostering interracial friendships among children is one way ofaddressing these issues that is likely to prove successful, at least for girls.

Clinical. The results of the present study also have clinical implications. Girlsin this study with high-quality interracial friendships were considered more sociallycompetent by their peers than girls with no or low-quality interracial friendships.Specifically, girls with high-quality interracial friendships were considered by theirpeers to be more sociable and less aggressive and isolated than girls without thesetypes of friendships.

Poor social competence is associated with psychosocial difficulties in children.The present study suggests that for girls in diverse settings, the ability to form high-quality interracial friendships and the multicultural sensitivity associated with thisability is important in the development of social competence. If this is the case,girls in diverse school settings will need to develop the ability to form high-qualityinterracial friendships to improve their social competence in these settings andbenefit from the preventive effects of social competence.

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Interracial Friendships, Multicultural Sensitivity, and Social Competence: How Are They Related?

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