Research on adolescent friendships has typically treated these social ties differently from friendships at other stages of life or from other relationships during adolescence. To draw parallels among these literatures, this study focuses on two largely neglected aspects of adolescent friendships: their role in positive adjustment and the way in which this role varies by social structural and institutional context. In an analysis of data from 9,223 adolescents in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we found that those who had friends who liked school or did well in school had fewer academic problems than did those whose friends were less academically oriented. This potential protective role of friends did not differ by race, but it did differ by level of school disadvantage. Moreover, this moderating role of school disadvantage differed by race. These results suggest that adolescent friendships serve as social capital, the value of which is context-specific.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdlerPatriciaAdlerPeter. 1998. Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
2.
Ainsworth-DarnellJamesDowneyDouglas. 1998. “Assessing Racial/Ethnic Differences in School Performance.”American Sociological Review63: 536–53.
3.
AntonucciToniAkiyamaHiroko. 1995. “Convoys of Social Relations: Family and Friendships Within a Life Span Context.” Pp. 355–71 in Handbook of Aging and the Family, edited by BliesznerR.Hilkevitch-BedfordV., Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
4.
AseltineRobert. 1995. “A Reconsideration of Parental and Peer influences on Adolescent Deviance.”Journal of Health and Social Behavior3: 103–21.
5.
BronfenbrennerUrieMorrisPamela. 1998. “The Ecology of Developmental Processes.” Pp. 993–1028 in Handbook of Child Psychology, vol. 1, edited by DamonW., New York: Wiley.
6.
BrykAnthony S.RaudenbushStephen W., 1992. Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
7.
CernkovichStephen A.GiordanoPeggy. 1992. “School Bonding, Race, and Delinquency.”Criminology30: 261–91.
8.
ChantalaKimTaborJoyce. 1999. “Strategies to Perform a Design-based Analysis Using the AddHealth Data.”Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. WWW document: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/strategies.html.
9.
ColemanJames S.1988. “Social Capital and the Creation of Human Capital.”American Journal of Sociology94: S95–120.
10.
ColemanJames S.HofferThomas. 1987. Public and Private schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books.
11.
CookThomas D.HermanMelissa R.PhillipsM.SetterstenRichard A.Jr.2002. “How Neighborhoods, Families, Peer Groups, and Schools Jointly Affect Changes in Early Adolescent Development.”Child Development73: 1283–1309.
12.
CorsaroWilliamEderDonna. 1995. “Development and Socialization of Children and Adolescents.” Pp. 421–51 in Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology, edited by CookK.FineG.HouseJ., Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
13.
CrosnoeRobert. 2000. “Friendships in Childhood and Adolescence: The Life Course and New Directions.”Social Psychology Quarterly63: 377–91.
14.
CrosnoeRobert. 2002. “High School Curriculum Track and Adolescent Association with Delinquent Friends.”Journal of Adolescent Research17: 144–68.
15.
CrosnoeRobertElderGlen H.Jr. Forthcoming. “Family Dynamics, Supportive Relationships, and Educational Resilience during Adolescence.”Journal of Family Issues.
16.
FordhamSignithiaOgbuJohn U., 1986. “Black Students' School Success: Coping with the Burden of Acting White.”Urban Review18: 176–206.
17.
FrankKenneth A.YasumotoJeffrey Y., 1998. “Social Capital within and between Subgroups.”American Sociological Review104: 642–86.
18.
FurstenbergFrankCookThomasEcclesJacquelynneElderGlenSameroffArnold. 1999. Managing to Make It: Urban Families and Adolescent Success. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
KandelDenise. 1996. “The Parental and Peer Contexts of Adolescent Deviance: An Algebra of Interpersonal Influences.”Journal of Drug Issues26: 289–315.
22.
KubitschekWarrenHallinanMaureen. 1998. “Tracking and Students' Friendships.”Social Psychology Quarterly61: 1–15.
23.
LareauAnnetteHorvatErin McNamara. 1999. “Moments of Social Inclusion and Exclusion: Race, Class, and Cultural Capital in Family-School Relationships.”Sociology of Education72: 37–53.
24.
LeeValerie E.SmithJulia B., 1997. “High School Size: Which Works Best and for Whom?”Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis19: 205–27.
25.
LeeValerie E.SmithJulia B.CroningerRobert G., 1997. “How High School Organization Influences the Equitable Distribution of Learning in Mathematics and Science.”Sociology of Education70: 128–50.
26.
LiangK. Y.ZegerS. C., 1986. “Longitudinal Data Analysis using Generalized Linear Models.”Biometrika73: 13–22.
27.
MastenAnn S.CoatsworthJ. Douglas. 1998. “The Development of Competence in Favorable and Unfavorable Environments.”American Psychologist53: 205–20.
28.
MatsuedaRossAndersonKathleen. 1998. “The Dynamics of Delinquent Peers and Delinquent Behavior.”Criminology36: 269–308.
29.
MickelsonRoslyn Arlin. 1990. “The Attitude-Achievement Paradox among Black Adolescents.”Sociology of Education63: 44–61.
30.
MountsNinaSteinbergLaurence. 1995. “An Ecological Analysis of Peer Influence on Adolescent Grade Point Average and Drug Use.”Developmental Psychology31: 915–22.
31.
NewmanBarbara M.LohmanBrenda J.NewmanPhilip R.MyersMary C.SmithVictoria L., 2000. “Experiences of Urban Youth Navigating the Transition to Ninth Grade.”Youth and Society31: 387–416.
32.
OgbuJohn. 1991. “Low Performance as an Adaptation: The Case of Blacks in Stockton, California.” Pp. 249–85 in Minority Status and Schooling, edited by GibsonM. A.OgbuJ., New York: Grand.
33.
OlikerStacey J.1989. Best Friends and Marriage: Exchange among Women. Berkeley: University of California Press.
34.
PongSuet-Ling. 1998. “The School Compositional Effect of Single Parenthood on 10th-Grade Achievement.”Sociology of Education71: 23–42.
35.
PortesAlejandro. 1998. “Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology.”Annual Review of Sociology24: 1–24.
36.
QuaneJames M.RankinBruce H., 1998. “Neighborhood Poverty, Family Characteristics, and Commitment to Mainstream Goals.”Journal of Family Issues19: 769–94.
37.
RomoHarriet D.FalboToni. 1996. Latino High School Graduation. Austin: University of Texas Press.
38.
SampsonRobert J.MorenoffJeffrey D.EarlsFelton. 1999. “Beyond Social Capital: Spatial Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children.”American Sociological Review64: 633–60.
39.
SAS Institute. 2000. GLIMMIX Macro. Cary, NC: SAS Institute.
40.
Stanton-SalazarRicardoDornbuschSanford M., 1995. “Social Capital and the Reproduction of Inequality: Information Networks among Mexican-Origin High School Students.”Sociology of Education68: 116–35.
41.
SteinbergLaurence D.BrownB. BradfordDornbuschSanford M., 1996. Beyond the Classroom. New York: Simon and Schuster.
42.
SteinbergLaurenceMorrisAmanda Sheffield. 2000. “Adolescent Development.”Annual Review of Psychology52: 83–100.
43.
WentzelKathryn R.CaldwellKathryn. 1997. “Friendships, Peer Acceptance, and Group Membership: Relations to Academic Achievement in Middle School.”Child Development68: 1198–1209.
44.
WilcoxStevenUdryJ. Richard. 1986. “Autism and Accuracy in Adolescent Perceptions of Friends' Sexual Attitudes and Behavior.”Journal of Applied Social Psychology16: 361–74.
45.
ZhouMin. 1997. “Growing Up American: The Challenge Confronting Immigrant Children and Children of Immigrants.”Annual Review of Sociology23: 63–95.
