Racial identity and education in social networks

• Published in: Social networks Vol. 44; pp. 85 - 94
• Main Authors: Patacchini, Eleonora, Zenou, Yves
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.01.2016; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Adolescents; Black white differences; Educational attainment; Friends; Friendship; Higher education; Minorities; Oppositional identities; Parenthood education; Parents & parenting; Race; Racial identity; Same race; School performance; Scores; Social identity; Social networks; Students; Test scores; United States > US; Minorities; Oppositional identities; School performance
• ISSN: 0378-8733; 1879-2111; 1879-2111
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2015.06.001

•Investigate ethnic identity issues to explain differences in school performances.•Show that friendship formation can be taken as a measure of ethnic identity.•Having a higher percentage of same-race friends has a positive effect on white teenagers’ test score.•Having a higher percentage of same-race friends has a negative effect on blacks’ test scores.•The higher is the education level of a black teenager's parents, the lower is this negative effect. We investigate identity issues to explain differences in school performance between students of different races. Using a unique dataset of friendship relationships between students in the US, we show that friendship formation can be taken as a measure of racial identity. We then find that having a higher percentage of same-race friends is associated with higher test scores for white teenagers and with lower test scores for blacks. However, the higher is the education level of a black teenager's parents, the lower is this negative association, while for whites, it is the reverse. It is thus the combination of choice of friends and parents’ education that seems to be an important factor in shaping differences in school performance between students of different races but also between students of the same race.