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Immigrant Adolescents' Adaptation to a New Context: Ethnic Friendship Homophily and Its Predictors
Author(s) -
Titzmann Peter F.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/cdep.12072
Subject(s) - homophily , acculturation , friendship , ethnic group , immigration , psychology , context (archaeology) , social psychology , adaptation (eye) , developmental psychology , peer group , sociology , political science , geography , archaeology , neuroscience , anthropology , law
Although interethnic friendships are among the best indicators of social adaptation to a new cultural context, adolescent immigrants form friendships predominantly within their own ethnic community, a phenomenon called friendship homophily. In this article, I focus on the acculturation of immigrant adolescents and on the factors that lead them to form friendships within their group, including acculturation‐related behaviors, mutual attitudes of native and immigrant groups, developmental age‐related considerations, and the context in which these adolescents live. The results present opportunities not only for reducing friendship homophily but also point to the complexity of acculturation research and the need to study side effects of adolescents' adaptation to a new context.