WP-99-20

William J. Corrin and Thomas D. Cook

Abstract

This study compares how family, peer, school, and neighborhood contexts differ between the 5th and 11th grades for students who describe themselves as black, white, or as multiracial with or without some white heritage. When each context is rated for attributes that current theories suggest will promote positive development, we find that blacks consistently live in the worst contexts; whites almost always live in the best; multiracial students without any acknowledged white heritage live in contexts similar to those of blacks but almost always slightly better; and multiracial students with some white heritage live in contexts intermediate between those of the monoracial whites and the two non-white groups. The major exception to this last pattern is that part-white multiracial youth report being the most comfortable in social settings that vary in racial composition. The contextual differences between monoracial blacks and whites are explained in terms of a broad range of advantages whites enjoy in American society; and the generally intermediate position of multiracials with some white heritage is attributed, not to biology or income, but to their greater ability to span traditional racial boundaries between whites and minorities. Interactions between grade and racial groups are rare. Those there are suggest that multiracial youth maintain their more racially diverse friendships and continue boundary-spanning as they get older while their monoracial peers move into even more segregated social worlds.

William J. Corrin, Doctoral student, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University
Thomas D. Cook, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University