Friendship and Identity in a Language-Integrated School

The authors used a cross-sectional design to inquire about peer relations of eighty-five second and fifth grade students in two integrated Anglophone and Francophone schools in Montreal. Data on same- and cross-ethnic identification, interactive companions and mutual best friends were collected for each student. The authors' overall findings were that students had more companions from their own than the other ethno-linguistic group, but equivalent numbers of mutual best friends. Same- and cross-ethnic mutual friends were rated similarly in terms of friendship quality. The authors' exploratory in-depth interviews with sixteen students indicated that cross-ethnic relationships ran into two barriers. One was that they were limited to only a few activities and locations and so did not become personalized. The second was that in-group and out-group friends did not always mix well.

International Journal of Behavioral Development

vol. 31

no. 5

445-453

September 2007

en