Adolescent friendships and friend support in diverse groups

• Main Author: Rúnarsdóttir, Eyrún María
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2022
• Subjects: friendship; adolescence; friend support; ethnic origin; school diversity; vinatengsl; unglingar; vinastuðningur; uppruni; fjölbreytni í skólaumhverfi; Hoare; Newcomer; Vina; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/tuuom/article/view/3568

Supportive friends are important for all adolescents, not the least foreign origin adolescents who may face difficulties associated with migration and belonging to a minority group in the new country. Good friends can be vital to the immigrant adolescent as providers of understanding and care, sources of information, and in increasing their social network (Hartup & Stevens, 1997).Shared interests are usually central to friends but homophily, for example regarding gender, age, ethnic origin, and personality traits, is a recurrent theme in friendship relations (Hartup & Stevens, 1997). In samples of immigrant adolescents, studies find a strong tendency for same-ethnic friendships (Graham, et al., 2009; Titzmann & Silbereisen, 2009). When in challenging and stressful situations, immigrant adolescents report how friend relations with other immigrants become deeper than relations with individuals from other groups (Kim et al., 2012). Such relationships create a safe space for identity exploration, mutual support, understanding, and acknowledgment (Hoare, 2019).Children and adolescents of foreign origin in Iceland find it difficult to befriend Icelandic-heritage peers (Gestur Guðmundsson, 2013; Hermína Gunnþórsdóttir & Lilja Rós Aradóttir, 2021). They are less likely to meet friends after school, report more teasing than their Icelandic counterparts (Hrefna Guðmundsdóttir & Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, 2013) and receive less support from friends (Ingibjörg Eva Þórisdóttir, 2018).Studies have found increased preferences for cross-ethnic friendships in mixed ethnic schools (Bohman & Miklikowska, 2020) but only to a certain level, indicating that the opportunity structure partially accounts for these relationships (Leszczensky & Stark, 2020). Previous studies further indicate that ethnic homophily is stronger among newcomer youth compared to those who have lived in the new country for a longer period (Titzmann & Silbereisen, 2009).The aim of this study was to explore friendship relations by the ...