Estudio de las relaciones de amistad adolescente en contextos educativos de diversidad cultural

Abstract

This research, based on the relevance of friends in schools, explores the friendships that teenagers establish when interacting with peers from other cultures and the dominant culture. Particularly, the study focuses on the dyadic friendships that foreign teenagers build in school contexts. The participants were students from six secondary education institutes in Barcelona and Girona. From the total sample (n=681), 398 friend dyads were identified. Within these, 276 were co-ethnic and 122 inter-ethnic. As a primary goal, a qualitative inquiry was conducted in order to analyse the differences and similarities amongst the co-ethnic and inter-ethnic dyads in relation to socio- demographic and psycho-social variables. As a means to obtain this information four questionnaires were applied; a socio-demographic questionnaire, socio-metric questionnaire, the Friendship Quality Scale and the questionnaire about perceived academic support. The main findings of this objective indicate that co-ethnic and inter- ethnic dyads are similar in gender, age, socio-economic status and academic performance. Regarding the quality of friendship, it was possible to observe that co-ethnic dyads and inter-ethnic dyads obtain high rates when the language they use to communicate is the same used in their homes. The second qualitative objective in this study was to further investigate the differences and similarities from the meanings given to friendship in culturally diverse educational contexts. Thus, a semi-structured interview was applied to 90 students corresponding to 45 co-ethnic and inter-ethnic dyads. The results showed that the friendship history of both types of dyads starts at the institute. In relation to the aspects they considered most important within a close relationship, the co-ethnic dyads highlighted trust and company, whereas the inter-ethnic dyads emphasized, besides trust, help expectation. According to both types of dyads, the most common reasons for conflict include disagreements which generate feelings of sadness or anger. Finally, despite subtle differences, the co and inter- ethnic dyads considered mutual support as highly relevant when doing academic activities). Our results confirm that high quality friendships foster teenagers’ academic, social and individual development. Also, they emphasize the need to promote opportunities for integration which allow students to generate dyadic friendships in culturally diverse educational contexts such as Catalonia.

Date of Award	19 May 2015
Original language	Spanish
Awarding Institution	Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Supervisor	Ibis Marlene Alvarez Valdivia (Director)