From my minority friends’ perspective: sharing minority perceptions of inequality in ethno-racially diverse friend groups

Abstract

Perceptions of inequality are highly consequential and ethno-racial minority members often face unequal treatment, but we know little about minority influence on perceptions of inequality. Therefore, we ask whether ethno-racial minority youth’s inequality perceptions are shared in diverse friend groups. Using Belgian CILS data among stratified random samples of 1800 ethno-racial minority & 1700 majority youth nested in 433 classes across 69 schools (2 waves), we combined social network data with longitudinal multilevel modeling. Ethno-racial minority and majority youth alike shared perceptions from minority friends; mainly majority youth also shared perceptions from majority friends. Only minority friendship effects are replicated longitudinally. The findings suggest minority influence so that youngsters perceived inequality from their minority friends’ perspective.

Keywords

• Minority influence
• perceptions of inequality
• intergroup contact
• ethno-racial diversity
• friendship