The Untapped Power of Schools to Improve the Health of Teens

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Students were asked to identify, by name, their five closest malefriends and their five closest female friends. These weretabulated and analyzed by the criteria listed below.School Network DensityThe ratio of the number of nominations observed to thenumber of possible nominations in the school.School CentralizationMeasuring Friendship GroupsAre cliques separated or overlapping? If two people are friends,their friendship distance is one. A friend of a friend is two stepsaway, and a friend’s friend’s friend is three. The average distancebetween all reachable pairs in the school was measured.Highly centralized school social structures are those inwhich cliques are separate (not overlapping).Lesser centralized school social structures have a looselytied web of interconnecting relationships.School Network SegregationRegardless of any one student’ssocial position in school, she or he willbe affected by the overall pattern offriendship groups in the school. Schoolconnectedness is higher for all studentswhen:■ Social cliques in the school areoverlapping and students havesocial ties to multiple cliques.■ There are multiple, reciprocatedfriendships (e.g., two studentseach identify the other asfriend).■ The most popular students ina school are academicallymotivated and get good grades.■ Friendship groups are integratedby race and gender.Gender — The extent to which the friendships include boysand girls.Race/Ethnicity — The extent to which the friendship groupsin the school include Blacks and Whites.Individual Friends Nominated from Outside of SchoolStudents were allowed to nominate friends both inside and outsidethe school. This variable measures the extent to which thefriendship choices of students are oriented outside the school.Indiviudal Measure of Popularity and IsolationStudents who are among the top 10% most often nominatedstudents in the school.Students who neither nominated any friends, nor receivednominations from others in the school.14
Panel AWhiteel B.BlackMixed/OPanel APanel B●●●WhiteBlackMixed/OtherMAPPING FRIENDSHIP GROUPSThe integration of friendship groups across lines of race, gender and social status enhances students feeling ofconnectedness to school.The figures above show how social scientists map social networks. Each circle on the maps above represents a student,and each line depicts a friendship selection made. Clusters of connected circles are friendship groups; circles on theperimeter with no connecting lines reveal socially isolated students.Panel A is a map of a large school with relatively equal numbers of White students and Black students.There are twolarge friendship groups made up predominantly of Black students.There are also two predominantly White friendshipgroups. Other minority students are well represented throughout the school’s social network. In this racially integratedschool, Black and White students have formed segregated friendship groups.To a lesser extent friendship groups tend to segregate themselves by socioeconomic status and gender as well.Theresult is a lower level of connectedness among most students.Panel B depicts a school that is predominantly White. Students of color are equally represented in each of the fivefriendship groups. When friendship groups are integrated in this way, school connectedness tends to be higher.In both schools there are students with no friends. Not surprisingly, these students feel the least connected to school.Many schools have implemented strategies to identify these young people and help link them into the school’s socialfabric.15
Page 9 and 10: Measuring School Connectedness*Scho
Page 11 and 12: School SizeStudents in smaller scho
Page 13: Teacher QualificationsAlthough it i
Page 17 and 18: EpilogueThis is the third in a seri
Page 19 and 20: The second monograph, ProtectingTee

The Untapped Power of Schools to Improve the Health of Teens

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