Does X affect Y? Answering this question is particularly difficult if reverse causality is looming. Many social scientists turn to panel data to address such questions of causal ordering. Yet even in ...longitudinal analyses, reverse causality threatens causal inference based on conventional panel models. Whereas the methodological literature has suggested various alternative solutions, these approaches face many criticisms, chief among them to be sensitive to the correct specification of temporal lags. Applied researchers are thus left with little guidance. Seeking to provide such guidance, we compare how different panel models perform under a range of different conditions. Our Monte Carlo simulations reveal that unlike conventional panel models, a cross-lagged panel model with fixed effects not only offers protection against bias arising from reverse causality under a wide range of conditions but also helps to circumvent the problem of misspecified temporal lags.
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Individual preferences for same-ethnic friends contribute to persistent segregation of adolescents’ friendship networks. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the mechanisms behind ethnic homophily. ...Prior research suggests that ethnic homophily is ubiquitous, but a social identity perspective indicates that strong ingroup identification drives ingroup favoritism. Combining a social identity perspective with a relational approach, we ask whether the presumed increased homophily of high identifiers extends to all ingroup members, or whether it is conditional on the strength of same-ethnics’ identification. We propose that the strength of ethnic identification affects not only how much individuals desire same-ethnic friends, but also how attractive they are as potential friends to others. Fitting stochastic actororiented models to German adolescent school-based network panel data, we find that ethnic homophily is driven by an interplay of peers’ ethnic identification: high identifiers befriend same-ethnic peers who share their strong ethnic identification, while excluding sameethnic low identifiers. Low identifiers, in turn, tend to avoid befriending inter-ethnic high identifiers. Our relational approach reveals that ethnic homophily is hardly ubiquitous but requires strong identification of both parties of a (potential) friendship.
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BFBNIB, INZLJ, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Muslim religiosity is often portrayed as a barrier to integration into secular societies, especially in Europe. Scholars suggest that religiously segregated networks reinforce Muslims’ religiosity ...and religious identification, but solid evidence is scarce. Based on longitudinal German data, we examined whether friendship networks influence Muslim youths’ religiosity. Using stochastic actor-oriented models, we also assessed whether religiosity in turn relates to friendship choices. We found that higher shares of Muslim friends neither increase Muslim youths’ religious identification nor their frequency of prayer, but they are associated with more frequent mosque attendance. Furthermore, Muslim youths assimilated their Muslim friends’mosque attendance and frequency of prayer. Friends’ actual religious practices, rather than shared group membership, thus seems to shape individual religiosity. Finally, religiosity does not hamper interreligious friendships; it was unrelated to friendship choices. Results are similar for Christian youths, suggesting that these patterns are not unique to Muslims.
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BFBNIB, INZLJ, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
(K)eine Frage der Religion? Leszczensky, Lars
Zeitschrift für Soziologie,
6/2018, Volume:
47, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Beeinflusst Religion die soziale Integration von Migranten? Obwohl diese Frage wichtiger denn je ist, mangelt es an belastbaren Befunden. Im vorliegenden Beitrag argumentiere ich, dass Religion die ...Entwicklung
, freundschaftlicher Kontakte zu Deutschen, nicht jedoch die allgemeine Kontakthäufigkeit beeinflusst. Mit Längsschnittdaten des SCIP-Projekts zeige ich, dass die Entwicklung allgemeiner interethnischer Kontakte für christliche und muslimische Neuzuwanderer parallel verläuft. Im Gegensatz dazu nehmen enge Kontakte mit steigender Aufenthaltsdauer nur zwischen christlichen Zuwanderern und Deutschen zu, wohingegen sie für Muslime auf geringem Niveau stagnieren. In Folge dieser unterschiedlichen Verläufe bestehen nach drei Jahren Aufenthalt trotz anfänglich ähnlich gering ausgeprägtem engem Kontakt mit Deutschen substanzielle Unterschiede zwischen christlichen und muslimischen Neuzuwanderern. Diese Unterschiede sind nicht auf individuelle Religiosität, Sprachfähigkeiten und Erwerbstätigkeit zurückzuführen.
Many studies find that high shares of native friends are positively related to immigrant youths identification with the host country. By examining various immigrant groups together, these studies ...imply that having native friends matters in the same way for the national identification in different immigrant groups. In contrast, we argue that the extent to which having native friends affects immigrants national identification depends on both immigrant group characteristics and the receiving context, especially on ethnic boundaries and related group differences in perceived discrimination and the compatibility of ethnic and national identities. Analyses based on data from the National Educational Panel Study in Germany that are representative of 15-year-old adolescents in secondary schools indeed reveal pronounced group differences: While national identification of ethnic German repatriates as well as of adolescents of former Yugoslavian and Southern European origin is related to the share of native friends, as hypothesized, we do not find this association for immigrants of Turkish and Polish origin. Our finding underlines the importance of theoretically as well as empirically accounting for group differences. (Orig.).
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, INZLJ, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, PRFLJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Little is known on how ethnic minority adolescents develop acculturation profiles of identification (i.e., how they combine their ethnic and national identification, such as being high on both and ...thus rather “integrated” or high on ethnic and low on national and thus rather “separated”). In a first step, this 3-year longitudinal study classified Turkish (
n
= 344) and resettler-origin (
n
= 121) ethnic minority adolescents living in Germany (
M
age
= 14.2, SD = 1.54, 51.6% female) according to their levels of ethnic and national identification. Latent profile analyses identified four profiles (separated, integrated, medium-ethnic, low-ethnic) for the former and three profiles (separated, integrated, low-and-medium ethnic) for the latter group. Latent transition analyses revealed considerable instability of profile attributions over time. Integration declined among both groups and results provided no evidence that national group boundaries are more permeable for resettler-origin than for Turkish-origin adolescents. Additional analyses revealed that perceived ethnic discrimination affected the probability to be in a particular profile but did not moderate transition probabilities. Overall, results suggest that during early-to-mid adolescence it is increasingly difficult to uphold a dual identity.
This study investigated how students’ ethnic pride was related to variation in ethnic composition between classrooms as well as within the same classroom over time. Predictions derived from optimal ...distinctiveness theory (ODT) were tested among 13- to 14-year-old ethnic majority and minority students (N = 1,123). Lending support to ODT, a curvilinear relation between the share of same-ethnicity classmates and students’ ethnic pride was found in a cross-sectional analysis, with ethnic pride peaking in classrooms with approximately 50% same-ethnicity classmates. In line with ODT, longitudinal analyses revealed ethnic pride decreased for students who moved away from a share of 50% same-ethnicity classmates. Contrary to ODT, however, ethnic pride also decreased for students who moved closer to this point of optimal distinctiveness.
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Background: Operating schools safely under pandemic conditions is a widespread policy goal. The authors analyse the effectiveness of classroom cohorting, i.e., the decomposition of classrooms into ...smaller isolated units, in inhibiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in European secondary schools and compare different cohorting strategies. Methods: Using real-world network data on 12,291 adolescents collected in classrooms in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden in 2010/2011, they apply agent-based simulations to compare the effect of forming cohorts randomly to network-based cohorting. Network-based cohorting attempts to allocate out-of-school contacts to the same cohort to prevent cross-cohort infection more effectively. The authors consider explicitly minimizing out-of-school cross-cohort contacts, approximating this information-heavy optimization strategy by chained nominations of contacts, and dividing classrooms by gender. They also compare the effect of instructing cohorts in-person every second week to daily but separate in-person instruction of both cohorts. Findings: The authors find that cohorting reduces the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in classrooms. Relative to random cohorting, network-based strategies further reduce infections and quarantines when transmission dynamics are strong. In particular, network-based cohorting inhibits superspreading in classrooms. Cohorting that explicitly minimizes cross-cohort contacts is most effective, but approximation based on chained nominations and classroom division by gender also out perform random cohorting. Every-second-week instruction in-person contains outbreaks more effectively than daily in-person instruction of both cohorts. Interpretation: Cohorting of school classes can curb SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in the school context. Factoring in out-of-school contacts can achieve a more effective separation of cohorts. Network-based cohorting reduces the risk of outbreaks in schools and can prevent superspreading events. Funding: None. (Orig.).
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•In schools, students tend to befriend classmates as well as same-ethnic peers.•Ethnic homophily at the grade-level is more pronounced than at the classroom-level.•Measuring ethnic segregation in ...classrooms underestimates ethnic segregation.
Adolescents’ school-based friendship networks tend to be segregated along ethnic lines. But few studies have examined whether variation in network boundaries affects the degree of ethnic friendship segregation. We use rational-choice theory to argue that ethnic homophily is more pronounced for friendships between classrooms than for those within classrooms. We empirically test this hypothesis using two-wave German panel data (N=1258) and stochastic actor-oriented models (RSiena). In line with our theoretical argument, we find that the tendency to form same-ethnic friendships is indeed stronger at the grade level, which translates into stronger ethnic segregation in friendship networks at the grade level than at the classroom level. Implications for research on ethnic segregation in school-based friendship networks are discussed.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Abstract
Even in diverse schools that provide opportunities for interreligious friendships, Muslim youth disproportionally tend to be friends with Muslims rather than non-Muslims. Echoing broader ...debates about minorities’ self-segregation versus exclusion by majority group members, a key question is whether religious friendship segregation arises because of Muslims’ in-group bias or because of non-Muslims’ reluctance to befriend them. We suggest that the answer differs for Muslim boys and girls. Building on research on interreligious romantic relations and accounts of the lives of young Muslims and other ethno-religious minorities in Western societies, we propose that religious in-group bias is stronger for Muslim girls than for Muslim boys. Conversely, we expect non-Muslim youth to be more open to befriend Muslim girls than Muslim boys. Applying stochastic actor-oriented models of network dynamics to large-scale longitudinal data of friendship networks in German schools, we find that Muslim girls indeed have a strong in-group bias, whereas non-Muslim youth are not reluctant to be friends with them. Muslim boys, by contrast, have a much weaker in-group bias, but non-Muslim youth are less willing to be friends with them rather than with non-Muslims. A simulation analysis demonstrates that these gendered individual-level processes result in comparable aggregate patterns of friendship segregation among Muslim boys and girls. Religious friendship segregation thus arises because Muslim girls tend to self-segregate and non-Muslim youth are less willing to befriend Muslim boys although the latter are open to interreligious friendships. This gendered friendship-making behavior has implications for the larger question of minority social integration.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK