Why Can't We Be Friends: Why Religious Congregational-Based Social Contact Matters for Close Interracial Friendships Among Adolescents

I explore the role of congregational racial composition on adolescent interracial friendships. I hope to make two contributions. (1) Little is known about adolescents in multiracial congregations so by focusing on them, I add to this line of research. (2) I suggest that those interested in adolescent interracial friendships need to pay attention to the racial composition of their religious congregations. Using contact theory, I hypothesize that adolescents attending multiracial congregations are more likely to have close interracial friendship than those attending uniracial congregations. I also expect increased interracial social contact in schools and neighborhoods to increase the likelihood of adolescent close interracial friendships. I use National Study for Youth and Religion Wave (NSYR) 1 data. The findings suggest that increased intteracial social contact in religious congregations has a significant positive effect on close adolescent interracial friendships. School racial composition also has a positive effect, but neighborhood is not significant.