An exploration of the school ethnic context factors associated with the peer interactions of adolescents on social media

Building on research showing the association between school ethnic contexts and peer relationships, this study explored the association between adolescents' exposure to ethnic diversity in offline school contexts and the ethnic diversity of their peer experiences on social media . Five hundred and forty-three 10th grade students from three ethnically diverse high schools completed peer nominations of their best friends, who they sat with during lunch at school on 5 days, and whose social media they pay attention to and interact with the most. Using multi-level modelling, the associations of the three school ethnic diversity experiences and social media ethnic diversity were tested. Ethnic diversity among best friends and lunchtime ethnic diversity were both positively associated with the ethnic diversity of the peers with whom the adolescents interacted with and paid attention to on social media. The results are discussed in relation to the established benefits of exposure to ethnic diversity for students.