We investigate the means by which academic tracking influences students'friendship choices. We argue that the link between tracking and friendship choice is due to three dyadic bases of interpersonal attraction: propinquity, similarity, and status. Our results suggest that track placements affect friendship choices by encouraging more interaction within tracks, by causing a greater similarity among students within tracks, and because tracks are a generally recognized status hierarchy among students. Our results also indicate that these influences interact; the effects of propinquity, similarity, and status each depend on the level of the other two factors.
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Kubitschek et al. (1998) studied this question.
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