Interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competence:How are they related?

The present study used sociometric questionnaires to examine the relationsh ip between interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social c ompetence in fifth-grade children. Participants completed four questionnair es that provided information about who their friends were, friendship quali ty, racial and ethnic attitudes, and social competence. Results indicated t hat fifth-grade girls with high-quality interracial friendships indicated l ess minority rejection, more diverse social networks, and more sociability and leadership characteristics than their peers with no or low-quality inte rracial friendships. Similar results were not found for boys in the study. These findings have important educational and clinical implications.