This study examines developmental change across adolescence in the similarity of friends versus nonfriends. This differential in similarity is a key aspect of the organization of the peer context of development: The stronger the correlation between friends for an attribute, the more the attribute delineates clustering and divisions of friendships. We investigated change in the correlation between friends across 12 attributes covering demographics, orientations to key institutions (family, school, religion), and problem behavior, and we expected that the link between similarity and friendship would increase during adolescence for most attributes other than gender. We also predicted that the social ecological factors of school size and attribute variability would be associated with stronger correlations between friends and partially mediate developmental change. Data are from two grade cohorts of 27 small school districts, followed from sixth through 11th grades (N = 454 time-specific networks and over 65,000 person/waves of data; 84.2% White, 6.8% Hispanic/Latino, 3.2% African American, 1.3% Asian, .5% Native American, 3.9% other or multiple). The data analysis takes the form of a three-level random effects meta-analysis of network level correlations between friends (Moran's I). As expected, declining dominance of gender was offset by the emergence of moderate correlations across a broader profile of attributes. The ecological opportunity factors of grade cohort size and attribute variability significantly mediated these increases in correlations between friends, accounting for 23 to 73% of age-related change for 10 of the 11 attributes other than gender. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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青春期朋友与非朋友的相似性：发展模式和生态影响。

这项研究考察了青春期朋友与非朋友相似性的发展变化。这种相似性的差异是同伴发展背景组织的一个关键方面：朋友之间的属性相关性越强，该属性就越能描述友谊的聚类和划分。我们调查了朋友之间相关性在 12 个属性上的变化，包括人口统计、对关键机构（家庭、学校、宗教）的取向以及问题行为，我们预计，对于除性别之外的大多数属性，相似性和友谊之间的联系在青春期会增加。我们还预测，学校规模和属性变异等社会生态因素将与朋友之间更强的相关性相关，并部分调节发展变化。数据来自 27 个小型学区的两个年级组，从六年级到十一年级（N = 454 个特定时间网络和超过 65,000 人/波的数据；84.2% 白人，6.8% 西班牙裔/拉丁裔，3.2% 非裔美国人， 1.3% 亚洲人，0.5% 美洲原住民，3.9% 其他或多个）。数据分析采用朋友之间网络级相关性的三级随机效应元分析（Moran's I）的形式。正如预期的那样，性别主导地位的下降被更广泛的属性中出现的适度相关性所抵消。年级群体规模和属性变异等生态机会因素显着介导了朋友之间相关性的增加，在除性别以外的 11 个属性中，有 10 个属性占年龄相关变化的 23% 至 73%。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。