07.02.2024«Down and out? the role of household income in students’ friendship formation in school-classes» - new study by Isabel Raabe et al.

«Down and out? the role of household income in students’ friendship formation in school-classes»

Published in Social Networks, Vol. 78 on January 6th, 2024 byDr. Isabel Raabe (Department of Sociology UZH), Chaïm la Roi and Stephanie Plenty (Stockholm University).

The study led by the University of Zurich set out to examine whether parental income influences social relationships in the classroom. The researchers analyzed data – obtained from surveys and administrative databases – relating to 4,787 Swedish children aged 14 and 15 in 235 school classes. They also analyzed the young people’s friendship networks. The findings reveal that adolescents from low-income families are less socially integrated than their peers from higher-income families, irrespective of the school’s socioeconomic context.

Link to open access study:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2023.12.003

Deutschlandfunk Nova has aired a broadcast discussing the study on Jan 26th, 2024:

Listen in (German):
https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/soziologie-freundschaften-haengen-auch-vom-geldbeutel-ab