The Girl Next Door? Childhood Cross-Group Exposure and Ethnic Inter-Marriage.
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Presented by: Leonard Wendering
Does childhood exposure to ethnic out-groups influence cross-ethnic relations later in life? While scholars commonly posit that individuals raised in multicultural contexts will become more comfortable in diverse environments in adulthood, empirical validation remains constrained by insufficient data connecting childhood exposure to subsequent adult behavior. In addition, existing perspectives focus on how exposure to diversity influences members of the majority population, while neglecting the reciprocal effect on immigrants exposed to the native population and other ethnic immigrant groups.
We address these issues in the late 19th century United States, a peak period for immigration. Within this context, we study the impact of childhood cross-ethnic exposure on later-life decisions to marry an out-group partner. Using information across 39 cities from the 1880 census, we determine the ethnic background of next-door neighbors for approximately 250.000 boys aged 3 to 15 in 1880. These records are then linked to the 1900 census such that we can observe future marriage outcomes for the same group of individuals. In addition to “native-born” Americans, we also examine the effects of neighbors’ ethnicity for German and Irish immigrants, the two largest immigrant groups during this period.
Analytically, we match each exposed boy to an unexposed boy living within a close distance, who are identical in their birthplace, age, school attendance and the household head's occupational group. Therefore, we compare two similar boys in the same “neighborhood,” with the difference that one happens to live next door to an ethnic outgroup household. Additional analyses also consider whether the neighboring household contains children of the same age as the boy in question.
Initial results for American and Irish boys show that the identity of next-door neighbors generally increase the odds of later marrying the respective ethnic group. An important exception concerns German boys, for whom living next to an outgroup appears to have no effect. Taken together, these findings support conjectures about how “growing up with diversity” can reduce bias not only for major but also for ethnic minority groups, while also suggesting interesting heterogeneity deserving of further investigation.
We address these issues in the late 19th century United States, a peak period for immigration. Within this context, we study the impact of childhood cross-ethnic exposure on later-life decisions to marry an out-group partner. Using information across 39 cities from the 1880 census, we determine the ethnic background of next-door neighbors for approximately 250.000 boys aged 3 to 15 in 1880. These records are then linked to the 1900 census such that we can observe future marriage outcomes for the same group of individuals. In addition to “native-born” Americans, we also examine the effects of neighbors’ ethnicity for German and Irish immigrants, the two largest immigrant groups during this period.
Analytically, we match each exposed boy to an unexposed boy living within a close distance, who are identical in their birthplace, age, school attendance and the household head's occupational group. Therefore, we compare two similar boys in the same “neighborhood,” with the difference that one happens to live next door to an ethnic outgroup household. Additional analyses also consider whether the neighboring household contains children of the same age as the boy in question.
Initial results for American and Irish boys show that the identity of next-door neighbors generally increase the odds of later marrying the respective ethnic group. An important exception concerns German boys, for whom living next to an outgroup appears to have no effect. Taken together, these findings support conjectures about how “growing up with diversity” can reduce bias not only for major but also for ethnic minority groups, while also suggesting interesting heterogeneity deserving of further investigation.