The importance of Spanish-language similarity in friend selection

The present study was designed to disentangle the contributions of Spanish-language similarity and Hispanic background in the selection of school friends. Participants were drawn from two cohorts that included 491 students (291 girls, 200 boys; 45.8% European American, 28.7% Hispanic American, 22.0% African American; 166 students reported speaking Spanish at home) attending public primary (third-fifth grade; range = 8-10 years old) and middle (sixth-seventh grade; range = 11-13 years old) schools in Florida. Students nominated friends from a roster of same-sex classmates. Self-reports of ethnicity and whether Spanish was spoken at home were collected from students. Logistic regression and multilevel analyses indicated that classmates were more likely to be nominated as friends when both the target and the nominator spoke Spanish at home, even after accounting for the contribution of shared Hispanic background. In contrast, after accounting for the contribution of shared Spanish language, targets were not more likely to be nominated as friends when both the target and nominator reported a Hispanic background. We conclude that although there is considerable overlap between those who speak Spanish at home and those who identify as having a Hispanic background, similarity on the former is the more important determinant of friend selection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).