An article by George E. Dickinson published in the August 1975 issue of the Journal of Marriage and the Family, pages 602-605

Dickinson, George E.

English

Morehead State University

Dating Behavior of.Black anq White Adolescents Before and After Desegregation* I I GEORGE E. DICKINSON•• I Gustavus Adolphus Colll'ge 1 Black untl H•hite udoh•sceut dating. behavior ht:/Ur(' and. a.Ji.,•r dt's}gr<'gatiun in a Northeast T(•xas Con1111unirl' u·us unalvzed. Qut~stio1111uires h•er1• ad111'i11is1,•red i11 the seg.r<'guted high schools i11 i964 and ihe d<!segreguted high schwl iii 1974 (N's are 367 u11d 432, respectively). Eighteen multiple-choice questions were rrspo11ded to by u•11th. (•h•ve11th. and tn•effth graders. Chi-square tests and o-ue- and tu•o-H1ay unu(yses o(r,1rianct• H'c're used iu data analysis. E1•ide11ct• was.J'ound to ."iup11ort. the hypothesis 1i1at blal·ks' datii1g beha1•ior has changed ill tire direction <~(u•hites, u·hih.• it·hites.havt• ,·haugt•d only slight(\' Ol'<'r ri111e. It is suggesreJ·rhat r£:/'er£•nce grou1J fheory helps lo ,•xp/ain this chauge. I At.lolcscencc in. American society has always been a rinte of breaking away from or joining with est<1blished n1odcs of living . ... The winds of change arc blowing particularly hard in 1hc South, shaking the roots of old mores and laws al111os1 out of their soil. leaving them ex-posed and tender: Southern adolescents ... are perhaps the most· vulnerable to these changes. (Powell. I 97J,46-47) Some ·evidence in the literature suggests a change in behavior of black> in the direction of the numerically dominant group. For example. Frumkin (1954) found that a change in black family organization is taking place in ·the direction of "white norms and ideals." Frumkin's conclusion is substanti· ated in a more recent study by King, Abernalhy; and Chapman (1974). The importance ofbo!h the family and peer group in the development of values of the adolescent has been pointed out, but most investigaiions have concentrated upon the. influence of the family (Wilson, I 959). However, a growing body of research points to the conclusion that peers in some areas are·at least as effective if not more potent than parents in their capacity to influence the behavior of the child (Bronfenbrenner, 1970:232). . •The author is grateful to Al gene A. Pearson, Floyd M. Martinson, Peter Worland, J. Steven Picou, two .anonymous reviewers of this journal for their comments and suggestions, and to the Gustavus Research Fund for fin3.ncial support. ••Dcpartntent of Sociology, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota 56082. · "Now there is evidence, that modern youth have organized then1selves into an adolescent society, which has its o\.\o·n status. rewards, its own power structure, arid. its O\\'n norn1s" (Ramsey, 1969:28). The present study seeks to determine if this "adolescent society" exists between racial groups soon after desegregation by ascert~ining if the peer influences regarding dating behavior are interracial. The 1964 .tudy by the a •thor revealed significant differences in black and white dating behavior in ai racially segregated co1nn1unity. 1 '. With black and white' adolescents being placed in the same social milieu of the desegregated school and thus· ~eing in situations like sitting in ttie same classroon1, havin.g lol·kcrs next lo ea9h other, eating in the same cafeteria, pla)'1ing on the same athletic teams. participating in the same musical groups, and bein'g members of the san1e voluntary organizatibns, it is. assumed that interaction bet\\een .racial groups will have increased over previo.us levels when the schools were segrcgated.j With· increased social interc9urse the t\\'O 1racial gr_oups \\'iii ha,•e the opportunity to ob.serve the behavior of each other. Through such observations over time, the norms of ohe group could be internalized by the other. • Despite the continuante of intraracial dating after desegregation.I it is hypothesized ' 'See Dickinson (1971) for details 1of these differences. 602 JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY August 1975 i I I . i . I • that sinl.·c the white group is dominant. dating bchavwr of blacks will have changed n1orc over lin1c than whites and the direction of dtangc will be toward whites' behavior.' The dependent variables are age at first date. frequency of dating. activity on dates, parking on dates. requirement to be home at a certain time, specific time required to return home. and going steady; independent · variables arc race (white and black) and time (1%4 and 1974). METHODOLOGY Pruc:edur,•s Since change over tim.e and the direction of change was sought, one- and two-way an~1lyses of variance were used in analyzing the data. The Chi-square test of significance was used with the dependent variable "'activity on dates"' because of the nature of the data. The acceptable level of statistical significance is p <.OS. According to Hsu and Feldl's article entitled "The Effect of Limitations on the Number of Criterion Score Values on the Significance Level of the F-tesf" (1969), it is assumed that when using the F-test with score values as found in this study the Nin each of the four groups by race and tin1e will be equivalent. Thus, equal N random samples were selected for each analysis to satisfy this assumption (also see Dunlap's "F and Chi-square as Approximate Tests with Binomial Data." 1974). By assigning scores to the data at the ordinal level of measurement so that the means for each group can be calculated. analysis of variance is possible. Just to be consistent, coded scores were assigned to all data for which analyses of variance were used. · Source of Data The population from which data were obtained for this investigation was composed of the sophomore, junior. and senior classes of the two high schools in 1964 and the desegregated high school in 1974 in a northeast Texas community (population in 1970 was 5007). The school system was 1Two-thirds of the high school population is White. 'It should als11 be noted that the school system i.s dominated by wh_ites with an all-white school board, a white superintendent, a_nd a white high school principal. Thus. with decision-makers of the school system being white. political dominance by whites is suggested. desegregated in 1970. The number of respondents in 1964 wl.s Jo7 (260 whites and 107 black•) with a to'tal uf 432 adolescents (289 whites and 143 .blacks) responding in 1974. The respondents' both in 1964 and 1974 constituted 87 per 'cent or the student enrollment. Less thaq one per cent of the students present un the days the question-naires were administet1ed refused to complete the questionnaires. The other students were absent on the days Or administration. No ' attempt was made to follow up the absentees. I R<•search lllstrument I The research instru1ment was a question-naire administered during the school .day by the author in all English classes of the tenth. eleventh, and twelfth grades in both the 1 %4 and 1974 studies. The 18 multiple-choice q~cstions in the 1974 s'urvey were taken from the 1964 questionnaire which contained a total of 56 questions. I FINDINGS I• Age at First Date Since the two-way inalysis of variance of age at first date revealed a significant interaction (p < .001) between race and time (sec Table !), the 1 simple effects were analyzed by means of one-way analyses of variance. The mean age of firsr date for blacks changed from 14.91 years in 1964 to 13.93 in 1974.' This difference was sig-nificantly different (F ;= 12.05, df = 1/184, p < .001). While age for first date lowered for blacks over the decade, whites changed less wi.th the age i actually increasing slightly-from 13.59in,1964 to 13.88 in 1974. This difference was not statistically different. A statistical difference between whites and blacks was found for 1964 (F = 49.15, df = 1/184, p < .OOli while no statistical difference was found fdr 1974 suggesting that the gap between the races for the age at first date has narrowed c.ohsiderably over time. While blacks are bcgihning to date a year earlier than in· 1964,I whites are actually dating slightly later than in 1964. These data give support to the hypothesis that black dating behavior has ch'anged more over time than for whites with t1ie direction of change being toward white behavior. I 1 Means reported are calculated .from the total number of respondt:nts. ; August 1975 JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 603 ' TABLE I. rnl·()llENCY OISTRIBLITION (IN PERCENTAGESJ AND ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE UF AGE AT FIRST OATE HY YEAR AND !!ACE' . Whites Blacks Age at First Pate 1%4 9 ·O . 10 3 II 3 12 "14 13 23 14 J4 15 16 lb 5 17 2 (N) (244) 1974 J 0 l 11 19 30 25 10 I .<272) ·196:1. 0 j i I 5 22 36 .28 4 (98) 1974 7 l l 8 17 23 22 15 6 (133) Source Sum of Squares d.f Mean Square FI Time b.19 l 6.19 2.B3 p NS <.001 <.001 Race 42.68 l 42.68 19.SI Timex Race JI.JS 1 31.35 14.34 Error 804. 90 368 2.19 r •Jn the lQ/:14 survey 12 whites and q blacks had never had a date; the 1974 survey sho_wed that 11 whites and 7 blacks had never hat! a date. The analysis of variance was run with a randomly selected sa.mple of 93 for each of the four group~ so that each group would have an equal N. 1 Freqll<'llC.\' t~(Datin°g· As can be seen in Table 2 the difference in frequency of dating for blacks and whites over time is slight and docs not show an interaction of time and race at the .05 level. Thus, these data do not support the hypothesis that black dating behavior has changed more over time than white behavior. Al·tb•iry on /)ates Most frequent type of activity on dates for blacks and for whites .revealed a statinically significant change in distribution over time (p < .001) using. the' Chi-square test (see Table 3). The Chi-square test was used rather than analyses of variance due to the nature of the data. Whites changed slightly from 13 per I cent attending parties and dances in 1 %4 to 17 per cent in 1974 while the most frequent activity of .blacks changed from 75 per cent going to parties and dances in 1%4 to.only 38 per cent in· 1974. Blacks in 1974 tend ·to participate more in activities which require money like movies and driving around: These data suggest that dating activities of blacks and whites are becoming n1ore similar \vith · blacks changing more than whites with· the direction of change being toward white behavior. Thus, support is found for the ·Stated hypothesis. Each respondent· was asked if he/she "parked" on dates. Since the two-way analysis of variance of parking on dates TABLE 2. FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION (IN PERCENTAGES) AND ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF DATES BY YEAR AND RACE' \Vhites Blacks Frequency of dates 1964 1974 1964 t974 ' Less than once a month 23 t7 23. IJ Less than once a week but at least once a month 10 24 12 31 At least once a wee~ 67 59 65 56 (N) (216) (270) (88) (128) Mean Sq'uare ' Source Sum of Squares dj F' p Time .07 I .OT .Ii NS Race .23 I .23 .J~ NS Timex Race .07 I .07 .11 NS Error 213.36 344 .62 I. •Analysis or variance was rUn with a randomly selected sample of 87 for each of the four 1groups so thar each group would have an equal N. Unequal N's on the tables result from no response to some questjons by participants in the survey. · 604 JOURNAL OF MAR.RIAGE AND THE FAMILY August 1975 TABLE J. MOST FREQUENT AlflVITY ON DATI' BY YEAR ANU flACE IN l'El<CENTAGES . . . -·-===== Whites Blacks Activity 1964 I9i4 ' 1964 1974 Panie!i. 9 17 JJ n Dancing 4 0 42 27 . Movies 64 49 17 27 Driving Around 21 25 8 J3 Bowling 2 9 0 2 lN> l204) 12211 (83) (104) ' x' = 29.008,.p < .00 I, df = 4 x' = 28.09J, p < .001. df = 4 revealed ·a significant interaction (p < .01) between race and time (see Table 4), the simple effects were analyzed by means of one-way analys_es of variance. A statistical difference (F = 15.12, df = 1/194, p < ·.001) for blacks over time was found while no statistical difference for whites ove.r time was shown. The frequency distributions in Tabie 4 give further evidence of these differences with the response of white adolescents remaining basically unchanged over the decade (81 per cent "parked" in 1964 and 78 per cent in 1974) while blacks went from only 44 per cent "parking" in 1964 to the majority (76 per cent) "parking" in 1974. In looking ar racial differences within specific years a statistical difference ·(F = 28.49, df = l/194, p < .001) was noted for 1964 but not for 1974, again suggesting that the gap between the two racial groups is narrowing. Thus. "parking" in both racial groups is found to be to nearly the same degree today. This supports the hypothesis that black dating hehavior is changing more than whites and the direction of change is in the direction of white behavior. Required to be Home at.Certain Time J'rotn a Date The majority ·of whites responded in the a.tlirmative regarding the requirement io be home at a certain time from a date both in · l 964 (72 per cent) and in 1974 (70 per cent) as did the blacks in 19.64 (89 per cent) and in ·1974 (53 per cent)! Because the two-way analysis of varianc~- of requirement to be hon1e from a date at a certain time revealed a significant interaction (p < .01) between race and time (see T~ble SJ, the simple effects were analyzed by means of one-way analyses of variance. The- one-way analysis of blacks' requirein"ent to be home at a certain time sho\\·ed a significant difference over time (F = 35.02, df = 1(198, p < .001) while no statistical difference' was found for whites over time. A statistical difference (F = 7 .6 7. · ~l = 11198, p < .01) using the one-way analysis of \'ariance was found between blacks and whites for the year 1964. but no statistical difference was found between blacks and whites for the year 1974. Thus. analysis of the data pertaining to the requirement to be home from a date at a certain time supports the hypothesis that TABLE 4. FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION !IN PERCENTAGES) AND ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR PARKING ON DATES BY YEAR AND RACE• Whites Blacks Park on Dates t964 1974 1964 1974 Yes St 78 . 44 76 No . 19 22 I<~ 24 (N) (232) (272) (105) Source Sum of Squares df Mean Square 'F p I Time 1.47 I I.47 . 7.38 <.OI Race 4.08 1 4.08 20.51 < .001 Timex Race 1.99 1 1.99 10.05 < .01 Error· 77.22 J88 .20 I h . •The analysis of variance was run with a randomly selected sample of 97 for c:ach of the four groups so I at eacn group would have an equal N. I · August 1975 JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 605 i i 

Dating Behavior of Black and White Adolescents Before and After Desegregation

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Dating Behavior of Black and White Adolescents Before and After Desegregation

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