Campus Conditions and College Experiences that Facilitate Friendship Across Worldview Differences

Supporting students’ friendships across social boundaries is one powerful way in which colleges and universities can contribute to the civic mission of higher education. Using data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), a national, multi-institutional study, we examined how institutional conditions and various forms of student engagement predicted the number of interworldview friendships among college students at the end of their first year on campus. Multilevel regression results identified factors at three levels of context (personal/individual, community/institution, and network/group) associated with the number of interworldview friendships at Time 2 (dependent variable). Notably, at the community/institution level, we found the availability of co-curricular opportunities for interworldview engagement to be positively associated with interworldview friendship at the end of the first year, while several other institutional features were negatively associated. At the network/group level, we found positive associations between both formal and informal social engagement and interworldview friendship at the end of the first year, while associations between academic majors and interworldview friendship varied. Although some college students may gravitate toward interworldview friendships regardless of institutional conditions, our results affirm that these relationships thrive when structures are in place to encourage social interactions and cooperation across worldview differences.