Research Article Ethnic Diversity and Perceptions of Safety in Urban Middle Schools Jaana Juvonen, 1 Adrienne Nishina, 2 and Sandra Graham 3 1 Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles; 2 Department of Human and Community Development, University of California, Davis; and 3 Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles ABSTRACT—Students’ perceptions of their safety and vul- nerability were investigated in 11 public middle schools (more than 70 sixth-grade classrooms) that varied in ethnic diversity. Results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicate that higher classroom diversity is asso- ciated with feelings of safety and social satisfaction. Afri- can American (n 5 511) and Latino (n 5 910) students felt safer in school, were less harassed by peers, felt less lonely, and had higher self-worth the more ethnically diverse their classrooms were, even when controlling for classroom differences in academic engagement. Results at the school level were similar to those at the classroom level; higher ethnic diversity was associated with lower levels of self- reported vulnerability (but no difference in self-worth) in both fall and spring of sixth grade. In the spirit of Brown v. Board of Education, the current findings offer new em- pirical evidence for the psychological benefits of multi- ethnic schools. The 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in 2004 and recent Supreme Court cases affirming the significance of race in higher-education admissions have sparked public dis- course on the benefits of ethnic diversity in the nation’s schools, colleges, and universities. That discourse reveals that kinder- garten through 12th-grade schooling in America has not lived up to the promise of Brown. Although the number of 5- through 17- year-old children of races other than White quadrupled between 1970 and 2000, students continue to be educated largely in ethnically segregated schools (Orfield, 2001; Pettigrew, 2004). For example, African American children were more likely to attend schools with an African American majority in 2000 (70%) than at any time since the 1960s (Pettigrew, 2004). Latino stu- dents are even more likely than African American students to attend schools serving predominantly ethnic minorities (Orfield & Lee, 2006). When reflecting on the legacy of Brown in light of such statistics, it seems timely to reexamine the psychological benefits associated with ethnic diversity in schools. Although much research on desegregation followed the Brown decision, that empirical literature is limited in helping to clarify the psychological effects of ethnic diversity in today’s schools. Studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s typically examined the effects of racially mixed educational environments on Black students’ achievement or self-esteem in predominantly White schools (see Pettigrew, 2004; Schofield & Hausmann, 2004). Ethnicity was limited to two groups and often confounded with numerical representation (i.e., Whites the numerical majority, Blacks the minority), as well as social class. Although much of the earlier research on self-esteem was inconclusive (e.g., Epps, 1975; St. John, 1975), several studies indicated that African American students displayed higher self-esteem when they at- tended racially segregated rather than integrated schools, a finding that sheds little light on the psychological benefits of greater diversity (e.g., Gray-Little & Carels, 1997; Verna & Runion, 1985; see review in Gray-Little & Hafdahl, 2000). How might youth benefit from a diverse student body? Re- search on college students suggests that ethnic diversity con- tributes to critical-thinking skills among White students who learn to incorporate multiple perspectives of a diverse student body (Antonio et al., 2004; Gurin, Nagda, & Lopez, 2004; Milem & Umbach, 2003). Research on adolescents reveals that racially diverse schools and classrooms facilitate cross-ethnic friend- ships (e.g., Damico & Sparks, 1986; Hallinan & Teixeira, 1987), which are presumed to reduce negative or stereotypical attitudes Address correspondence to Jaana Juvonen, Department of Psychol- ogy, UCLA Psychology, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, e-mail: juvonen@ psych.ucla.edu. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Volume 17—Number 5 393 Copyright r 2006 Association for Psychological Science