Not Just by Walking Distance: Residential Segregation and Children’s Network Integration in the City of Bremen

How does residential segregation affect 12-year-old children’s networks of home visit with their friends? According to social exchange theory, children visiting the household of their friends’ family increases integration. Focus theory suggests that the effect of residential segregation on these visits is mediated by “intermediary” network ties of friendship and spending leisure time. Accordingly, spatial segregation influences networks of home visits by a stepwise process of network creation and intensification, and not just by walking distance. Empirical evidence is based on a school survey in the German city of Bremen and combines exponential random graph (p*) models (ERGM) for networks with path analysis. Results of direct and indirect effects are in line with focus theory: 57% of the effect of spatial proximity on ties in the visits-at-home network is mediated by ties in networks of spending leisure time together, which, in turn, is mediated by the influence of spatial proximity on ties in friendship networks.