Examining Friends’ Influence on Academic Adjustment Using Longitudinal Social Network Analysis: Best Friends and Helpers

• In Event: Peers and Academics: The Influence of Peers and Peer Groups on Academic and Social Outcomes

Abstract

Friends are important to the development of achievement-related beliefs and behaviors (Kindermann, 2007; Ryan, 2001). The typical approach in socialization research is to examine children’s friends. However, early adolescents interact in many ways with their friends. They hang around with groups of friends, have intimate relationships with a restricted few, and ask certain friends for help when they need instructional support with their work. Different social ties may play different roles relevant to the academic adjustment. Specifying and examining roles beyond friends is important teasing apart and advancing our understanding of friend influence on academic adjustment.
The goal of this research is to examine two types of social ties to better understand the different facets of friend relationships and influence relevant to academic adjustment. We asked students to identify two types of friends: their best friend, and the friend whom they ask for help most often with their academic work in class. We examined (1) the associations between these two types of social relationships in early adolescent friendship networks (e.g., to what extent do students tend to turn to their best friend for help with their academic work), and (2) the role of two types of friends in academic adjustment (specifically, selection and influence processes of these types of friends in regards to changes in academic adjustment across the school year).
Students (N=587; 50% girls; 52% Black, 37% White at wave 1, N=576; 52% girls; 50% Black, 40% White at wave 2) completed surveys in the fall and spring of 6th grade. Academic adjustment characteristics were intrinsic value, academic efficacy, effortful behavior, disruptive behavior, and achievement (G.P.A from records). The associations between two types of friends were assessed using the Quadratic Assignment Procedure in UCINET. Friendship selection and influence processes were estimated with stochastic actor-based models (SIENA 4.0 R version 2.15.3).

Associations between Best Friend and Helper:
On average, the correlations between best friend and helper was 0.36 at wave 1 and decreased to 0.26 at wave 2 (p < .001), indicating that the two types of network have some overlap, but are distinctive.

Friendship Selection and Influence for Best Friend and Helper:
Results indicated that across the school year, there was a tendency for students to adopt the values and behaviors of their best friend and helper (see tables 1-3; note not all dependent variables are shown due to space limitations). Both best friend and helper were influential on effortful behavior and achievement. However, best friend and helper played a different role on disruptive behavior and intrinsic value. Best friend was influential on disruptive behavior while helper was influential on intrinsic value.
Results lend support to our proposal that specifying and examining roles beyond friends is important for a more nuanced understanding of friend influence on academic adjustment. Best friends and the friend one turns to most often for help in the classroom are often different friends and have different implications for academic adjustment.

Authors

• Huiyoung Shin, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Allison M. Ryan, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor