Friendship Processes and Academic Engagement: Examining the Moderating Role of Perceived Goal Structures

• In Event: 66.020 - Peer Contexts and Early Adolescent Identity and Adjustment: Peers, Friends, and Bullying

Abstract

This research investigated whether students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structures
moderates friend selection and influence processes on engagement. Two waves of data on
friendship, academic engagement, and classroom goal structures were retrieved from fifth and
sixth graders from 48 classrooms followed from fall to spring within one academic year. Social
network analyses, conducted with stochastic actor-based models, indicated that students who
perceived an emphasis on mastery goals in their classroom were more likely to select peers who
were highly engaged as friends and were more influenced by friends’ engagement. Students who
perceived an emphasis on performance goals in their classroom were less likely to select peers
who were highly engaged as friends and decreased in engagement over time.

Authors

• Huiyoung Shin, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater

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