Fostering Friendships Through Collaborative Reasoning: A Dynamic Social Network Analysis of Adolescent Peer Relationships

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Leveraging Peer Relationships and Classroom Dynamics (Table 4)

Abstract

This study examined how Collaborative Reasoning (CR) impacts adolescents’ development of peer relationships. Participants were 474 seventh-graders from eight classes at a rural middle school in China. Half of the classes (238 students) participated in CR discussions, while the other half (236 students) received direct instruction (DI). Dynamic social network analyses of adolescents’ friendship networks showed that the CR group showed a peer selection effect, indicating that students actively choose peers with similar personal characteristics to form new friendships. However, the DI group exhibited a peer influence effect, meaning that students form peer relationships based on preexisting social structures. These results suggest that collaborative contexts provide students with more freedom to form their own peer relationships.

Authors

• Shufeng Ma, East China Normal University

• Xuan Li, East China Normal University