Propinquity in the Primary School Classroom: Associations Between Friendship and Seating Distance

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Propinquity is a foundation of interpersonal relationships. Individuals who live and work near one another are more likely to develop friendships than those farther away (see Festinger, Schachter, and Back 1963). It has long been assumed that the same principle applies in school settings. In college classrooms, seating distance is inversely related to the odds of forming new friendships (Byrne, 1961). Although we know that seating propinquity improves likeability (van den Berg, Segers & Cillessen, 2012) and popularity ratings (van den Berg & Cillessen, 2015) that adolescents confer upon neighbors, little is known about the impact of classroom propinquity on children’s friendships formation. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that classroom proximity is related to friendship.
Participants included 254 third, fourth and fifth grade students attending a public-school representative of the state of Florida in terms of ethnicity and family income. Participants completed inventories at two timepoints, 13 to 14 weeks apart. From a roster of class participants, each student identified up to 2 best friends and up to 5 additional friends (M=4.73, SD=2.31). Teachers provided details on seating arrangements the same day that students completed the questionnaires. Teachers also described the strategy used to create seating charts, which we coded in terms of whether students had input into their seat assignments. Using seating chart data, each dyad in the class received a score for three types of propinquity (see Gremmen et al., 2018). Neighbor propinquity describes whether two students were seated directly beside or across from one another. Group propinquity describes whether two students were direct or near neighbors, including those seated directly beside or across, those one seat away in the same row, and those seated diagonal to one another at the same table. Propinquity distance describes the amount of space between two students, calculated in terms of the squared Euclidean distance of the number of desks and rows separating them.
Two sets of logistic regressions were conducted. In the first set of analyses, each participant was paired with a randomly selected classmate. In the second set of analyses, each child was paired with every other child in the classroom. The dependent variables were the friendship nomination (yes or no) of the nominator for the target.
Tables 1 and 2 describe the results. When a target child was paired with a randomly selected classmate, neighbor propinquity and group propinquity were significantly associated with concurrent friendship nominations. When a target child was paired with every other student in the class, group propinquity and propinquity distance were significantly associated with concurrent friendship nominations.
We conclude that classmates who sit close together are most likely to be friends. Classroom propinquity may promote friendship formation among classmates by providing students with opportunities to affiliate (Gest & Rodkin, 2011), which in turn may enable students to identify areas of similarity, a foundation for friendship. Repeated exposure to near seated peers may also increase likeability (van den Berg & Stoltz, 2018), which in turn could make partners more interpersonally attractive.

Authors

• Sharon Faur, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Michael Joseph Yoho, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brett Laursen, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author