Peer Acceptance and Motivation as Mediators of the Relationships between Students’ Social Skills and Academics

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Primary goals of early elementary school are to teach children academic knowledge in reading and math. During this time, children also continue to develop their social skills, which can be learned from interactions with teachers and their peers. Several studies have shown a positive relationship between children’s social skills and academic achievement (DiPerna & Elliott, 1999; Malecki & Elliott, 2002; Miles & Stipek, 2006; Wentzel, 1993), but there is more to explore about the mechanisms through which this occurs. One possible mechanism is social acceptance by classmates. Peer acceptance has been found to be positively related to academic achievement (Wentzel et al., 2020), and children who have strong social skills are less likely to be rejected by their classmates. Another pathway involves academic motivation, which has been found to be related to academic achievement (Coates Broussard & Garrsion, 2004). Motivation also mediates the relationship between peer acceptance and academic achievement. Integrating these prior findings, in the current study we test a model in which children’s social skills are hypothesized to impact their acceptance by peers, which in turn affects their motivation for school work. Academic motivation in turn predicts academic achievement. Thus the current study tests peer acceptance and academic motivation as sequential mediators of the relationship between social skills and academic achievement.

Participants in the current study were 142 kindergarteners and first graders from the Midwestern U.S. Children were initially recruited to participate as either controls or active participants in the Early Risers prevention intervention program (August et al., 2007) that focused on strengthening academic and social competence. Sociometric data was collected from the participants and from their classmates to obtain a peer acceptance score (liked most nominations minus liked least nominations). Teachers rated children’s social skills utilizing the BASC2-TRS (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004), while their academic motivation and reading and math competencies were measured with the ACES Teacher Form (DiPerna & Elliott, 2000). Longitudinal path models, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, were tested in Mplus using bootstrapping with 10,000 iterations to test indirect effects. Baseline data collections occurred in the spring; Time 1 and Time 2 occurred in the fall and spring, respectively, of the next academic year. Sex and SES were controlled.

Results indicated significant indirect effects linking socials skills to academic competence through the mediators of peer acceptance and academic motivation in models for both reading and math (see Figures 1 and 2). These results highlight the importance of social skills to academic achievement in the classroom. They also indicate that prevention programs should find ways to decrease the possibility of a child being rejected by their peers and ways to increase children’s academic motivation.

Authors

• Shawn L Carlson, North Dakota State University
  Presenting Author

• Joel M Hektner, North Dakota State University
  Non-Presenting Author