Peer Influence on Academic Performance: A Social Network Analysis of Social-Emotional Intervention Effects

Abstract

Longitudinal social network analysis (SNA) was used to examine how a social-emotional learning (SEL) intervention may be associated with peer socialization on academic performance. Fifth graders (N = 631; 48 % girls; 9 to 12 years) were recruited from six elementary schools. Intervention classrooms (14) received a relationship building intervention (RBI) and control classrooms (8) received elementary school as usual. At pre- and post-test, students nominated their friends, and teachers completed assessments of students' writing and math performance. The results of longitudinal SNA suggested that the RBI was associated with friend selection and peer influence within the classroom peer network. Friendship choices were significantly more diverse (i.e., less evidence of social segregation as a function of ethnicity and academic ability) in intervention compared to control classrooms, and peer influence on improved writing and math performance was observed in RBI but not control classrooms. The current findings provide initial evidence that SEL interventions may change social processes in a classroom peer network and may break down barriers of social segregation and improve academic performance.

Are there differences in ethnic majority and minority adolescents’ friendships preferences and social influence with regard to their academic achievement?

“…This echoes earlier findings from the U.S., where researchers also found selection and influence processes related to students' GPA (Flashman 2012a;DeLay et al 2016b;Rambaran et al 2016). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show social influence of school grades in a sample outside of the U.S. with an appropriate statistical model that accounts for students' tendency to choose friends with similar academic achievement.…”

“…Our analyses revealed that social influence with regard to academic achievement took mainly place between friends of the same ethnic group. Previous research using social network analysis with U.S. data had already established that friends influence each other's GPA (e. g., Flashman 2012a; DeLay et al 2016b;Rambaran et al 2016). We could show that this influence is especially strong among same-ethnic friends.…”

“…For instance, studies in the U.S. found that already preschool children prefer to interact with peers with similar levels of competences (DeLay et al 2016a). Similar results emerged among U.S. elementary students (Shin and Ryan 2014), middle school students (DeLay et al 2016b), and high school students (Flashman 2012a;Rambaran et al 2016). By contrast, the only study we are aware of that used social network methods outside the U.S. found no evidence for selection or influence based on school grades among third graders of one school in Chile (Palacios and Berger 2015).…”

“…In the selection part of the model, we first control for basic structural effects reflecting various relational mechanisms that have repeatedly been found in research on adolescents' friendships and omission of which would bias other estimates (e. g., Snijders et al 2010;DeLay et al 2016b;Rambaran et al 2016). First, the outdegree effect captures how many friends students nominated on average.…”

Peer effects on Head Start children’s preschool competency.

“…Classroom rules and norms may also directly impact the nature of peer interactions. Teachers may be able to encourage children to develop classroom norms that promote collaborative interactions and, in doing so, open the door to positive peer influence among frequent peer interaction partners (e.g., DeLay et al, 2015). By giving careful attention to patterns of peer interactions, and strategically managing peer interaction partners, educators may be able to maximize positive peer influence and prevent, or disrupt, negative influence processes in their classroom.…”