Exploring the Relationship of Network Centrality and Academic Performance of Female Students

Abstract

This research endeavor aims to investigate the impact of network centrality (degree, closeness and betweenness) on academic performance (CGPA) of female students in an academic advice network. Where degree centrality refers to the number of direct links that an actor has with other actors, betweenness centrality refers to the degree to which an actor lies on the geodesic paths between other actors and closeness centrality focuses on how close a member is to all other members in network. Data was collected from 182 female students enrolled in various programs at a public sector University in Baluchistan through name generators for egocentric network by Burt. Techniques of correlation and standard multiple regression analysis are employed to test the hypotheses. The results of statistical analysis revealed that high degree and betweenness centrality leads to increase academic performance of students whereas higher closeness centrality leads to decrease academic performance. The result of the study has practical implications for students’ academic life: it will aid the female students to discover structural pattern of social ties of their advice network and enhance their tendency for forming more ties related with academic advices for the achievement of excellent academic performance.