Abstract
Prosocial behavior and peer problems are an important correlate of academic development; however, these effects vary by achievement measures and social behaviors. In this paper, we examined data from the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS), and we use structural equation modeling (SEM) to model the effects of prosocial behavior and peer problems on grades and competencies for both math (n = 3,310) and reading (n = 3,308) in grades 5 and 7. Our models account for the moderating effect of both gender and socioeconomic status (SES) as determined by parental education. We conclude that social behaviors relate to grades more strongly than competencies, that peer problems relate more strongly to achievement than prosocial behavior, and that the relationship is weaker in later grades. We discuss the implication that grades and achievement tests are not interchangeable measures for educators and researchers.
Highlights
Academic progress can be measured in multiple ways including grades and achievement scores, but these methods are not interchangeable
We model the relationship between social behaviors, competency, and grades with data from National Education Panel Study (NEPS), in order to unravel which academic measures correlate with social behavior
We focused on a small subset of the collected data for our models: math competency, math grades, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores for the subscales of peer problems and prosocial behavior, gender, and parental education level
Summary
Academic progress can be measured in multiple ways including grades and achievement scores, but these methods are not interchangeable. Social behaviors are an indirect predictor, they can broadly predict future academic success (Durlak et al, 2010). Due to their indirect nature, sufficiently large-scale studies are required to discern the differential relationship social behaviors have with both grades and achievement scores. We model the relationship between social behaviors ( prosocial behavior and peer problems), competency, and grades with data from NEPS, in order to unravel which academic measures (grades vs achievement scores) correlate with social behavior
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