Classroom Friendships Research Articles

Association between friendship quality and subjective wellbeing in adolescents: a cross-sectional observational study

BackgroundFriendships play a vital role in the social lives of teenagers, and friendship quality can substantially impact the adolescents’ overall health and wellbeing. This study aimed to investigate the association between friendship quality and subjective wellbeing in Northern Irish adolescents. MethodsIn this cross-sectional observational study, we used data from the second wave of the Wellbeing in Schools Survey, conducted in Northern Ireland from April 2 to May 31, 2018. This survey used a clustering sampling method and included students aged 15–19 years. The survey was approved by the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work's Research Ethics Committee, with pupil opt-in and parental opt-out consents. Participants from the survey's initial wave in 2016 were considered eligible. Data on friendship quality and classroom friendships were gathered. Subjective wellbeing was assessed using the 7-item Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Metrics for psychological wellbeing (6 items), mood (7 items), and friendship quality (6 items) were taken from the KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire. All items were rated on a 1–5 point Likert scale. We examined the association between friendship network quality and subjective wellbeing outcomes through social network analysis and network autocorrelation modelling. FindingsOf 1542 students invited, 1189 (77%) from 83 schools responded to the friendship network queries. Slightly more than half of these participants were female (609 [51%] girls and 580 [49%] boys), and the median age was 16 years (range 14–19, IQR 16–16). The median overall friendship score stood at 20 (IQR 18–26, with possible scores ranging from 6 to 30). Adjusted network autocorrelation models indicated that higher friendship quality scores were significantly associated with improved psychological wellbeing (β=0·3448, p<0·0001), subjective wellbeing (β=0·3075, p<0·0001), and a reduction in negative mood (β=–0·1934, p<0·0001). InterpretationThe study found that friendship quality had a significant association with mood, psychological wellbeing, and subjective wellbeing in adolescents. The results emphasise the value of fostering positive social relationships among adolescents, with a particular focus on the quality of their friendships. Next stages of this research include longitudinal analysis to test these associations more robustly. FundingTaibah University.

A Few Close Friends? Adolescent Friendships’ Effect on Internalizing Symptoms Is Serially Mediated by Desire for More Friends and Social Goal Orientation

Interpersonal connection is a fundamental human motivation, and the extent to which it is fulfilled is a strong predictor of symptoms of internalizing disorders such as social anxiety and depression, perhaps especially during the “social reorienting” period of adolescence. However, little is known about the contribution to this effect of the individual’s social motivations, which are intensified during adolescence. Furthermore, social goal orientation – an individual’s priorities and intentions in social interactions – is an important predictor of vulnerability to internalizing symptoms. Adolescents spend most of their waking lives in classrooms, bounded social networks with a limited pool of candidates for befriending. This study investigated whether friendships within one’s class protects against internalizing symptoms in part by reducing the desire for more classmate friendships, which may tend to promote maladaptive social goals. Participants were 423 young adolescents (M age = 13.2, sd = 0.52 years; 49.4% girls). As predicted, adolescents’ number of reciprocated classroom friendships had a protective effect on internalizing symptoms which was serially mediated by desire for more such friendships, and social goal orientation. However, only demonstration-avoidance goals significantly predicted internalizing symptoms. Unreciprocated friendship nominations were unexpectedly associated with stronger desire and more social anxiety symptoms. The results suggest that the effect of number of friends is mediated by the individual’s thoughts and feelings about their number of friendships, such that a strong desire for more friendships promotes maladaptive goals, oriented toward social status and consequently less oriented toward the cultivation of interpersonal intimacy with the friends they already have.

Show me your friends, I'll tell you your emotions: Emotional fit of immigrant-origin minority youth in cross-cultural friendship networks.

The typical emotional responses to certain types of situations differ across cultures. Being reprimanded by your teacher in front of the class may be cause for anger and indignation among pupils in one cultural context, but for anger, shame, and possibly respect for the teacher among pupils in another cultural context. The consequence for immigrant-origin minorities is that they may not fit the emotions of the majority culture. Previous research has found that minorities who have majority contact have higher emotional fit with the majority culture. In the current study, we suggest that friendships with majority peers are particularly important to minorities' emotional fit. Students (945 minority and 1256 majority) from a representative sample of Belgian middle schools completed a sociometric questionnaire on their classroom friendships and rated their emotional experiences in two situations. Multilevel models yielded higher levels of emotional fit for minority youth with many (vs. few) majority friends as well as for minorities whose majority friends are connected (vs. less connected) to each other, or who are well-connected in the majority peer network. Having majority friends predicted emotional fit over and above majority contact in general.

Friends as a language learning resource in multilingual primary school classrooms

Interactions with classroom friends may be an important contributor to first and second language development, but to date this hypothesis has not been tested. Using a longitudinal design, the current study investigated the relationship between classroom friendships and oral language development in children. In 8 classrooms, we assessed the relationship between oral language skills and classroom social networks. Across the classrooms, 165 primary school children in Austria (83 boys; 119 L2 learners; age: 6–10) were assessed on oral language proficiency at the beginning of the school year (T1) and 6–7 months later (T2). Results indicated that the more reciprocal best friendships at T1, the greater language improvement at T2. Language improvement was strongest among friends with moderate differences in language proficiency, regardless of whether students were first or second language learners. These results underline the importance of positive social relations at school for language learning broadly.

Networks in the making: Friendship segregation and ethnic homophily

Recent work focuses on how homophily (tastes for similarity) can lead to network segregation (the lack of intergroup friendships). Yet studies seldom consider whether and how levels of network segregation could also lead to the trend towards homophily over time. Instead, existing cross-sectional studies argue that intergroup exposure exacerbates homophily. By neglecting longitudinal data on changes to friendships and focusing on intergroup exposure rather than initial intergroup friendships, existing studies are likely to present an overly pessimistic view on the benefits of intergroup contact. Using longitudinal data and stochastic actor-oriented models, I study how levels of initial ethnic network segregation between students in Swedish Classrooms with “native” backgrounds and immigrant-origin students are related to subsequent levels of ethnic homophily. Results show that more initial network segregation in classroom friendship networks is linked to more ethnic homophily in network evolution, which suggests that beyond mere exposure, optimal conditions for contact and actual intergroup friendships are crucial for positive intergroup dynamics, and that their benefits can appear longitudinally.

Influence of Child Externalizing Behavior on Friendship Centrality and Reciprocity in Kindergarten Classrooms

In this study, we examine friendship centrality and reciprocity between kindergarteners who exhibit externalizing classroom behaviors and their classroom peers. Teachers nominated children who display externalizing classroom behaviors, and we collected network data via individual interviews of 411 children (mean age = 6.7 years; SD = .33) from 21 kindergarten classrooms in four U.S. schools. We found that children nominated for elevated levels of externalizing behavior were significantly less central to the classroom friendship network (over and above the contribution of language skills), and this effect was magnified for boys and students in larger classrooms. Moderator analyses revealed a significant gender by behavior interaction, where the difference between boys and girls was conditional on externalizing behavior nomination. Similar main effect results were found when predicting whether or not students had a reciprocal friendship tie. Students who received a teacher nomination for externalizing behavior had 48% lower odds of having a reciprocal friendship tie, after controlling for language skills. We found no significant moderators of the behavior–reciprocity relation. We conclude our study with a discussion of our findings and recommendations for future research and practice.

Investigating Friendship Difficulties in the Pathway from ADHD to Depressive Symptoms. Can Parent\u2013Child Relationships Compensate?

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with friendship difficulties. This may partly account for the increasingly recognised association between ADHD and subsequent depression. Little is known about the types of friendship difficulties that could contribute to the association between ADHD and depressive symptoms and whether other relationships, such as parent–child relationships, can mitigate against potential adverse effects of friendship difficulties. In a representative UK school sample (n = 1712), three main features of friendship (presence of friends, friendship quality and characteristics of the individual’s classroom friendship group) were assessed in a longitudinal study with two assessment waves (W1, W2) during the first year of secondary school (children aged 11-12 years). These friendship features (W1) were investigated as potential mediators of the prospective association between teacher-rated ADHD symptoms (W1) and self-rated depressive symptoms (W2) seven months later. Parent–child relationship quality (W1) was tested as a moderator of any indirect effects of ADHD on depression via friendship. ADHD symptoms were inversely associated with friendship presence, friendship quality and positive characteristics of classroom friendship groups. Depressive symptoms were inversely associated with presence and quality of friendships. Friendship quality had indirect effects in the association between ADHD and subsequent depressive symptoms. There was some evidence of moderated mediation, whereby indirect effects via friendship quality attenuated slightly as children reported warmer parent–child relationships. This highlights the importance of considering the quality of friendships and parent–child relationships in children with ADHD symptoms. Fostering good quality relationships may help disrupt the link between ADHD symptomology and subsequent depression risk.

The Developmental Process of Peer Support Networks: The Role of Friendship.

This study investigated the characteristics and development of peer support networks in an effort to unravel the role of friendship in this developmental process. The relationships between friendship networks and peer support networks were explored, and the influence of dyadic and triadic friendships on the development of peer support relationships was examined. Two waves of data were collected among a sample of adolescents in six Chinese junior high schools (n = 913 students from 28 classrooms; mean age = 14.13 years; 50.49% boys), and classroom friendship networks and peer support networks were analyzed. The results showed that peer support networks were sparse, hierarchical, and sex-segregated. Furthermore, peer support networks and friendship networks partially overlapped. Friends tended to have similar support-seeking and support-providing ties. Longitudinal multiplex social network analysis revealed that peer support networks changed moderately over time, and friendships played various roles in the development of peer support networks. Dyadic friendships improved the formation of peer support ties. A mutual friend improved the formation of support relationships between two students when the mutual friend chose the two students as friends, but a mutual friend also hindered or had no effects on the formation of support relationships in other cases. The implications for educators to improve peer support networks are presented, and directions for future research are discussed.

The Anatomy of Friendship: Neuroanatomic Homophily of the Social Brain and Classroom Friendships

Homophily refers to people’s tendency to like similar others. Recently, a study of college students found that those who were closer in a friendship network showed more similar neural activity while passively viewing movies than distantly connected peers. Here we ask if such neural homophily extends to brain structure: do children who like one another show similar neuroanatomy?

Examining the Effect of Personal Classroom Friendships with Online Learning

Friendships within learning environments have been established as valuable aspects of supporting student success. The literature clearly shows that: 1) a student can achieve a better grade depending on how he/she perceives the task in terms of level of difficulty, and 2) a student can perceive the level of difficulty to be more or less difficult, depending on who is in the room with him/her during the task. If task difficulty can be linked to perceived friendships in the room, then fostering friendships in a classroom could play a crucial role to improving performance. As universities continue to embrace online formats, an important question becomes how can friendships be fostered to improve student performance? We surveyed students at Bryant University to study this question. The students had completed the same marketing course, in either a traditional classroom setting, or as an online course, taught by the same professor during the same semester. Students were asked about their perceptions of the course and performance, as well as their interaction with each other and the instructor. We found that this course was able to foster friendships, despite the format, and that students themselves perceived this as a component of their own success.

Children's peer beliefs, friendlessness, and friendship quality: Reciprocal influences and contributions to internalizing symptoms.

Children's peer beliefs have been shown to mediate the link between stress experienced within the peer group and later internalizing symptoms. This study extends this research by examining bidirectional associations between children's peer beliefs, friendlessness, and perceived friendship quality (i.e., receiving provision, negative treatment) and identifying indirect pathways to internalizing symptoms. Participants (N = 366; Mage = 9.34 years, SD = .07; 196 girls) reported on their peer beliefs, classroom friendships, friendship quality, and internalizing symptoms at 3 time points across 1 calendar year. Receiving provision from friends predicted less negative peer beliefs. Negative peer beliefs predicted less received provisions from friends and higher levels of negative treatment, and, in turn, negative treatment from friends predicted higher levels of internalizing symptoms. These findings provide novel insights into how perceptions of the peer group relate to dyad-level relationship processes, including the potential contribution of peer beliefs to children's peer adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Identifying Classroom Friendships: Teachers’ Confidence and Agreement With Children

We conducted an exploratory study to investigate teachers’ confidence and agreement with children when teachers and children identified close classroom friendships. Participants comprised six kindergarten teachers and 110 children, including 26 children with disabilities. Data were gathered from a friendship nomination questionnaire completed by teachers and a friendship nomination task completed by children. On average, teachers accurately identified one peer that a target child also named as a “best friend.” Teachers also identified children selected as “very best friends” for 59% of their students when using a less conservative definition of very best friendship. Teachers reported being confident in identifying friendships, on average, for 39% of their class. However, greater confidence did not equate with more accurate reports. Although teachers were slightly more confident in their friendship reports for children with disabilities, they were also less accurate. Implications for supporting friendship development and future research are discussed.

Avoidant adult attachment negatively relates to classroom popularity: Social network analysis support for the Parent–Partner–Peer Attachment Transfer model

We propose and test one aspect of the Parent–Partner–Peer Attachment Transfer (3PAT) model. Specifically, we examined whether adults who were more romantically avoidant were less likely to be nominated as friends by their peers. Social network analysis is ideal for this investigation because it integrates individuals (nodes) and their relationships (ties) into a common framework of social associations. We predicted that avoidant romantic attachment would negatively relate to classroom popularity in peer-based social networks. In Study 1, undergraduate psychology students indicated their friendship strength with classmates and completed personality and attachment measures. After controlling for Big Five personality, which relates to social network structure, avoidant attachment was negatively related to eigenvector in degree centrality — a popularity measure. In Study 2 and using integrative data analysis (Curran & Hussong, 2009), we directly replicated this effect with identical measures. Overall, our findings supported one aspect of the 3PAT Model — partner-based avoidant romantic attachment negatively related to peer-based classroom friendships.

Network Ecology and Adolescent Social Structure.

Adolescent societies-whether arising from weak, short-term classroom friendships or from close, long-term friendships-exhibit various levels of network clustering, segregation, and hierarchy. Some are rank-ordered caste systems and others are flat, cliquish worlds. Explaining the source of such structural variation remains a challenge, however, because global network features are generally treated as the agglomeration of micro-level tie-formation mechanisms, namely balance, homophily, and dominance. How do the same micro-mechanisms generate significant variation in global network structures? To answer this question we propose and test a network ecological theory that specifies the ways features of organizational environments moderate the expression of tie-formation processes, thereby generating variability in global network structures across settings. We develop this argument using longitudinal friendship data on schools (Add Health study) and classrooms (Classroom Engagement study), and by extending exponential random graph models to the study of multiple societies over time.

Classroom-level predictors of the social status of aggression: Friendship centralization, friendship density, teacher–student attunement, and gender.

This study investigated moderating effects of classroom friendship network structures (centralization and density), teacher–student attunement on aggression and popularity, and gender on changes in the social status of aggression over 1 school year. Longitudinal multilevel analyses with 2 time points (fall and spring) were conducted on a sample of 856 fourth and fifth graders from 45 classrooms. Aggressive boys lost social status over time in classrooms where friendship networks were egalitarian (not centralized) and dense (with many friendship ties) and where the teacher and students were attuned to (shared perceptions about) who in their classroom was aggressive and popular. There were no effects for girls. Educational implications and prospects for setting-level theory, measurement, and intervention are discussed.

Associations between Prosocial Behavior, Machiavellianism, and Social Status: Effects of Peer Norms and Classroom Social Contexts

The present study focused on prosocial behavior among Chilean adolescents, and its associations with social status and Machiavellianism. Considering classrooms as a social context in which interpersonal relationships unfold, we also analyzed the effects of friendship network density, degree of peer victimization, and peer norms concerning prosocial behavior on the associations of prosocial behavior with Machiavellianism and social status. Participants were 451 9th and 10th grade students from four schools in Santiago, Chile, who completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that lower Machiavellianism and higher social status were associated positively with prosocial behavior. Classroom characteristics qualified these associations: higher victimization rates enhanced the association between social preference and prosocial behavior, whereas stronger social norms concerning prosocial behavior and sparser classroom friendship networks weakened the negative associati...

Teacher Management of Elementary Classroom Social Dynamics

Teachers and students in 54 elementary school classrooms (first, third, and fifth grades) participated in a multi-method longitudinal study of classroom social dynamics. At each of three assessments within a single school year, observers rated teacher–student interaction quality, students completed sociometric assessments and reported on their sense of peer community and school bonding/motivation for schooling, and teachers rated students’ social behavior. Teachers also completed end-of-year ratings of their strategies and beliefs regarding the management of classroom social dynamics. Multilevel models indicated that teachers’ efforts to mitigate status extremes and support isolated students were associated with more positive patterns of within-year change in students’ sense of peer community, responsive teacher–student interactions predicted positive changes in school bonding/motivation, and teacher-rated efforts to manage aggression and promote prosocial behavior among aggressive students predicted within-year declines in peer-nominated aggression. Teacher attunement to classroom friendship and victimization patterns, when combined with responsive teaching, was associated with more positive changes in school bonding/motivation. Teachers rated children’s aggressive/mean behaviors as being more important for their teaching than social status or friendship dynamics and were more likely to believe that children should solve the latter issues on their own.

Behavioral versus cognitive classroom friendship networks

Researchers of social networks commonly distinguish between “behavioral” and “cognitive” social structure. In a school context, for example, a teacher’s perceptions of student friendship ties, not necessarily actual friendship relations, may influence teacher behavior. Revisiting early work in the field of sociometry, this study assesses the level of agreement between teacher perceptions and student reports of within-classroom friendship ties. Using data from one middle school teacher and four classes of students, the study explores new ground by assessing agreement over time and across classroom social contexts, with the teacher-perceiver held constant. While the teacher’s perceptions and students’ reports were statistically similar, 11–29% of possible ties did not match. In particular, students reported significantly more reciprocated friendship ties than the teacher perceived. Interestingly, the observed level of agreement varied across classes and generally increased over time. This study further demonstrates that significant error can be introduced by conflating teacher perceptions and student reports. Findings reinforce the importance of treating behavioral and cognitive classroom friendship networks as distinct, and analyzing social structure data that are carefully aligned with the social process hypothesized.

Friendship Quality as a Predictor of Young Children's Early School Adjustment

The purpose of this study was to develop a method for assessing young children's perceptions of classroom friendships and to determine whether these perceptions were associated with their adjustment during the transition to grade school. Subscales tapping 5 friendship processes (e.g., validation, aid, disclosure of negative affect, exclusivity, conflict) were extracted from a 24-item friendship interview that was individually administered to 82 kindergarten children (M age = 5.61) who possessed a reciprocated and stable "best" friend in their classroom. Children's reports of the investigated friendship processes were found to be reliable, and processes such as perceived validation and conflict predicted children's satisfaction with their friendships, and the stability of these relationships. Perceived conflict in friendships was associated with multiple forms of school maladjustment for boys, including higher levels of school loneliness and avoidance and lower levels of school liking and engagement. For both boys and girls, validation and aid forecasted gains in perceived support from classmates, and aid also predicted improvements in children's school attitudes. Perceived exclusivity in friendships was associated with lower levels of achievement. These findings, and others reported in this article, are consistent with the hypothesis that the relational features of children's classroom friendships yield psychological benefits or costs (e.g., provisions) that, in turn, affect their development and adjustment.

The Supportive Function of Classroom Friendship Groups

The Supportive Function of Classroom Friendship Groups