Friendship Selection Research Articles

The effect of accent exposure on children's sociolinguistic evaluation of peers.

Language and accent strongly influence the formation of social groups. By five years of age, children already show strong social preferences for peers who speak their native language with a familiar accent (Kinzler, Shutts, DeJesus, & Spelke, 2009). However, little is known about the factors that modulate the strength and direction of children's accent-based group preferences. In three experiments, we examine the development of accent-based friendship preferences in children growing up in Toronto, one of the world's most linguistically and culturally diverse cities. We hypothesized that the speaker's type of accent and the amount of accent exposure children experienced in their everyday lives would modulate their preferences in a friend selection task. Despite literature suggesting that exposure leads to greater acceptance (Allport, 1954), we find no evidence that routine exposure to different accents leads to greater acceptance of unfamiliarly accented speakers. Children still showed strong preferences for peers who spoke with the locally dominant accent, despite growing up in a linguistically diverse community. However, children's preference for Canadian-accented in-group members was stronger when they were paired with non native (Korean-accented) speakers compared to when they were paired with regional (British-accented) speakers. We propose that children's ability to perceptually distinguish between accents may have contributed to this difference. Children showed stronger preferences for in-group members when the difference between accents was easier to perceive. Overall, our findings suggest that although the strength of accent-based social preferences can be modulated by the type of accent, these preferences still persist in the face of significant diversity in children's accent exposure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Does Mathematics Anxiety Have Any Impact on Secondary School Pupils' Friend Choices?

<p style="text-align: justify;">This research was conducted in order to determine whether math anxiety was effective in the selection of secondary school students. This research, in which the mixed method was adopted, was conducted in a secondary school at Siirt. The participants (157 pupils) were determined by convenient sampling method from the four different classes (two 5th grade and two 8th grade). Math anxiety levels of the students were determined by the Mathematics Anxiety Scale. Sociometry technique was used to determine the informal friends groups in each class. For this purpose, a friend preference form was used. Students' friends preferences were transformed into data matrix and Hierarchical Clustering Analysis was used to form informal friends groups for each class. Math anxiety scores of informal groups were compared with Kruskal Wallis test. Accordingly, there were significant differences between the mathematical scores of the informal groups in the branches of the 5th and 8th grades. This finding was evaluated that mathematics anxiety may be a factor in the selection of friends. </p>

Dynamic pathways between rejection and antisocial behavior in peer networks: Update and test of confluence model.

The confluence model theorizes that dynamic transactions between peer rejection and deviant peer clustering amplify antisocial behavior (AB) within the school context during adolescence. Little is known about the links between peer rejection and AB as embedded in changing networks. Using longitudinal social network analysis, we investigated the interplay between rejection, deviant peer clustering, and AB in an ethnically diverse sample of students attending public middle schools (N = 997; 52.7% boys). Adolescents completed peer nomination reports of rejection and antisocial behavior in Grades 6-8. Results revealed that rejection status was associated with friendship selection, and adolescents became rejected if they were friends with others who were rejected. Youth befriended others with similar levels of AB. Significant patterns of peer influence were documented for AB and rejection. As hypothesized, rejected youth with low AB were more likely to affiliate with others with high AB instead of similarly low AB. In contrast, nonrejected youth preferred to befriend others with similarly high or low AB. Results support an updated confluence model of a joint interplay between rejection and AB as ecological conditions that lead to self-organization into deviant clusters in which peer contagion on problem behaviors operates.

The role of academic status norms in friendship selection and influence processes related to academic achievement.

This study examined the role of academic status norms in friendship selection and influence processes related to academic achievement across the 2nd year of secondary school (SNARE project; N = 1,549 students from 70 classes; Mage = 13.69 years). Academic status norms were operationalized as the class-level correlation between academic achievement and 4 types of peer status: popularity, acceptance, unpopularity, and rejection. Longitudinal social network analyses indicated that the unpopularity and popularity norm play a role in friendship selection processes (but not influence processes) related to academic achievement. In line with our hypotheses, the unpopularity norm in the classroom strengthened similarity-based friendship selection among low-achieving adolescents and predicted greater avoidance of academically similar friends among high-achieving adolescents. Also, the popularity norm strengthened friendship selection among similar peers, both among low and high achievers. Acceptance and rejection norms did not play a role in friendship processes. In sum, the average achievement of popular and unpopular peers shapes friendship preferences in the classroom, which may have important implications for adolescent academic development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

“Would You Be My Friend?”: Friendship Selection and Contagion Processes of Early Adolescents Who Experience Victimization

Victimization in early adolescence can have severe negative consequences later in life. Friendships are especially important in this time period. The present study investigated friendship selection and influence (contagion) processes with regard to victimization, as well as prosocial and aggressive characteristics of victims’ friends. Using social network analyses (RSiena), we longitudinally analyzed data of five fourth-grade classrooms, including 185 students (56.8% girls; [Formula: see text] age at Time 1 = 10 years old). Results showed that early adolescents who experience peer victimization were not likely to select peers with similar levels of victimization as friends but selected prosocial peers as friends. Moreover, friends did not become more similar over time in their victimization levels. Prosocial students selected similar peers as friends. The discussion highlights the relevance of fostering positive peer relations for targeting victimization and discusses the defending role of friends in victimization situations.

Sex Differences in Peer Selection and Socialization for Alcohol Use from Adolescence to Young Adulthood and the Influence of Marital and Parental Status.

Peer selection and socialization influences for alcohol and other substance use have been a prominent area of research especially, though not exclusively, across adolescence. This study used 4-wave prospective data from 1,004 young adults to evaluate selection and socialization influences for young adults' alcohol use and friends' alcohol use from late adolescence to later young adulthood, and incorporated the time-varying predictors of marital and parental status. In addition, sex differences in peer selection and socialization processes were tested. Participants were recruited from high schools, and assessments were based on self-reports initially collected in adolescence (at age 17.0years) via paper-and-pencil surveys and in young adulthood at ages 23.8, 28.9, and 33.5years via computer-based individual interviews (computer-assisted personal interview and audio computer-assisted self-interviewing). Initial sampling included a 76% participation rate, and the retention rate was 83%. Cross-lagged panel regression models were used to evaluate hypotheses about peer selection and socialization. Findings indicated that friend selection processes were stronger than socialization processes across adolescence to young adulthood. Adopting marital and (especially) parental roles was negatively associated with young adults' alcohol use and percentage of friends using alcohol, and the magnitude of these relationships was stronger and more consistent for females. These findings indicated that across the adolescence-to-young adulthood transition, peer selection processes were more influential than peer socialization. Marital and parental roles were associated with both lower young adult alcohol use and a lower percentage of friends using alcohol, with stronger role-related effects for females relative to males.

Depressive Symptomology as a Moderator of Friend Selection and Influence on Substance Use Involvement: Estimates from Grades 6 to 12 in Six Longitudinal School-Based Social Networks.

Although the contributions of friend selection and friend influence to adolescent homophily on substance use behaviors has been of enduring research interest, moderators of these processes have received relatively little research attention. Identification of factors that dampen or amplify selection and influence on substance use behaviors is important for informing prevention efforts. Whereas prior research has examined adolescent drinking, smoking, and marijuana use, the current study examined whether friend selection and friend influence operated on substance use involvement, an indicator of problematic use, and whether depressive symptomology moderated these processes. In addition, it examined whether these relationships varied from grade 6 to 12. The study used a cohort-sequential design in which three cohorts of youth (first surveyed in grades, 6, 7, and 8) in six school-based longitudinal social networks were surveyed up to seven times, yielding N = 6817 adolescents (49% female). Stochastic actor-oriented models were applied to test hypothesized relationships in the six networks, then results were synthesized in a meta-analysis. Depressive symptoms did not moderate selection or influence on substance use involvement at any grade level, but indirectly contributed to diffusion of substance use involvement through school networks via patterns of network ties. Research is needed on contextual factors, particularly in schools, that might account for when, if at all, depressive symptoms condition friend selection and influence on substance use.

Development of Friendship and Task Values in a New School: Friend Selection for the Arts and Physical Education but Socialization for Academic Subjects.

Friends provide important social contexts for student development. Research has shown that adolescent friends are similar to each other in their interest and values for different school subjects. Yet our current understanding does not extend to knowing whether selection, deselection, or socialization processes are responsible for this phenomena. Without this knowledge, it is very difficult for parents, teachers, and schools to know how and when to intervene. This study investigated selection, deselection, and socialization effects on adolescent students' task values for academic (languages, math and science, and social sciences) and non-academic subject areas (the arts and physical education). A social network approach was used to examine two waves of annual data collected from school-based networks of adolescents in the first and second years of high school education in Finland (N = 1419; female = 48.6%; mean age at first measurement point = 16). The results revealed that adolescents tended to select friends with similar levels of task values (friend selection) for the arts and physical education, but friends did not become more similar in these areas over time (friend socialization). In contrast, there was evidence of friend socialization, but not friend selection, for the academic school subjects. Across all subjects, differences in task values did not predict friendship dissolution (friend deselection). These findings suggest that to a significant extent, students make agentic choices in developing friendship with schoolmates based on their task values in non-academic subjects. The resultant friend contexts that individuals created, in turn, affected their task values in academic subject areas. These results shed light on the complexity of friend effect mechanisms on task values at the subject domain-specific level.

How do individual predispositions and family dynamics contribute to academic adjustment through the middle school years? The mediating role of friends' characteristics.

This study examined the mediating effect of friends' characteristics (problem behavior and academic achievement) in the association between students' background (family and individual factors) and later academic adjustment, as operationalized by problem behavior and academic achievement. We recruited 998 participants in three public middle schools and used three annual waves of data collection (Grades 6, 7, and 8). We found that students' own academic achievement and problem behavior are predictors of later adjustment. Friendship choices are identified as a mediation mechanism that contributes to consistent adjustment from the beginning to the end of middle school. Specifically, high-achieving students in Grade 6 tend to associate with high-achieving friends and are unlikely to associate with friends who exhibit problem behavior in Grade 7, which results in continued achievement in Grade 8. Associating with high-achieving friends in Grade 7 also mediated the link between adolescent problem behavior in Grade 6 and academic achievement by Grade 8. Friends' characteristics in Grade 7 did not mediate the effect of any family factor measured in Grade 6. In general, our results suggest friendship selection is central to sustained success throughout the middle school years.

Peer influence, friend selection, and gender: How network processes shape adolescent smoking, drinking, and delinquency

We examine gender differences in the extent to which the social network processes of peer influence and friend selection explain why adolescents tend to exhibit similar risky behaviors as their friends for three problem behaviors (smoking, drinking, and delinquency). Using dynamic Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs), we analyze five waves of data on a large sample of 13,214 adolescents from 51 friendship networks. While both processes explain patterns of risky activities for girls and boys, the delinquent behavior of girls is more susceptible to influence and girls are especially likely to select friends who have similar smoking behaviors to their own.

The negative consequences of maximizing in friendship selection.

Previous studies have shown that the maximizing orientation, reflecting a motivation to select the best option among a given set of choices, is associated with various negative psychological outcomes. In the present studies, we examined whether these relationships extend to friendship selection and how the number of options for friends moderated these effects. Across 5 studies, maximizing in selecting friends was negatively related to life satisfaction, positive affect, and self-esteem, and was positively related to negative affect and regret. In Study 1, a maximizing in selecting friends scale was created, and regret mediated the relationships between maximizing and well-being. In a naturalistic setting in Studies 2a and 2b, the tendency to maximize among those who participated in the fraternity and sorority recruitment process was negatively related to satisfaction with their selection, and positively related to regret and negative affect. In Study 3, daily levels of maximizing were negatively related to daily well-being, and these relationships were mediated by daily regret. In Study 4, we extended the findings to samples from the U.S. and Japan. When participants who tended to maximize were faced with many choices, operationalized as the daily number of friends met (Study 3) and relational mobility (Study 4), the opportunities to regret a decision increased and further diminished well-being. These findings imply that, paradoxically, attempts to maximize when selecting potential friends is detrimental to one's well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record

Prior Individual Risk Behavior Predicts Subsequent Individual and Peer Risk Behavior: A Longitudinal Examination From Fifth to Ninth Grade

To better understand the longitudinal relations between risk and relationship variables during early to middle adolescence, we employed latent variable cross-lagged panel models using data ( N = 1,050) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study. Results showed self-reported individual risk behavior (β = .77–.88) and mother-reported child-parent relationship quality (CPRQ; β = .59–.76) were stable, whereas the self-report of one’s peer’s risk behavior (β = .21–.27) was less stable. After controlling for previous levels of peer risk behavior and CPRQ, higher levels of individual risk behavior resulted in subsequent increases in the number of peers who demonstrated risk behavior (β = .38–.54) across early to middle adolescence. CPRQ and peer risk behavior, however, did not influence subsequent individual risk behavior. School psychologists can encourage friendship selection strategies that reduce potential risk affiliation while increasing healthy, supportive friendships and teach adolescents stress management skills.

The role of friends in help-seeking tendencies during early adolescence: Do classroom goal structures moderate selection and influence of friends?

Research has evidenced that help-seeking is an important self-regulatory strategy of learning. However, the role of friends in help-seeking has been underexplored. In the current study, we examined the longitudinal associations between early adolescents’ selection and influence of friends and help-seeking tendencies, and whether students’ perceived classroom goal structures moderate these associations among fifth and sixth graders (N = 736 at Wave 1, N = 677 at Wave 2). With longitudinal social network analyses, results indicated that friends were similar to each other in adaptive as well as avoidant help-seeking tendencies, and this similarity was explained by selection and influence of friends, while controlling for students’ gender and achievement, and classroom goal structures. Students chose friends who were similar to themselves in adaptive help-seeking behavior. Friends influenced one another in their avoidant help-seeking behavior over time. Further, students’ perceived classroom goal structures moderated these processes. Students who perceived higher mastery emphasis (i.e., the development of competence) in their classroom were more likely to select friends who seek adaptive help, and were more influenced by their friends’ adaptive help-seeking behavior. Conversely, students who perceived higher performance emphasis (i.e., the demonstration of competence) in their classroom were more likely to select friends who avoid seeking help.

The moderating role of popular peers’ achievement goals in 5th- and 6th-graders’ achievement-related friendships: A social network analysis.

This research investigated whether classroom-based peer norms for achievement goals moderate friendship selection, maintenance and influence processes related to academic achievement in 46 Grade 5 and Grade 6 classrooms (N = 901, 58.7% Grade 5 students, 48.5% boys). A distinction was made between peer norms for mastery (i.e., developing competence) and performance (i.e., demonstrating competence) goals. Peer norms were measured in terms of popularity norms (the within-classroom correlation between student achievement goals and popularity) and descriptive norms (the class-level aggregated average achievement goals). As hypothesized, longitudinal social network analyses revealed that achievement goal popularity norms played a role in friendship processes, rather than achievement goal descriptive norms. Specifically, adolescents formed friendships with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms. Conversely, adolescents remained friends with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms. Furthermore, friendship influence on achievement took place in classrooms with high mastery goal popularity norms, but not in classrooms with low mastery goal popularity norms. This study indicates that friendship processes regarding achievement depend upon the extent to which certain achievement goals are made salient by virtue of their association with popularity in classrooms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

The Co-evolution of Bullying Perpetration, Homophobic Teasing, and a School Friendship Network.

Bullying and homophobic teasing behaviors affect the lives of many school aged children, often co-occur, and tend to peak in middle school. While bullying and homophobic teasing behaviors are known to be peer group phenomena, studies typically examine the associations at the individual or school levels. An examination of these behaviors at the peer group level can aid in our understanding of the formation and maintenance of peer groups that engage in these forms of aggressive behavior (selection), and the extent to which friends and the peer group impact individual rates of these aggressive behaviors (influence). In this longitudinal study, we assess the co-evolution of friendship networks, bullying perpetration, and homophobic teasing among middle school students (n = 190) using a Stochastic Actor-Based Model (SABM) for longitudinal networks. Data were collected from 6-8th-grade students (Baseline age 12-15; 53% Female; 47% Male) across three waves of data. The sample was diverse with 58% African American, 31% White, and 11% Hispanic. Since bullying and homophobic teasing behaviors are related yet distinct forms of peer aggression, to capture the unique and combined effects of these behaviors we ran models separately and then together in a competing model. Results indicated that on average individuals with higher rates of bullying perpetration and homophobic teasing were associated with becoming increasingly popular as a friend. However, the effects were not linear, and individuals with the highest rates of bullying perpetration and homophobic teasing were less likely to receive friendship nominations. There was no evidence that bullying perpetration or homophobic teasing were associated with the number of friendship nominations made. Further, there was a preference for individuals to form or maintain friendships with peers who engaged in similar rates of homophobic name-calling; however, this effect was not found for bullying perpetration. Additionally, changes in individual rates of bullying perpetration were not found to be predicted by the bullying perpetration of their friends; however, changes in adolescent homophobic teasing were predicted by the homophobic teasing behaviors of their friends. In a competing model that combined bullying perpetration and homophobic teasing, we found no evidence that these behaviors were associated with popularity. These findings are likely due to the high association between bullying perpetration and homophobic teasing combined with the small sample size. However, friendship selection was based on homophobic name-calling, such that, there was a preference to befriend individuals with similar rates of homophobic teasing. We also examined several risk factors (dominance, traditional masculinity, impulsivity, femininity, positive attitudes of bullying, and neighborhood violence), although, impulsivity was the only covariate that was associated with higher levels of bullying perpetration and homophobic teasing. More specifically, youth with higher rates of impulsivity engaged in higher rates of bullying perpetration and homophobic teasing over time. The findings suggest bullying perpetration and homophobic teasing have important influences on friendship formation, and close friendships influence youth's engagement in homophobic teasing. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts are discussed in terms of targeting peer groups and popular peers to help reduce rates of these aggressive behaviors.

Mining Internet of Things for intelligent objects using genetic algorithm

The Internet of Things (IoT) is overpopulated by a large number of objects and millions of services and interactions. Therefore, the ability to search for the right object to provide a specific service is important. The merger of the IoT and social networking, the Social Internet of Things (SIoT), has made this possible. The main idea in the SIoT is that every object in the IoT can use its friends’ or friends-of-friends’ relationships to search for a specific service. However, this is usually a slow process because each node (object) is required to manage a large number of friends. This paper addresses the issue of link selection of friends and analyzes five strategies in the literature. Then it proposes a link selection strategy using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find the near optimal solution. The results show an improvement over the examined strategies in terms of several parameters.

Friendship Selection and Influence Processes for Physical Aggression and Prosociality: Differences between Single-Sex and Mixed-Sex Contexts

The present study examined to what extent selection and influence processes for physical aggression and prosociality in friendship networks differed between sex-specific contexts (i.e., all-male, all-female, and mixed-sex classrooms), while controlling for perceived popularity. Whereas selection processes reflect how behaviors shape friendships, influence processes reveal the reversed pattern by indicating how friends affect individual behaviors. Data were derived from a longitudinal sample of early adolescents from Chile. Four all-male classrooms (n = 150 male adolescents), four all-female classrooms (n = 190 female adolescents), and eight mixed-sex classrooms (n = 272 students) were followed one year from grades 5 to 6 (Mage = 13). Analyses were conducted by means of stochastic-actor-based modeling as implemented in RSIENA. Although it was expected that selection and influence effects for physical aggression and prosociality would vary by context, these effects showed remarkably similar trends across all-male, all-female, and mixed-sex classrooms, with physical aggression reducing and with prosociality increasing the number of nominations received as best friend in all-male and particularly all-female classrooms. Further, perceived popularity increased the number of friendship nominations received in all contexts. Influence processes were only found for perceived popularity, but not for physical aggression and prosociality in any of the three contexts. Together, these findings highlight the importance of both behaviors for friendship selection independent of sex-specific contexts, attenuating the implications of these gendered behaviors for peer relations.

The Effects of Ethnic Minority Adolescents' Ethnic Self-Identification on Friendship Selection.

This study investigated the effects of ethnic minority adolescents' ethnic self-identification (host country, dual, or heritage country) on friendship choices among ethnic majority and minority peers. Hypotheses were derived from similarity-attraction and social identity theory and tested using longitudinal social network data from 1,004 middle school students (five schools) in Germany. Results showed that ethnic minority adolescents' ethnic self-identification affected friendship selection beyond ethnic homophily. While host country and dual identification was beneficial with respect to friendships with both ethnic majority and minority peers, heritage country identification was detrimental to relations with both of them.

Predicting adolescent social networks to stop smoking in secondary schools

Social networks are increasingly being investigated in the context of individual behaviours. Research suggests that friendship connections have the ability to influence individual actions, change personal opinions and subsequently impact upon personal wellbeing. This paper explores the effect of individual friendship selection decisions, and the impact they may have on the overall evolution of a social network. Using data from a large smoking cessation programme in secondary schools, an agent based simulation aiming to predict the evolution of the adolescent social networks is created. The simulation uses existing friendship selection algorithms from link prediction literature, along with a new approach to link prediction, termed PageRank-Max. This new algorithm is based upon the optimisation of an individuals eigen-centrality, and is found to be more successful than existing methods at predicting the future state of an adolescent social network. This research highlights the importance of eigen-centrality in adolescent friendship decisions, and the use of agent-based simulation to conduct behavioural investigations. Furthermore, it provides a proof-of-concept for targeted interventions driven by social network analysis, demonstrating the utility of using emerging sources of social network data for public heath interventions such as with tobacco use which is a major global health challenge.

Advanced Heuristics for Selecting Friends in Social Internet of Things

The future of communication involves ‘things’ in addition to people thus bringing about the term Internet of Things. When social networking concepts are incorporated into Internet of Things, it is called Social Internet of Things. Searching for a desired services may lead to high computational and memory demands as the number of friends of any node starts to grow over time. Hence, it is required to judiciously prune the friends of a node by applying some strategy in order to reduce computational load and at the same time preserving network navigability. In this paper, four new heuristics for efficient selection of friends are proposed. An analysis is performed based on various metrics and the results are presented.