Role of Friends in Early Adolescents' Academic Self-Competence and Intrinsic Value for Math and English

• NCJ Number: 225916
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 41-50
• Author(s): Joanna M. Bissell-Havran; Eric Loken
• Date Published: January 2009
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A sample of 207 eighth-grade students was studied for similarities between students and their friends regarding academic achievement motivation and whether friendship-support moderated these associations.

Abstract

Study findings support, but do not prove, the hypothesis that in more supportive friendships, students are more likely to be influenced to develop a sense of competence in domains (i.e., academics) in which friends feel capable; however, given that the study is cross-sectional, it is possible that students who perceived that they were in higher quality friendships might also have been selective in picking other students who would be more supportive and compatible in their interests and goals. Although the current study does not analyze or distinguish the processes of selecting friends and the socialization that occurs in the context of existing friendships, past research suggests that both factors may account for friends’ similarity; i.e., students are drawn toward fellow students they perceive as similar to themselves, and then their interaction tends to increase their similarity of interests and goals. In conjunction with other literature, this study suggests that interactions with significant others, including friends, are important to study, in order to fully understand how students’ desire and confidence in performing well in school emerges from friend’s supportive priority for academic performance. The participating students consisted of 114 boys and 113 girls from the eighth grade of a rural, Midatlantic middle school in the United States. Students completed questionnaires that required both self-reports and reports about their friends. The self-reports contained questions from various reliable and valid instruments that measured friends’ support, how much students valued English and math, academic self-competence, perception of friends’ achievement motive, nominations of friends, friends’ actual achievement motivation, and students’ reading and math achievement. 5 tables, 3 figures, and 41 references