Abstract
Background
As adolescents prioritize friendship in developing their norms and values, it is important that we understand how peer influences drive positive and negative outcomes, particularly academic achievement. For example, adolescents develop perceived norms based on how they believe their peers value school, socializing, working, and volunteering.
Objective
This study uses multilevel modeling to explore how these peer norms relate to adolescent academic achievement outcomes.
Method
This study analyzed a large, nationally representative sample from the Educational Longitudinal Study.
Results
Findings indicated adolescent academic achievement significantly related to peer norms that valued doing well in school, socializing, working, and volunteering; even after controlling for student-level (sex, family socioeconomic status [SES], race/ethnicity, special education eligibility status) and school-level (school type and urbanicity) characteristics. Peer norms that interacted with family SES, student sex, urbanicity, and school type also demonstrated statistical significance in predicting academic achievement. These findings indicate that peer norms relate to high school academic achievement beyond other ecological factors.
Conclusions
This study conducts a focused exploration on adolescents specific peer norms of valuing working, academics, being social, and volunteering, and highlights the influence perceived peer norms can have in facilitating or inhibiting academic achievement. These findings inform our awareness of the influence perceived peer norms may have on adolescent achievement and may inform future investigations that seek to incorporate perceived peer norms as intervention components aimed at promoting proximal learning opportunities for students.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Georgia State University and Wayne State University. We are grateful for the office space we had to collaborate and the computer software we used to run the analyses
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Kiperman, S., Kevern, C., Carrion, C. et al. Breakfast Club Conundrum: How Adolescent Peer Norms and Ecological Factors Relate with Achievement. Child Youth Care Forum 52, 913–934 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-022-09716-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-022-09716-7