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Perceptions of Relatedness with Classroom Peers Promote Adolescents’ Behavioral Engagement and Achievement in Secondary School

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Abstract

Secondary school is a vulnerable time where stagnation or declines in classroom behavioral engagement occur for many students, and peer relationships take on a heightened significance. We examined the implications of adolescents’ perceptions of relatedness with classroom peers for their academic learning. Participants were 1084 adolescents (53% female) in 65 middle and high school classrooms. Multilevel cross-lagged path analyses found that adolescents’ perceived relatedness with classroom peers subsequently predicted their increased self-reported behavioral engagement in that classroom from fall to winter and again from winter to spring. Higher engagement in spring predicted higher end of year objective achievement test scores after statistical control of prior year test scores. Implications are discussed for increasing classroom peer relatedness to enhance adolescents’ achievement.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the students and teachers who participated in this study, as well as the many research assistants who assisted with the study and data collection procedures.

Author Contributions

A.Y.M. conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and drafted the manuscript; E.A.R. participated in the design and coordination of the study, helped to draft the manuscript, and conducted the data analysis; C.A.H. participated in the design and coordination of the study and conducted the data analysis; A.G. participated in the design and coordination of the study; J.P.A. participated in the design and coordination of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by funding from the William T. Grant Foundation, from the Institute of Education Sciences R305A100367, and from the National Institutes of Health 9R01 HD058305-16A1 to Joseph P. Allen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Amori Yee Mikami

  2. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA

    Erik A. Ruzek & Joseph P. Allen

  3. Northern Virginia Community College, Springfield, VA, 22150, USA

    Christopher A. Hafen

  4. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Anne Gregory

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  1. Amori Yee Mikami
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Correspondence to Amori Yee Mikami.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

Study procedures were approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Board at the University of Virginia, and by the school districts where the data were collected. All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. For the participants who were minors, they provided informed assent while their parents provided informed consent.

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Mikami, A.Y., Ruzek, E.A., Hafen, C.A. et al. Perceptions of Relatedness with Classroom Peers Promote Adolescents’ Behavioral Engagement and Achievement in Secondary School. J Youth Adolescence 46, 2341–2354 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0724-2

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