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Friends in Activities, School-related Affect, and Academic Outcomes in Diverse Middle Schools

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Abstract

Participating in school-based activities is linked to positive academic engagement and achievement, but less is known about how peer relationships within activities affect these outcomes. The current study examined friends in extracurricular activities as a predictor of academic outcomes in multiethnic middle schools in California. Specifically, the mediating role of school belonging, and interactions by ethnicity and type of activity, were examined in a sample including African American or Black, East or Southeast Asian, White, and Latino youth in extracurricular activities (N = 2268; Mage = 13.36 in eighth grade; 54% female). The results of multilevel mediational models suggested that school belonging mediated the link between friends in activities and academic outcomes, and these findings replicated across groups based on ethnicity and the type of activity in which one was involved in general. These results are discussed in terms of how activities can be structured to promote positive peer relations in ways that are linked with academic engagement and achievement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank members of the UCLA Middle School Diversity Project for their assistance with data collection. This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Authors’ Contributions

C.K. conceived of the current study, participated in its design, participated in analysis and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript. D.C. conceived of the current study, participated in its design, participated in analysis and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript. J.J. and S.G. conceived of the current study, participated in its design, participated in analysis and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript, and were the principal investigators on the larger project from which the present analyses were conducted. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (0921306) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD059882). Any opinion, findings, or conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or National Institutes of Health. Funding supporting the writing of the report was awarded to Daisy E. Camacho-Thompson through two NIH-supported grants (3R01HD059882-06S1 and T32 DA039772).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, California State University, Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA, 95819, USA

    Casey A. Knifsend

  2. Department of Psychology, REACH Institute, Arizona State University, 900 S. McAllister Ave., Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Daisy E. Camacho-Thompson

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Jaana Juvonen

  4. Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Sandra Graham

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  1. Casey A. Knifsend
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Correspondence to Casey A. Knifsend.

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All procedures involving human participants in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University’s Institutional Review Board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in this study.

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Knifsend, C.A., Camacho-Thompson, D.E., Juvonen, J. et al. Friends in Activities, School-related Affect, and Academic Outcomes in Diverse Middle Schools. J Youth Adolescence 47, 1208–1220 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0817-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0817-6

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