Adolescent Academic Achievement and School Engagement: An Examination of the Role of School-Wide Peer Culture
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EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Adolescent Academic Achievement and School Engagement: An Examination of the Role of School-Wide Peer Culture Alicia Doyle Lynch • Richard M. Lerner Tama Leventhal
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Received: 13 July 2012 / Accepted: 26 September 2012 / Published online: 18 October 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
Abstract During adolescence, peer groups present an important venue for socializing school-related behaviors such as academic achievement and school engagement. While a significant body of research emphasizes the link between a youth’s immediate peer group and academic outcomes, the current manuscript expands on this idea, proposing that, in addition to smaller peer groups, within each school exists a school-wide peer culture that is comprised of two components (a relational and a behavioral component), each of which is related to individual academic outcomes. The relational component describes the aggregate of students’ perceptions of the quality of peer relationships within each school. The behavioral component is an aggregate representation of students’ actual behaviors in regard to academic tasks. We used data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, which surveyed 1,718 5th grade students (45.9 % male, 51.4 % White, 17.8 % Hispanic, 7.6 % African American) in 30 schools, to explore the idea that, during adolescence, the relational and behavioral components of a school’s peer culture are related to students’ academic achievement and school engagement. Results suggested that above and
A. D. Lynch (&) Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Boston College, Lynch School of Education, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA e-mail: [email protected] R. M. Lerner T. Leventhal Eliot Pearson Department of Child Development, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University, 105 College Avenue, Medford, MA 02115, USA e-mail: [email protected] T. Leventhal e-mail: [email protected]
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beyond a variety of individual, familial, peer, and school characteristics that have previously been associated with academic outcomes, aspects of behavioral peer culture are associated with individual achievement while components of both relational and behavioral peer culture are related to school engagement. Implications for future research are discussed. Keywords Adolescence Peers Academic achievement School culture
Introduction There are several major transitions that occur during the adolescent period. One is a shift towards utilizing peers, rather than parents and family, as the primary source of social interaction (Brown 1990; Brown and Larson 2009). As such, during adolescence, peers begin to exert a new level of influence on a young person’s behavior and development. In regard to academic outcomes, research suggests that, during adolescence, peers can both promote and discourage academic attitudes and behaviors that contribute to school success. Over time, peer group academic achievement and engagement serve as significant predictors of changes in individual s
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