Do Friendships Afford Academic Benefits? A Meta-analytic Study

Leaders of Peer Groups in Chinese Early Adolescents: The Roles of Social, Academic, and Psychological Characteristics in Group Leadership

Leadership in peer groups is an important issue in adolescent socioemotional development, yet it has received limited attention in research. This one-year longitudinal study examined peer group leadership and the roles of social, academic, and psychological characteristics in the dynamics of group leadership. Participants included 1061 Chinese students (initial mean age =11.17 years; SD = 6.98 months; 49.4% female). Data were collected from peer assessments, teacher ratings, and self-reports. The longitudinal social network analysis (SIENA) indicated that peer group leadership was fluid with leadership status evolving over time across groups in a hierarchical manner. Adolescents displaying higher social competence and aggression and lower shyness were more likely to become group leaders. Academic performance and loneliness were not significantly associated with the dynamics of peer group leadership. The results help understand peer group leadership and contributions of social behaviors to the attainment of leadership status in peer groups in early adolescence.

Peer Influences on (Dis)Engagement in Early Adolescence: the Role of Friendship, Social Status, and Academic Status

Academic engagement in adolescence is shaped by influences from the peer environment, yet the types of peers impacting engagement remain unclear. This study explores the roles of friends, popular students, and intelligent students in shaping peers' behavioral and emotional (dis)engagement. Data were analyzed from 3409 Flemish eighth-grade students (Mage = 13.48 years, SD = 0.46, 50.09% female), utilizing self-reports and peer nominations to measure (dis)engagement and map friendship, popularity, and intelligence networks in the fall and spring. Longitudinal network analysis revealed that, while accounting for selection and network structure, friends influenced all dimensions of engagement. Popular students influenced emotional disengagement, and intelligent students impacted emotional engagement. These findings underscore the intricate nature of peer dynamics, highlighting the need for a multidimensional approach to studying peer influences on engagement.

Friendship interventions for children with neurodevelopmental needs: A systematic review and meta-analysis

RATIONALE

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, developmental language disorder (DLD), intellectual disability (ID), and social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD) experience difficulties with social functioning due to differences in their social, emotional and cognitive skills. Previous systematic reviews have focussed on specific aspects of social functioning rather than broader peer functioning and friendships.

OBJECTIVE

To systematically review and methodologically appraise the quality and effectiveness of existing intervention studies that measured friendship outcomes for children with ADHD, autism, DLD, ID, and SPCD.

METHOD

Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched five electronic databases: CINAHL, Embase, Eric, PsycINFO, and PubMed. Two independent researchers screened all abstracts and disagreements were discussed with a third researcher to reach consensus. The methodological quality of studies was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for Randomised Trials.

RESULTS

Twelve studies involving 15 interventions were included. Studies included 683 children with a neurodevelopmental disorder and 190 typically-developing children and diagnosed with either autism or ADHD. Within-group meta-analysis showed that the pooled intervention effects for friendship across all interventions were small to moderate (z = 2.761, p = 0.006, g = 0.485). The pooled intervention effect between intervention and comparison groups was not significant (z = 1.206, p = 0.400, g = 0.215).

CONCLUSION

Findings provide evidence that some individual interventions are effective in improving social functioning and fostering more meaningful friendships between children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their peers. Effective interventions involved educators, targeted child characteristics known to moderate peer functioning, actively involved peers, and incorporated techniques to facilitate positive peer perceptions and strategies to support peers. Future research should evaluate the effectiveness of friendship interventions for children with DLD, ID and SPCD, more comprehensively assess peer functioning, include child self-report measures of friendship, and longitudinally evaluate downstream effects on friendship.

Extracurricular Activity Participation Among Autistic Children and Adolescents: Buffer for Internalizing Conditions and Foundation for Friendship?

PURPOSE

Internalizing conditions, such as anxiety and depression, and difficulties with developing and maintaining friendships are common among autistic children and adolescents. Participation in extracurricular activities may buffer against these challenges as they provide naturalistic opportunities to bring peers with shared interests and skills together. As such, the purpose of the current study was to examine associations between sport and club participation and (1) friendship success and (2) co-occurring anxiety and depression in a large sample of autistic youth.

METHODS

Secondary analysis was performed using data from the 2018-2019 National Survey of Children's Health. Participants were 562 autistic children (ages 6-11 years) and 818 autistic adolescents (ages 12-17 years). Within each age group, a series of binary logistic regression analyses were conducted.

RESULTS

Club participation was not associated with friendship or internalizing conditions. However, participation in sports was positively associated with friendship success among both children (OR = 2.07, p = .006) and adolescents (OR = 2.35, p = .001). Results also found that adolescents who participated in sports were 34% less likely to have diagnosis of depression (p = .048).

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that participation in sports may play a meaningful role in protecting against depression during adolescence and serve as a context for friendship development across childhood and adolescence. Future research should address barriers to extracurricular activity participation and identify the specific components of sports that are most beneficial to autistic youth to inform activity offerings and the development of interventions targeting friendship formation and mental health outcomes.

Numeracy and literacy attainment of children exposed to maternal incarceration and other adversities: A linked data study

Parental incarceration has been associated with educational disadvantages for children, such as lower educational attainment, increased grade retention, and truancy and suspensions. However, children exposed to parental incarceration often experience other adversities that are also associated with educational disadvantage; the contribution of these co-occurring adversities has not been considered in previous research. This study aimed to investigate the educational outcomes of children exposed to (a) maternal incarceration alone and (b) maternal incarceration plus other adversities (i.e., maternal mental illness and/or child protective services [CPS] contact). We used linked administrative data for a sample of children whose mothers were incarcerated during the children's childhood (i.e., from the time of mother's pregnancy through the child's 18th birthday; n = 3828) and a comparison group of children whose mothers had not been incarcerated (n = 9570). Multivariate multinomial logistic regressions examined the association between exposure to the three adversities (i.e., maternal incarceration, maternal mental illness, and child CPS contact) and above or below average reading and numeracy attainment in Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9. At all grade levels, children exposed to maternal incarceration alone and those exposed to maternal incarceration plus other adversities had increased odds of below average numeracy and reading attainment and decreased odds of above average numeracy and reading attainment compared to children without any of the recorded exposures. Children exposed to maternal incarceration and CPS contact and those exposed to all three adversities had increased odds of below average reading and numeracy attainment compared to children exposed to maternal incarceration alone. The findings highlight the complex needs of children of incarcerated mothers that must be considered when designing and delivering educational support programs. These children would benefit from the implementation of multi-tiered, trauma-informed educational and clinical services.

Speech Entrainment in Adolescent Conversations: A Developmental Perspective

PURPOSE

Defined as the similarity of speech behaviors between interlocutors, speech entrainment plays an important role in successful adult conversations. According to theoretical models of entrainment and research on motoric, cognitive, and social developmental milestones, the ability to entrain should develop throughout adolescence. However, little is known about the specific developmental trajectory or the role of speech entrainment in conversational outcomes of this age group. The purpose of this study is to characterize speech entrainment patterns in the conversations of neurotypical early adolescents.

METHOD

This study utilized a corpus of 96 task-based conversations between adolescents between the ages of 9 and 14 years and a comparison corpus of 32 task-based conversations between adults. For each conversational turn, two speech entrainment scores were calculated for 429 acoustic features across rhythmic, articulatory, and phonatory dimensions. Predictive modeling was used to evaluate the degree of entrainment and relationship between entrainment and two metrics of conversational success.

RESULTS

Speech entrainment increased throughout early adolescence but did not reach the level exhibited in conversations between adults. Additionally, speech entrainment was predictive of both conversational quality and conversational efficiency. Furthermore, models that included all acoustic features and both entrainment types performed better than models that only included individual acoustic feature sets or one type of entrainment.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings show that speech entrainment skills are largely developed during early adolescence with continued development possibly occurring across later adolescence. Additionally, results highlight the role of speech entrainment in successful conversation in this population, suggesting the import of continued exploration of this phenomenon in both neurotypical and neurodivergent adolescents. We also provide evidence of the value of using holistic measures that capture the multidimensionality of speech entrainment and provide a validated methodology for investigating entrainment across multiple acoustic features and entrainment types.

Disentangling Perceived Educational Support Sources and Types in Adolescence and Latinas’ Educational Attainment in Adulthood

Social support has a well-documented impact on adolescent educational success. Nonetheless, there has been less focus on the relationship between social supports and educational attainment for Latinas. Using a sample of 138 Hispanic females (ages 25–31) from an ongoing longitudinal National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study (2004–present), we identified key sources of social support (family, teachers, and peers) and types of social support (emotional, informational, and instrumental) in the educational pipeline of Hispanic females. We also examined the associations between social supports and their educational attainment. Through descriptive analyses, we found that family was perceived to provide the most support followed by peers and teachers in adolescence. Through regression analyses, we found that family support positively predicted their educational attainment. Our findings highlight the importance of family-rendered support for educational attainment while also expanding our understanding of the social support mechanisms for Hispanic females.

Antecedents Predicting Students’ Active Use of Learning Strategies in Schools of Low SES Context within the Framework of Self-Determination Theory

Meeting a student’s autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs is one of the conditions to help him/her learn effectively. In this study, we aim to understand how teacher support (relationship with students, their autonomy support) and general classroom atmosphere (equity, relationships between students) predict students’ learning; that is, the learning strategies they use. Data were collected from 24 secondary schools in 9 municipalities in Lithuania with low SES (socioeconomic status) contexts (N = 632 students; 330 girls and 302 boys). The following instruments were used in the research: What Is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire, a short form of the Learning Climate Questionnaire (LCQ), and the Learning Strategies scale. The results showed that girls use learning strategies statistically significantly more actively than boys. Students’ use of learning strategies in a sample of both boys and girls are predicted by perceived teacher support, student cohesiveness, and perceived autonomy support. Therefore, responding to the relatedness and autonomy needs of students from low SES is very significant because it can increase their engagement in the learning process. The difference found, that equity is a significant predictor of learning strategies in the sample of girls, but not in boys, encourages further research and interpretation of such research results.

Adolescents’ Characteristics and Peer Relationships in Class: A Population Study

Background: This study aimed to investigate differences in adolescents’ social relationships with classmates of diverse gender, socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and academic achievement. Methods: A population of 10th-grade students (N = 406,783; males = 50.3%; M_age = 15.57 years, SD_age = 0.75) completed the Classmates Social Isolation Questionnaire (CSIQ), an instrument specifically designed to measure two distinct but correlated types of peer relationships in class: peer acceptance and peer friendship. To obtain reliable comparisons across diverse adolescent characteristics, the measurement invariance of the CSIQ was established by means of CFAs and then latent mean differences tests were performed. Results: Immigrant background, academic achievement, and socioeconomic status all proved to be important factors influencing relationships with classmates, while being a male or a female was less relevant. Being a first-generation immigrant adolescent appears to be the foremost risk factor for being less accepted by classmates, while having a low academic achievement is the greatest hindrance for having friends in the group of classmates, a finding that diverges from previous studies. Conclusions: This population study suggests that adolescent characteristics (especially immigrant background, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement) seem to affect social relationships with classmates.

Early Adolescents' Social Achievement Goals and Perceived Relational Support: Their Additive and Interactive Effects on Social Behavior

The current study examined the additive and interactive effects of early adolescents' social achievement goals and perceived relational support from teachers and peers on their social behavior. Adolescents' social achievement goals (i.e., social development, social demonstration-approach, and social demonstration-avoidance), perceived relational support from teachers and peers, and social behavior (i.e., overt and relational aggression, prosocial behavior, and anxious solitary behavior) were assessed in a sample of fifth and sixth graders (M _age = 12.5; N = 677) nested within 26 classrooms. Multilevel modeling results indicated that social goals and relational support from teachers and peers made additive contributions to adolescents' social behavior. Results also indicated the evidence of interactive effects, such that relational support from teachers was negatively associated with overt and relational aggression primarily among adolescents who had high social demonstration-approach goals. Findings underscore the need to consider adolescents' social goals in conjunction with their perceived relational support for educators and practitioners.

Bidirectional associations between biased language exposure and school-based relationships across gender

Students often hear their peers use biased language regarding race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability status in the school setting. Prior research has indicated that biased language is related to school climate, and specifically to school-based relationships between peers and between students and their teachers. This study investigated the longitudinal associations among student-student relationships, teacher-student relationships, and being the target of or hearing biased language in middle school students. Students (N = 501; 46.5% White, 21.8% Hispanic, 13% African American, and 15% Multi-Racial; 48.7% female) reported on how much they were targeted or heard biased language related to race/religion, sexual orientation, and disability status. Students also reported on their relationships with their peers and teachers. Using a cross-lagged panel model with the overall sample, a negative unidirectional association from being the target of or hearing biased language and student-student relationships and teacher-student relationships was identified. Separate models for boys and girls identified unique patterns. For boys, biased-language exposure predicted more negative student-student relationships and teacher-student relationships, whereas for girls, biased-language exposure was not associated with school-based relationships. Implications include addressing language use and building positive student-student and teacher-student relationships.

Experiences With Online Teaching and Psychological Adjustment of High-School Students at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Croatia

Vastly changed schooling arrangements due to the COVID-19 crisis have generally limited the opportunities and resources for schools to provide necessary psychological and other support to their students. Given this, all parties involved in the schooling system need to understand the kinds of experiences students have via distance learning and how students adapt to novel living and studying conditions. This study examines the relevant sources of stress that students encounter with regard to online classes, and the frustrations they face due to living in social isolation, as well as how these stressors relate to the measures of students’ emotional wellbeing and psychological adjustment. Data were collected in April 2020 via an online questionnaire administered to a sample of 4,492 students (62.6% female) attending all four grades of high school within two Croatian counties. The results point to the differential effects of particular aspects of online teaching practices on the stressful experiences of students. Furthermore, the results of multivariate analysis of variance and canonical discriminant analyses demonstrated notable gender and grade differences in the structure of students’ emotional and behavioral adaptation to the health crisis. Female students and those predominantly studying at the highest grade reported higher frequency and intensity of short-term emotional and psychosomatic difficulties. Male students in the final grade year scored highest on the dimension defined by the number and intensity of online teaching stressors. The results are interesting in light of hypothetical accounts of adjustment mechanisms based on existing stress theories. Moreover, the findings serve as a basis for teachers’ self-reflection and self-evaluation of schools, which can then lead to designing specific programs of support in learning and adaptation to the new living and studying conditions.

School recess and pandemic recovery efforts: ensuring a climate that supports positive social connection and meaningful play

As Canada’s schools reopen, attention to healing the school community is essential. Given the considerable stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unsurprising that recent studies find Canadian children’s mental health in decline. As social connection is tightly entwined with children’s mental health, supporting school-based spaces for quality social interactions and play will be an important postpandemic recovery strategy. Children will need opportunities to re-establish positive social connections at school, and informal spaces such as recess and lunch are an ideal time to afford these opportunities. Yet many schoolyards have long been challenged by social conflict that can interfere with children’s need to connect with peers. Therefore, efforts should be directed not only at mitigating the effects of social harm, but also toward ensuring social and physical landscapes that are meaningful, inclusive, and engaging for children and adolescents of all ages. Recommendations for postpandemic recovery are provided.