ABSTRACT
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.
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior , Friends , Humans , Adolescent , Female , Male , Friends/psychology , Social Status , Peer Influence , Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Peer GroupABSTRACT
School engagement and disengagement are important predictors of school success that are grounded in the social context of the classroom. This study used multilevel analysis to examine the contributions of the descriptive norms of friends, popular students and classmates regarding engagement and disengagement to the development of Students' own behavioral and emotional engagement and disengagement among Flemish 7th-graders (N = 3,409). Moderating effects of Students' self-esteem and cognitive ability were examined. The results showed effects from friends' and classmates' (dis)engagement on all dimensions of (dis)engagement. Popular Students' engagement only affected individual Student's behavioral disengagement and emotional engagement. Self-esteem and high cognitive ability did not make students more or less susceptible to peer effects.
