Integration in emerging social networks explains academic failure and success

Abstract

SignificanceUnderstanding the factors that explain academic failure and success of university students is a core interest of educational researchers, teachers, and managers. We demonstrate how the dynamic social networks that informally evolve between students can affect their academic performance. We closely followed the emergence of multiple social networks within a cohort of 226 undergraduate university students. They were strangers to each other on their first day at university, but developed densely knit social networks through time. We show that functional studying relationships tended to evolve from informal friendship relations. In a critical examination period after one year, these networks proved to be crucial: Socially isolated students had significantly lower examination grades and were more likely to drop out of university.

Individual differences in social reward and threat expectancies linked to grey matter volumes in key regions of the social brain

“…entering university), and a prerequisite for integrating new people into one's social network. 1 Expectancies about social interactions are partly situation-specific; 74 however, there is a component of them that is influenced by individuals' temperament and stable working models (schemas) of self and others. 75,76 The LODESTARS was designed to tap the stable component, by probing participants' expectancies for interactions with peers (with whom the participant is motivated to interact) in a generic social event context.…”

“…We deliberately chose to study a population of university students, because of the ecological relevance of joining new social groups. 1 Additionally, each participant imagined just one scenario. The scenario was designed to be both sufficiently specific to allow episodic simulation whilst sufficiently generic, such that generalized expectancies (e.g.…”

“…Making friends -and/or forming romantic partnerships -is of critical importance for adults' adjustment to new environments, for instance, starting university. 1 Friendship bonds are consistently shown to have equal, or even greater, importance than family ties in predicting psychological well-being and physical health in adulthood. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Research that has looked at not just the quantity, but also the quality, of social bonds has demonstrated that the mere existence of social relationships does not necessarily contribute positively to health.…”

“…1 Friendship bonds are consistently shown to have equal, or even greater, importance than family ties in predicting psychological well-being and physical health in adulthood. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Research that has looked at not just the quantity, but also the quality, of social bonds has demonstrated that the mere existence of social relationships does not necessarily contribute positively to health. 4,[9][10][11] Supportive and rewarding social connections exert powerful effects on health and wellbeing, but relationship strain and social distress -the extent to which an individual perceives their daily social interactions as negative or distressing -can have equally strong, deleterious effects on health and wellbeing.…”

Functional brain network architecture supporting the learning of social networks in humans

“…In order to navigate these novel social environments, individuals must learn about the complex web of social relationships and cliques that characterize each new social context. For example, integration into friendship networks in the first year of college predicts future success 7 and more diverse social networks in immigrants predict better psychological well-being and cultural adjustment 8 . Understanding how people learn relational information about social networks, including which individuals each person is friends with and which communities each person belongs to, may provide key insights into how individuals adapt to novel social contexts.…”