Predicting children’s liking of school from their peer relationships

Abstract

Prior studies have established that children's peer relationships and school adjustment are associated. The main aims of the current study were to test if four measures of peer relationships (Peer Acceptance, Presence/Absence of Best Friend, Number of Friends, and Perceived Peer Support) could predict School Liking concurrently and longitudinally across a 6 month period, and if gender moderated any of those associations. An opportunistic sample of girls and boys (N = 429 at Time 1 and N = 214 at Time 2) was drawn from 10 junior schools in the UK. A short-term longitudinal survey design was employed in which self-and peer-report measures were administered in small groups at Time 1 (November/December) and then again at Time 2 (May/June) of the same academic year. Concurrently, all four peer relationship variables emerged as significant non-unique predictors (i.e. not controlling for variance shared among the predictors) of School Liking; Peer Acceptance and Perceived Peer Support emerged as significant unique predictors (i.e. after controlling for variance shared among the predictors) of School Liking; the set of four peer relationship variables together accounted for a significant amount of variance in School Liking; and gender moderated the association between Peer Acceptance and School Liking. Longitudinally, Peer Acceptance was a significant unique predictor of changes in School Liking. This study adds to the literature by providing evidence of which specific peer relationships predict School Liking, and they support the call for interventions to enhance those relationships.

The teacher–student relationship and adolescents’ sense of school belonging

“…The only beneficial factor found to be present in this study is peer relationships, which played a significant role in releasing tension and keeping students wanting to come to school. This is consistent with Boulton, Don, and Boulton (2011) who found that positive peer relationships predict 'school liking'. School principals and teachers should work on supporting peer relationships through activities, projects, competitions, celebrations, and so on.…”

Friendships in middle childhood: Links to peer and school identification, and general self‐worth

“…In contrast, the current study examined school identification, which may assess different aspects of a child's relationship with school such as liking being at school and how much the child feels that others at school are similar to them (Maras, ). This second aspect is different to school liking and school engagement (focussing on on‐task behaviour, orientation, and maturity) examined in previous studies (Betts et al ., ; Boulton et al ., ) which may account for the differing findings. Although children may feel connected to their friends and like school, they may feel different from the majority of children at school.…”

“…Similarly, reciprocity within best friendships was not significantly associated with identification with school. This contrasted with research reporting links between peer relations and school engagement (Betts et al ., ) and school liking (Boulton et al ., ). The different methodologies employed and the different conceptualizations of school identification, engagement or liking between studies may explain this.…”

“…Boulton et al . () asked children about how much they liked being at school and how much they preferred not to be at school. In contrast, the current study examined school identification, which may assess different aspects of a child's relationship with school such as liking being at school and how much the child feels that others at school are similar to them (Maras, ).…”

Associations between school liking, loneliness and social relations among adolescents: Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 study

“…Liking school has been associated with positive peer relationships (Erath et al, 2008). For example, Boulton, Don, and Boulton (2011) discovered that peer acceptance and perceived peer support were significant unique predictors of school liking. Then, negative peer relations, such as peer rejection and negative peer treatment, can in turn have negative effects on school adjustment, i.e.…”