Friend influence on achievement during middle childhood

This study was designed to investigate friend influence on academic
achievement and task avoidance during middle childhood in a sample of 794
participants in 397 stable same-sex friendship dyads (205 girl dyads and 192 boy dyads)
from four municipalities in Finland: two in Central Finland, one in Western Finland,
and one in Eastern Finland. Longitudinal data were collected during the spring of 3rd
grade and 4th grade and reports were available from both members of each friendship
dyad. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006)
was used with a single sample of participants to estimate friend influence on academic
achievement and task avoidance between two types of friendship dyads: (1) dyads that
were distinguishable as a function of relative math achievement and relative peer
acceptance and (2) dyads that were indistinguishable as a function of relative math
achievement and relative peer acceptance. The results demonstrate that when friends are distinguished by math achievement the high achiever influences the low achiever’s math achievement, but not the reverse. When friends are distinguishable by peer acceptance the high accepted partner influences the low accepted partner’s math achievement, but not the reverse. When friends are indistinguishable on the basis of math achievement and peer
acceptance there is mutual influence on math achievement. There was no evidence of
friend influence on task avoidance. There was no evidence of friend influence from an
individual’s own task avoidance predicting changes in friend math achievement, except
among dyads that could not be distinguished on the basis of math achievement. Math
achievement predicted within-individual changes in task avoidance for all friendship
dyads, except those that could not be distinguished by relative math achievement.
The findings suggest that friends influence math achievement during middle
childhood. Furthermore, when friends are distinguished, relative math achievement and
peer acceptance determines who is influencing whom within a friendship dyad. The use
of the APIM for distinguishable and indistinguishable dyads on a single sample of
participants illustrates that it is not sufficient to ignore differentiating features between
friends, or to discard friendships that are more similar. Implications for teaching
strategies and classroom interventions are discussed.