Reputations Matter: Peer Expectancy Socialization among Adolescents in the Classroom

Abstract

Peers play a crucial role in the development of adolescents’ self-beliefs and behaviors. This multiple manuscript dissertation consists of two standalone studies examining peer processes in math and science classrooms among adolescents. One way that peers have been shown to matter for students’ adjustment is through peer academic reputations, or PAR, which captures the overall opinions and expectations of peers regarding a specific classmate’s academic ability. In the first study of my dissertation, I expand upon prior research on PAR (which has primarily been conducted with young children in the elementary school context) by examining the association of PAR with early adolescents’ academic self-concept, intrinsic value, academic worry and engagement in math and science classes. I compare girls and boys in the last year of elementary school (5th grade) and the first year of middle school (6th grade). Results of hierarchical linear models showed that PAR at the beginning of the school year predicted changes in students’ academic self-concept, worry, and engagement (but not intrinsic value) from fall to spring, controlling for fall levels. Furthermore, PAR was found to operate similarly for girls and boys in both the elementary and middle school context. The second study in this dissertation concerns the underlying mechanism of the effect of PAR by examining expectancy socialization among peers in middle school math and science classrooms. First, I develop a new survey assessment to measure peer communication of expectancy cues and conduct exploratory factor analysis to determine whether students perceive distinct types of expectancy cues from peers. Three factors corresponding to praise, criticism, and help emerged from the EFA. Second, I test whether the three types of expectancy cues are related to PAR and academic self-concept concurrently and over time. Using structural equation modeling, I investigate whether expectancy cues partially mediate the association of PAR with academic self-concept across the school year. Correlations indicated that, in general, help and praise were significantly positively related to PAR and academic self-concept for both girls and boys, whereas the associations of criticism were weaker and in the opposite direction, and only emerged for boys. Structural equation modeling revealed that help expectancy cues, but not praise or criticism, partially mediated the association of PAR with academic self-concept. Thus, students known as “smart” are more frequently approached for help by peers, and these helping interactions are related to increased academic self-concept over time. There was evidence that gender moderated the relationship between expectancy cues and academic self-concept, such that help and praise expectancy cues were more strongly related to academic self-concept for boys than girls. With insight into how expectancy socialization occurs among peers in math and science and the role of gender in this process, this work is a key step in understanding the development and implications of PAR during adolescence. Taken together, the two studies in this dissertation contribute new information about how peer interactions in the classroom provide a context for the socialization of students’ academic self-beliefs and behaviors in math and science