The Evolution of Peer Dynamics during Early Adolescence: Explicating the Role of School Context

Abstract

Early adolescence is characterized by significant change, and for some individuals, declines in academic and social well-being at school. Extant research has grappled with the degree to which different factors drive these declines – is it the significant physical, social, and emotional changes that occur during adolescence? Or are declines the result of making a transition from a small, intimate elementary school to a larger and unfamiliar middle school? This dissertation consists of three studies that aim to elucidate how adolescents’ school context and development contribute to their academic and social adjustment at school. As peers become increasingly important and influential for adolescents’ experiences at school, each study includes a focus on how context and development contribute to early adolescents’ relationships with their peers. Thus, the three studies of my dissertation are guided by one overarching question: How does school context contribute to changing peer relations and adjustment in early adolescence? In the first study, I utilized peer nominations to examine the behavioral profiles of high- status youth (i.e., popular and well-liked) across three years in early adolescence among two groups of students: one group who attended an elementary school then transitioned to a larger middle school and another group who attended the same school from kindergarten - eighth grade (Total N = 680). Results indicated that well-liked youth were consistently prosocial and high achieving across development and school context, but that there were some negative shifts in the behaviors of popular youth among the transition group when they made their transition from elementary to middle school. In study 2, using the same sample of youth, I examined the trajectories of students’ self-reported beliefs about the behaviors that lead to social status as well as the implications of these trajectories for students’ classroom engagement. Like the results of the first study, there were similarities between the trajectories of transition and non-transition students, suggesting some normative developmental shifts in the behaviors associated with social status toward aggressive and rebellious behavior, but these maladaptive trends were more pronounced among transition students. In study 3, in a new sample of youth (N = 1,400), I focused on school context more broadly by examining peer dynamics and adjustment among students who were the same developmental age, but they attended schools with different grade structures and timing for when they transitioned from elementary to middle school. Results highlighted the importance of students’ grade span for their academic and social experiences at school; students who were at the top of their grade span (i.e., oldest in their elementary school) reported consistently more positive adjustment than students who were at the bottom or middle grade position of their school. Students’ perceptions of leadership and feelings of anonymity mediated the relations between their grade position at school and their adjustment. Taken together, the three studies of my dissertation enhance our understanding of how both early adolescents’ development and aspects of their school context shape their experiences with peers and subsequent adjustment. Study results highlight a nuanced role of adolescents’ school context for their adjustment and provide reasons to be optimistic during a life stage often characterized by declines. These findings provide potential avenues for how educators of adolescents might cultivate positive peer relationships and patterns of adjustment among their students.