A study of the correlation between friendship quality and students' academic achievement
Keywords:
adolescence, peer relationship, conflict, help, closeness, student engagementAbstract
Peers within the school environment, especially friends, play an important role in the academic success and overall learning process of children. This study examined the association between friendship quality and academic achievement, including students engagement and their grade. A total of 318 students (171 male, 144 female and 3 others), aged 11-17 from middle and high schools, participated in our research. Friendship Quality Scale (FQS), developed by Bukowski (1994), was studied for peer relationship in 5 sub-scales, while academic achievement was measured by Student Engagement in School (SES) by Lam et al. (2014), and Teacher Engagement Report Form-New (TERF-N) designed by Hart (2011) and students’ academic grade. Data was collected using paper-based questionnaires and the evaluation by the class teacher of students’ engagement and the average grade from the last semester. As a result, 58% of the students had high quality of friendship, indicating good characteristics of companionship, mutual help, closeness, security and lower level of conflict, which are good examples of high-quality friendship. Majority of the students were academically successful, and they also demonstrated high performance and reported good engagement in both self and teacher assessed engagement. Girls obtained higher score in both FQS and academic grade. The correlation result revealed that friendship quality was correlated at positive moderate level with achievement, and supportive and close friendship enhanced academic performance, while conflict predicted negative outcomes.
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