The role of friends in the development of children’s classroom behavioral engagement and peer acceptance in kindergarten: A dyadic approach

Abstract

Children’s classroom behavioral engagement and peer acceptance are linked to school readiness and positive educational outcomes. However, these developmental and social processes may depend on the social context in which children evolve. Thus, the friendships children develop in kindergarten may encourage classroom engagement and peer acceptance, based on the friends’ characteristics and the duration of the friendship. The study aimed to investigate how friends influence each other in the development of both classroom engagement and peer acceptance in kindergarten. We also examined whether peer selection and peer influence effects vary according to friendship stability and to child gender. Our sample consisted of 192 kindergarteners from Canada. Students were paired into mutual same-gender friend dyads, 45 of which were stable throughout the kindergarten year. Children’s classroom engagement was measured using teacher reports, whereas peer acceptance was measured using a peer nomination procedure. Data were analyzed using actor-partner interdependence models. Results indicated that friends’ peer acceptance and classroom engagement were reciprocally associated at the beginning of kindergarten, suggesting selection effects. Results also pointed to peer influence effects regarding peer acceptance (but not classroom engagement) when stable friendships were considered. Finally, findings revealed longitudinal actor effects for all dyads, such that when children were more engaged in class, they were also more accepted by peers over time (independent of their friendship stability). Well-accepted children were also more likely to be behaviorally engaged by the end of the school year but only if their friendship was stable. Results applied similarly to both boys and girls. This study suggests that having a stable friend may help children function better in the classroom.