Best friends play a key role in keeping adolescents motivated in school, according to a study by Marie-Hélène Véronneau and Sophie-Caroline Trempe published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement. This is a promising finding that may help fight high school dropout. Youth’s failure to earn a high school diploma can lead to dramatic consequences, including low lifetime income, unemployment, and poor physical and mental health. School persistence depends in part on the type of academic motivation students experience. The quality of the relationship a student develops with their best friend at school could play an important role in developing the right kind of motivation to complete the work required to earn a high school diploma.
The finding comes from a study of 225 students in the ninth grade attending public high schools that were specifically selected for their location in highly disadvantaged areas—a well-known risk factor for high school dropout. Students reported on the quality of their relationship with their best friend, as reflected by feelings of companionship, intimacy, emotional safety, acceptance, assistance, and trust. They also reported on their school grades, school engagement, and grade repetition, which allowed the research team to assess their risk of high school dropout. The researchers found that high-quality friendships seemed to facilitate the development of autonomous motivation in school—the type of motivation experienced by students who attend school because they enjoy it, they love learning about school subjects, and they recognize the value of education. This type of healthy motivation partly explained the association between friendship quality and a low risk of school dropout.
In contrast, a low-quality relationship with one’s best friend predicted students’ amotivation, defined as a complete lack of motivation to engage in school, along with an inability to understand its value. Amotivation partly explained why having a low-quality relationship with one’s best friend was associated with a high risk of school dropout.
The study also showed that a high-quality relationship with a best friend at school predicted controlled motivation. This type of motivation is found when individuals are willing to engage in their studies for instrumental reasons, like proving their ability to do the schoolwork or making sure they get a decent job later on. Although less problematic than amotivation, controlled motivation was associated with a certain degree of risk of school dropout. It thus seems possible that high-quality friendships are not always protective. For example, good friendships with peers who have lost interest in school might negatively affect students’ motivation and have deleterious consequences on their school persistence over time.
Future research using multiple measurements over time and several sources of information (e.g., school records of grades and actual dropout, friends’ perceptions, or naturalistic observations of friendship quality) would help strengthen this study’s conclusions. Assessing some negative aspects of friendships might help facilitate a better understanding of why some high-quality friendships are related to a suboptimal type of motivation (i.e., controlled motivation).
Taken together, the study results imply that dropout prevention strategies could include a component of socioemotional skills training to promote healthy friendships in school. Parents and teachers can also have discussions with youth about their goals, their future, and opportunities to engage in pleasurable activities at school and in extracurricular activities. These actions could help promote healthy motivation and, ultimately, school persistence in adolescents—especially in those who are growing up in disadvantaged settings.
This article is in the Educational Psychology, School Psychology, and Training topic area. View more articles in the Educational Psychology, School Psychology, and Training topic area.