School friends may play a major role in a teen's academic success, a new study suggests.
Students with higher grade-point averages (GPAs) had more school friends than out-of-school friends. The more school friends, the higher the GPA.
"We found that within an adolescent's friendship group, those with a higher proportion of friends who attended the same school received higher grades," Melissa R. Witkow, an assistant professor of psychology at Willamette University, said in a University of California, Los Angeles, news release. "This is partially because in-school friends are more likely to be achievement-oriented and share and support school-related activities, including studying, because they are all in the same environment."
Witkow was a UCLA graduate student when she conducted the study, which was recently published online in the Journal of Research on Adolescence.
Source:
U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2010/06/09/more-school-friends-may--better-grades.html
