The Effect of Teenagers’ Choice of Friends on College Completion

In this article in American Educational Research Journal, Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng and Grace Kao (University of Pennsylvania) and Jessica McCrory Calarco (Indiana University) report on their study of the impact of teens’ friendship choices on college completion rates. “Friends matter,” they say. Hanging out with peers with college-educated mothers predicts significantly higher rates of college graduation. Interestingly, this was much more important than the income of friends’ families. “We conclude that adolescent friendships are an under-recognized source of social capital,” say the authors. “This relationship holds even after controlling for adolescents’ family resources and for other factors (including adolescents’ and friends’ academic achievement and expectations, parent expectations, as well as school characteristics) that might influence both friend selection and educational attainment.” 

What’s the mechanism for the friendship effect? Cherng, Calarco, and Kao say it’s exposure to college-educated adults, who provide motivation and serve as role models of middle-class status. Friends’ parents may also provide information about college options, mentoring for the college application process, and trips to college campuses. 

The flip side, of course, is the impact of friends whose parents aren’t college-educated. “Exposure to less-affluent and educated adult role models, it seems, can undermine the college chances of even those students with college-educated parents,” say the authors. “[W]hile students from more resource-rich families are often doubly advantaged, those from less resource-rich families are instead doubly disadvantaged.” 

This research has important implications for teachers and administrators. Given the tendency of birds of a feather to flock together (teens tend to befriend those of similar social and economic backgrounds), it’s important for educators to orchestrate cross-class friendships in classrooms and after-school activities. 

“Along for the Ride: Best Friends’ Resources and Adolescents’ College Completion” by Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, Jessica McCrory Calarco, and Grace Kao in American Educational Research Journal, February 2013 (Vol. 50, #1, p. 76-106), 

http://aer.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/15/0002831212466689.ab...

From the Marshall Memo #479