The Journal of Youth Behavior

Published as a seperate and in The Journal Of Youth Behavior, 1973, 85, 23-25

EFFECTS OF HAVING A GOOD FRIEND IN YOUR CLASS
ON ACADEMIC PREFORMANCE¹²

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of having one of your close friends in your class on doing well or porly on your academics. 20 students were randomly devided into two groups of ten. Five people from each group were used as a control group. The other five people in each group were used as the experemental group which also had one of there friends placed in the class with them.
At the end of one quarter(aproxamently two and a half months) the people who had there good friends in the class with them showed a signifecent decrease in their final quater grades then the five people who didn’t have a good friend in the class.

Academics are an important part of a teens highschool carrear. Friends are also an important part too, but what happens when friends and academics get mixed. It is believed that the outcome fo friends mixing with academics will show a result of the students grades to worsen. Emperical studies have substantited these beliefs in part. Ramsey(4) found that in a different study that when friends went shopping that they would end up spendinga lot more money then if they went shopping by them selves. Paine(3) found that when having a friend on a sports team they were much more focused inthe game, but during warm-ups and team huddles they were much more likely to fool around and waste time. Alden(2) found in a similar study that when two friends were in a car together and one was driving, the attention that should be on the road was much more focused on the friend, whish resulted in more accedents with friends in teh car then not.
These studies suggest that if you have a friend in a class with you that your academic preformance will result in not getting all of your work done and even getting a worse grade. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of having a friend in the class on the studnts academic preformance.

B. METHOD.
1.Subjects

Ss were 20 high school males and fmales mixed from different grades 9-12 enrolled at Standish Highschool in Martin, Vermont.

2. Measuring instruments

a. Grade Point Average. The 20 students all had their current CPA recorded that is given out by the principal, Agfa(1).
b. Sociogram. The Sociogram consists of the ten experemental students writing down their best friends namd which then would be placed in the class with them.

3. Procedure

During the second quater of highschool, 20 students between grades 9-12 were randomly chosen to participate in this experement. They were devided into two groups of ten. Five people in each group were randomly chosen to pick one good friend to be in there best subject class with them. This was the experemental group. The other five students didn’t get a choice of having a friend in their class with them.This would be the controll group. The experemental group was studied on friday of every week in class. Their teachers kept a weekly folder for the studentst, and was presented to the person that was studying the students with there class work in it, on every Friday. The students were updated weekly about the progress that they were doing or not doing. There focuse in class was recorded The controll groups aslo had a folder of there weekly in class work and updated on there progress and studied one day a week.

At the end of the quarter, the experemental group’s GPA was compared.

C. Results And Discussion

Following the quarter experement, the student that had no good friend in the class with them showed that they had a better GPA. The students who had a friend in the class with them had a worse GPA and grade inh that class. Thu, it may be concluded that having a good frien in students class will result in a lowered GPA and final letter grade. Further studies might explore how males effect the academic achievements of females and vivce versa.

Refrences

1. Agfa, P. T. Principal at Standish High School.Martin, Vermont 1991
2. Alden, R. J. Car Accedent Specialist. Harverd, Mass. 1983.
3. Paine, K. B. 5 year coach of Syracuse, New York’s soccer team.1983-1988 10 year coach of Halmen High School Westbeook, Mass’s soccer team.1988-1998
4. Ramsey, R. K. Owner of Abercrombie And Fitch Portland, Me. 1990

¹ Recieved in the editorial office on December 12, 1982 and published imeditaly at Portland, Maine. Copyright by the Journal press.

² This experiment was souported in part by a Faculty Reasearch Fellowship granted to Josh T. Weeks, and Jessica K. Ellis NYU.

³ Requests for reprints shoule be sent to the third author at the adress show at the end of this article.