Who Are Your Friends in Class? The Effects of Classroom Composition on Students' Reciprocal Friendship Nominations

Abstract

Educational settings such as classrooms provide important opportunities for social learning through interactions with peers. Our paper addresses the research question of whether and to what extent classroom composition characteristics make a difference. We carried out multilevel analyses based on a sample of n = 791 students in 48 classrooms (grades 5-7) in inclusive lower-secondary comprehensive schools in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). 22.6% of the variance in students' reciprocal friendship nominations were attributable to classroom-level differences. A higher average socioeconomic status and, respectively, a lower percentage of immigrant students negatively affected the number of reciprocal friendship nominations within classrooms. These results indicate that more privileged classroom settings can be related to less dense friendship networks of students. Our findings can be understood as an impulse to consider contextual factors when evaluating and addressing the social structure of classrooms in research and practice.