Peers have a great deal of influence on highs school students. In a 2011 LA Times article, A teen’s friends are a powerful influence, Valerie Ulene opines:

The influence that friends exert over one another as teenagers is clearly powerful and, far too often, undesirable. Unhealthy behaviors can be almost contagious among kids this age. Teens whose friends smoke, drink or use drugs, for example, are more likely to indulge in these behaviors themselves. Aggressive, illegal or self-injurious behaviors also have a tendency to cluster among friend groups, as do concerns about body image and eating.

A study published in February in the Journal of Early Adolescence showed that friendships can also make the difference between good and bad grades at school. Researchers at the University of Oregon surveyed more than 1,200 middle school students and asked them to identify their three best friends. They found that students whose friends were prone to misbehave didn’t do as well in school as kids whose friends were socially active in positive ways, such as participating in sports at school or completing their homework on time.

Even though it’s easy for parents to blame their children’s bad behavior on peers and assume that other kids coerce them into doing things like drinking, smoking, stealing or cheating, poor decision-making among teens isn’t all about pressure. Kids actively want to emulate their peers. During adolescence, they are looking for ways to separate from their families and begin to define themselves as individuals. To that end, they turn to friends for guidance and direction. They tend to mimic their peers’ behaviors and adopt the same attitudes. Conforming to social norms helps them redefine themselves while earning them acceptance and approval. Fitting in simply feels good.

Parents, discouraged by the changes they see in their children, naturally try to intervene. They may encourage their kids to spend less time with friends they perceive as troublemakers or forbid these friendships entirely. But interfering in a teenager’s life too much, particularly with friendships, can make matters worse. “Meddling with children’s relationships has a high potential for backfiring,” Prinstein says. “It can actually fuel rebellion.”http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/11/health/la-he-the-md-teens-friends-20110411

Parents may want to steer their children toward activities which support the child’s interests and are the types of activities which attract peers who have healthy interests.

Sarah D. Sparks reports in Education Week about a study in which high school students participated as researchers. Sparks writes in the article, Study Asks: Can High School Students ‘Catch’ Good Grades?

If Josh’s friends all jumped off a bridge, would he jump, too? If all Josh’s friends are pulling Cs, will he let his 3.7 GPA slide?

A new study published this afternoon in the online journal PLOS-1—and conducted by a team of high school students partnering with researchers via a National Science Foundation outreach program—suggests grades of friends can rise or fall together over time.

Social contagion is something of a cognitive germ theory; it posits that concepts and behaviors can spread through a social network like a cold spreads through students in the same school. Prior research already suggests children and adults become more likely to “catch” behaviors like smoking or exercising the more people in their social circle are already doing it. The concept is even more appealing for those who study children and teenagers, who have been shown to be heavily influenced by peers.

The study, “Spread of Academic Success in a High School Social Network,” is the first to attempt to use this social network approach to analyze changes in students’ grades. The authors asked 160 juniors at Maine-Endwell High School in Endwell, N.Y. to identify, on a list of the rest of the class, the other students considered close friends, friends, acquaintances, relatives, or unknown to the student. The authors then linked the social circles with administrative data, including GPA (as translated into class ranking), attendance, and disciplinary actions, for the 2010 and 2011 school years.

They found that students whose friends’ average GPA was higher than their own at the start of the study were more likely to improve their GPA, and students with a higher GPA than their friends were more likely to drop in grades.

Co-author Hiroki Sayama, the director of the collective dynamics of complex systems research group at Binghamton University in New York, cautioned that the findings don’t prove that having friends whose grades are higher causes a student to improve his own grades; students could, for example, be seeking out other academically inclined students. “Psychologically, it makes sense, because if you are working to improve your grades, subconsciously you might see smarter students as your friends,” he said.

There was some evidence that this isn’t just a matter of birds of a feather flocking together, though. Close friends—the ones most likely to be chosen based on personality similarities—were less strongly related to changes in a student’s GPA than were students considered friends, but not as close. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2013/02/student_researchers_probe_grad.html

See, GPA May Be Contagious in High-School Social Networks http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130213173124.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmind_brain+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Mind+%26+Brain+News%29

and High School Peer Networks and College Success: Lessons from Texas http://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/ira/opr/seminars/paper-archives/TiendaHighSchoolPeerNetworks.pdf

Citation:

Journal Reference:

1. Deanna Blansky, Christina Kavanaugh, Cara Boothroyd, Brianna Benson, Julie Gallagher, John Endress, Hiroki Sayama. Spread of Academic Success in a High School Social Network. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e55944 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055944

Dr. Sylvia Rimm, Ph.D. has some excellent suggestions in her article, Peer Influence:

IF YOUR TEENS ARE IN NEGATIVE PEER GROUPS

Peers who smoke, drink alcohol, use drugs, and oppose school and parents will put pressure on your children to do the same. Peers who are excellent students, involved in extracurricular activities, and busy building skills and interests are likely to have a positive effect on your children. Sometimes parents and teachers may be fooled by teens’ school behavior. That is, occasionally even positive kids lead a very different and unhealthy social life outside of school.

If your child is already in a negative peer group, here are some suggested potential solutions for separating them from their negative friends. Unfortunately, all of these are more effective with children in middle school than in high school, and none are guaranteed to be effective. All are worth considering.

Parent Pointers Teach values about friendship. Develop criteria for decision making early. Set limits for children’s friends. Encourage independence. Don’t pressure children to have friends. Foster positive interests. Provide family support and activities.

SUBSTITUTING A POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP

The most positive technique for removing an adolescent from a negative peer group is getting her involved in a positive peer experience, such as a fun enrichment program, a religious club or scout group, a special interest group, a sport, drama, art, music, or creative writing activity, a summer program or camp, or a youth travel experience. http://www.sylviarimm.com/article_peerinf.html

Navigating children through negative peer relationships can be a minefield and parents should not be afraid to seek help.

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Tags: A teen's friends are a powerful influence, Dr. Sylvia Rimm, education, GPA May Be Contagious in High-School Social Networks, High School Peer Networks and College Success: Lessons from Texas, Negative Peer Groups, Peer Influence, Peer Pressure, research, science, Spread of Academic Success in a High School Social Network., Study Asks: Can High School Students 'Catch' Good Grades?, Teens and Peer Pressure, Toxic Friends