Chapter 9: Bridging Social And Academic Identities: Peer Relations, Friendship, and Educational Experiences

Friends and peers play an important role in adolescents’ school experiences. In fact, many youth like to attend school mainly because of the opportunity to spend time with their friends. But do these valued experiences with friends hinder or support their academic achievements? What structural factors and what processes are in place in schools to reinforce or reduce academic identities through friendship and peer relations? These questions have been raised and researched from several different perspectives over the past several decades, with increasingly complex findings.

This chapter begins with an examination of the extent to which certain social identities (athlete, club member, prep, etc.) compete with academic identities for youth today. We begin by addressing Coleman’s (1961) research showing that social values compete with academic ones. We discuss how this perspective does not allow for the possibility of social roles complementing academic roles. Also, as school cultures have become increasingly diverse, more opportunities are available for today’s youth to express both social and academic identities.