School Environment and Student Friendships: Issues, Implications, and Interventions

Abstract

This chapter discusses issues, implications, and interventions of school environment and student friendships. The characteristics of the school environment can be changed to alter the patterns of contact and interaction among other students. School environments change naturally in ways that affect the patterns of contact. This kind of organizational change increases student participation in the procedures used to group students in their academic classes and can alter patterns of contact among students. School environments can be changed by design to introduce programs that use peer groups for academic purposes. The expectations for positive consequences of friendships and peer relations are countered by assertions that social relationships require such conforming and compliant behaviors that they restrict or inhibit individuality, freedom of expression, and personal development. Some interventions have been designed specifically to use the social behavior of peer and friendship groups to improve student achievement or other school-related outcomes, such as interpersonal skills, friendly behaviors, and friendship choices. These interventions directly reward cooperative behavior and have been researched for their effects on friendship choices, helping behaviors, and other peer relations, as well as on academic gains. In practice, these interventions have been particularly useful in racially and ethnically integrated classrooms and in mainstreamed classrooms to attain goals of better peer relations between the students of different backgrounds and attributes.