What Are They?
Most people would agree that few things impacted their school lives as much as their relationships with their peers—friends, acquaintances, or otherwise. Peer relationships play an important role in children’s school lives, and relationships with peers become even more influential as children enter adolescence.
Research on positive peer relationships often distinguishes between friendship and peer acceptance. High-quality friendships involve not only companionship, but also caring, validation, and support. In addition to playing together, good friends feel comfortable opening up to each other and are motivated to resolve conflicts that arise.
Peer acceptance, sometimes referred to by researchers as popularity, focuses on how much students like or like to play with their classmates, and has been found to affect students’ sense of belonging in school and their academic achievement.
A 5th grade math teacher read a study that found that students’ math grades improve when they exhibit self-control and when they feel accepted by other students in the class. As a result, she has students practice mindfulness each morning to help develop their attention skills, and she creates a safe and welcoming classroom through cooperative problem-solving groups and regular class meetings so that students feel they belong and are connected to one another.
Why Are They Important?
Research shows that positive peer relationships benefit students in a myriad of ways, at school and in life.
Both quantity and quality of relationships matter for kids.
- Studies have found that young children with higher numbers of friends are less likely to be lonely, and more likely to like and be engaged at school.
- In middle childhood, peer acceptance, friendship, and friendship quality all matter in terms of reducing a child’s chance of loneliness.
- Positive peer relationships help make children more resilient, even when they face difficulties at home.
Having one good friend can be enough.
- Having just one close friend can be enough to protect kids from the negative effects of being treated badly by other peers.
- Similarly, research shows that adolescents with at least one reciprocal friendship have higher self-esteem than those without one; on the other hand, having greater numbers of friendships doesn’t seem to further increase self-esteem.
Especially for adolescents, positive relationships with peers make a big difference in other areas of life.
- Peer acceptance relates positively to GPA in middle school; in fact, research shows that positive peer relationships can explain up to 40% of adolescents’ academic achievement.
- Positive peer support also predicts adolescents’ health and well-being (across cultures) and their emotional and behavioral engagement with school, an effect that increases over time.
- Likewise, teens whose close friends are prosocial are much more likely to set prosocial goals and behave prosocially themselves in the future.
Practices
![Students examine how they face everyday moral dilemmas and consider who and what influences their reactions when conflicts arise.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Where_We_Stand_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Where We Stand
![Students explore real-world examples to help them identify peaceful ways to respond to discrimination.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Standing_Up_Against_Discrimination_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Standing Up Against Discrimination
![Students identify others' assumptions about them and then describe who they really are on the inside.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Understanding_Prejudice_Through_Paper_Plate_Portraits_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Understanding Prejudice Through Paper Plate Portraits
![A routine for celebrating each student in your class](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cool_Kid_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Cool Kid: An SEL Kernels Practice for Sixth Grade
![A routine for celebrating each student in your class](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cool_Kid_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Cool Kid: An SEL Kernels Practice for Fifth Grade
![A routine for celebrating each student in your class](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cool_Kid_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Cool Kid: An SEL Kernels Practice for Fourth Grade
![A routine for celebrating each student in your class](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cool_Kid_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Cool Kid: An SEL Kernels Practice for Third Grade
![A routine for celebrating each student in your class](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cool_Kid_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Cool Kid: An SEL Kernels Practice for Second Grade
![A routine for celebrating each student in your class](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cool_Kid_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Cool Kid: An SEL Kernels Practice for First Grade
![A routine for celebrating each student in your class](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cool_Kid_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Cool Kid: An SEL Kernels Practice for Kindergarten
![Through stories, discussion, and creative presentations about true heroes, students foster their compassion for others and see brave community involvement as an admirable, heroic way of life.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Who_Are_Your_Heroes_1340x720-1-495x270.jpg)
Who Are Your Heroes?
![Use the Circle process to encourage students to safely and respectfully share their level of understanding on an academic topic.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Check_for_Understanding_Circle_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Check for Understanding Circle
![Use the Circle process to build a sense of connection among students and staff by sharing moods, feelings, and moments of joy and pain.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Check-in_Circle_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Check-in Circle for Community Building
![Use the Circle process to encourage self-care among staff and students in all dimensions.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Self-Care_Circle_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Self-Care Circle
![A tool for fostering a supportive and equitable classroom and school environment and for promoting SEL.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/The_SEL_3_Signature_Practices_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
The SEL 3 Signature Practices
![Discussion prompts that guide teachers to reflect and collaborate on effective SEL implementation.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Supporting_SEL_at_Grade-Level_or_Content_Area_Team_Meetings_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Supporting SEL at Grade-Level or Content Area Team Meetings
![Students establish and build friendships with classmates in a safe way.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Make_Fast_Friends_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Make Fast Friends
![Students practice their social skills with each other while learning a new dance move.](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Getting_to_Know_Each_Other_Through_Dance_1340x720-495x270.jpg)
Getting to Know Each Other Through Dance
![Enroll in one of our online courses](https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Online_Course_Announcement_1200x800-495x265.jpg)
Do you want to dive deeper into the science behind our GGIE practices? Enroll in one of our online courses for educators!