Social Contagion and High School Dropout: The Role of Friends, Romantic Partners, and Siblings

Autor/inn/en	Dupéré, Véronique; Dion, Eric; Cantin, Stéphane; Archambault, Isabelle; Lacourse, Eric
Titel	Social Contagion and High School Dropout: The Role of Friends, Romantic Partners, and Siblings
Quelle	In: Journal of Educational Psychology, 113 (2021) 3, S.572-584 (13 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Dupéré, Véronique) ORCID (Cantin, Stéphane)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0663
DOI	10.1037/edu0000484
Schlagwörter	Social Influences; Peer Influence; Siblings; Family Influence; Intimacy; Adolescents; High School Students; Dropouts; At Risk Students; Foreign Countries; Friendship; Low Income Groups; Prevention; Student Behavior; Student Characteristics; Canada + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Sozialer Einfluss; Sibling; Geschwister; Intimität; Adolescent; Adolescence; Adoleszenz; Jugend; Jugendalter; Jugendlicher; High school; High schools; Student; Students; Oberschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Drop-out; Drop-outs; Dropout; Early leavers; Schulversagen; Ausland; Freundschaft; Prävention; Vorbeugung; Student behaviour; Schülerverhalten; Kanada
Abstract	Social contagion theories suggest that adolescents in relationships with same-age high school dropouts should be at a greater risk of dropping out themselves. Yet, few studies have examined this premise, and none have considered all potentially influential same-age intimates, focusing instead on only either friends or siblings. Moreover, a key influence in adolescents' social worlds, romantic partners, has been ignored. The goal of this study was to provide a comprehensive view of dropout contagion by considering occurrences of dropout among friends, siblings, and romantic partners. Data came from a sample of Canadian adolescents (N = 545) comprising one third of high school dropouts; a second third of carefully matched at-risk but persevering schoolmates; and a last third of average, not-at-risk students. As predicted, adolescents were at greater risk of dropping out when a member of their network had recently left school (i.e., in the past year, OR = 3.11; 95% CI [1.78, 6.27]), with independent associations of nontrivial sizes for occurrences of dropout among friends, romantic partners, and siblings (ORs between 1.97 [95% CI 1.25, 3.41] and 3.12 [95% CI 1.23, 11.0]). Moreover, adolescents seemed particularly at risk of quitting school (OR = 4.88; 95% CI [2.54, 12.5]) when their networks included more than one type of same-age intimate (e.g., a friend "and" a sibling) who had recently dropped out. Findings suggest that social contagion of dropout is a pervasive phenomenon in low-income schools and that prevention programs should target adolescents with same-age intimates who have recently left school. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01