College students spend a tremendous amount of time with their friends.
This post originally appeared onThe Conversation.
My research shows students create friendship networks that influence them in different ways.
Friends can motivate and support students, but friends can also pull them down academically.
One important part of social networks is the connections.
So, we know that social networks can be beneficial and that not all people gain these benefits.
I focused on a persons friends and the connections between friends.
Each of these students named between three and 60 friends.
I collected information about each friend and the connections between each friendthus mapping the data pipe of friendships.
I categorized each student into one of three connection types: tight-knitters, compartmentalizers and samplers.
So what are these networks and how do they work?
He referred to them as a family.
However, not all tight-knit networks provide similar support.
Some could also distract students.
I found that for half of tight-knitters, friends were more of a distraction than a helping hand.
For example, they distracted each other from attending class and from studying.
I found tight-knit networks had the potential to have the most powerful impact on academic and social outcomes.
One challenge of this internet jot down was keeping up with each cluster.
While many tight-knitters and compartmentalizers found friends helping them thrive academically and socially, samplers achieved academic success independently.
One sampler I met was Steve, a black man from a working-class background.
Steve formed individual friendships at events, food courts and other campus locations.
Like many students of color I interviewed, Steve described experiencing race-based isolation on campus.
However, like other samplers, Steve rarely discussed these isolating experiences with friends and remained isolated.
Steve also felt lonesome in his academic pursuits.
After College
What happens to these friendship networks once students leave college?
Friendship networks during college mattered for both of these aspectswhether specific friendships and web connection types lasted after college.
In terms of web link types, generally, compartmentalizers remained compartmentalizers, and tight-knitters remained tight-knitters.
Paralleling these general trends, Alberto remained a tight-knitter, Mary remained a compartmentalizer and Steve became a tight-knitter.
With a tight-knit web connection, Steve felt socially supported and no longer on his own after college.
There was much turnover in friends, with only about 25 percent remaining friends over this five-year period.
The cohesive ties tight-knitters crafted during college generally resulted in less change in their networks.
Not surprisingly, tight-knit ties were more likely to be ties that last.
So, What Does It Mean?
Friends matter for students academic and social success.
Students need to be aware of their networks and how that is helping or hindering them.
