A New School, a Fresh Start? Change and Stability in Peer Relationships and Academic Performance in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School

Sofie J Lorijn; Dieuwke Zwier; Lydia Laninga-Wijnen; Mark Huisman; René Veenstra

doi:10.1007/s10964-024-01991-y

A New School, a Fresh Start? Change and Stability in Peer Relationships and Academic Performance in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School

J Youth Adolesc. 2024 May 4. doi: 10.1007/s10964-024-01991-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Sofie J Lorijn¹, Dieuwke Zwier², Lydia Laninga-Wijnen³, Mark Huisman⁴, René Veenstra⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. s.j.lorijn@rug.nl.
² Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
³ Department of Developmental Psychology, INVEST flagship, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁴ Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.

PMID: 38704468
DOI: 10.1007/s10964-024-01991-y

Abstract

Previous studies on peer relationships in school transitions neglected individual differences, or did not examine the relation with academic performance in secondary school. This study followed 649 students from their last year of primary school to their first year in secondary school (M_age at T1 = 11.6 (SD = 0.6); 53.6% girls). Results revealed that students became more attached to peers, less lonely, and were stable in victimization across the transition. Particularly students with more negative peer experiences in primary school enjoyed a "fresh start" in terms of peer experiences in secondary school. Students who had more co-transitioning peers experienced greater reductions in loneliness. Changes in peer experiences over the transition did not relate to academic performance in secondary school.

Keywords: Academic performance; Attachment; Latent Change Score Models; Loneliness; Peer relationships; School transitions.