Social Network Analysis of Classroom Relationships by Sibling Status among Middle School Students

This study aimed to investigate the influence of sibling status on peer relationships and sociability among middle school students through social network analysis.In the context of rapid social changes leading to decreased sibling relationships within families, it is crucial to understand how these changes affect students' social relationship formation in schools.The participants were middle school students from A Middle School in Busan.Social networks within classrooms were visualized through surveys using the peer nomination method.To assess students' sociability, in-degree centrality, out-degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality were calculated.Teacher interviews were also conducted to validate the analysis results.Finally, mean difference tests (t-test, two-way ANOVA) were performed to examine students' sociability according to sibling status.The results revealed three main findings.First, students with siblings showed significantly higher outdegree centrality and eigenvector centrality than only children, suggesting that students with siblings are more active in forming relationships within the classroom and can effectively leverage relationships with others.Second, gender differences were observed: male students demonstrated strong cohesion with high in-degree centrality, out-degree centrality, and eigenvector centrality.Third, isolated groups were primarily found among female students, while complete isolates were identified among male students.This study empirically confirmed that sibling experience can significantly influence students' social relationship formation abilities, particularly in developing sociability through utilizing relationships with others.These findings suggest the need for differentiated approaches in classroom management that consider students' family composition.