The social implications of classroom seats: replicating and extending previous findings on seating arrangements and peer status

This preregistered replication study examined how physical proximity in the classroom is associated with peer perceptions of social status, specifically likeability and popularity. We aimed to replicate and extend the study by van den Berg and Cillessen (2015) using data from 719 students across 33 elementary classrooms (grades 4–6; M age = 10.27; 51.6% boys). We applied the Social Relations Model and mixed-effects modeling to examine (1) whether proximity between classmates is concurrently associated with likeability and popularity, (2) whether longitudinal changes in proximity lead to changes in likeability and popularity, (3) whether these findings differ for friends versus non-friends, and (4) whether they depend on how proximity is operationalized. We replicated previous findings by showing that classmates seated closer together concurrently rated each other as more popular and likeable. Furthermore, when given the opportunity to create their own seating arrangements, students placed classmates they found likeable and popular closer to themselves. We extended previous findings by showing that increased proximity between two classmates over time led to an increase in mutual liking, but not perceived popularity. Further, findings did not differ significantly between friends and non-friends. Finally, because extant studies differ in how proximity is measured, we tested an operationalization of proximity in terms of desk clusters. This alternative operationalization produced similar results to its continuous counterpart, highlighting the conceptual and practical value of the current operationalization for future research.