Social Relations and Academic Performance: A Network Perspective on Sense of Belonging

Feeling a sense of belonging is fundamental to students’ academic success, well-being, and long-term retention. While sense of belonging is inherently relational, it has up to now rarely been studied from a network perspective. This study evaluates how students’ social networks and sense of belonging relate to their academic performance, in the context of a large undergraduate statistics course that offers recitation sessions ( n=133). We use a network autocorrelation model, accounting for grade associations between peers connected in friendship and advice networks. Despite our observation of positive network autocorrelation on course final grades in both networks, the model did not discern any network effects net of individual-level characteristics. We find that students’ sense of belonging is positively associated with their grades, and that students who have no classmates to ask for course-related advice score lower than those who do. We posit that the positive observed association between recitation attendance and grades is likely driven by student motivation: students who attend more recitations than required score on average considerably higher than those who do not. This study reiterates the importance of students’ peer support and sense of belonging, and addresses implications for course instructors and beyond the classroom.