Secret to good grades lies with friend choice, study says
Photo by Rodrigo FaveraThe secret to getting great grades in high school may not longer hinge on getting the perfect tutor or enrolling in the best enrichment course.
Instead, try tweaking your child's peer pressure.
Research from UCLA professor of psychiatry Andrew J. Fuligni and Melissa R. Witkow suggests that children whose had more in-school friends than out-of-school friends had greater academic success and higher grade-point-averages. The reason?
Witkow says friends with common experience tend to push and support each other better.
We found that within an adolescent's friendship group, those with a higher proportion of friends who attended the same school received higher grades. This is partially because in-school friends are more likely to be achievement-oriented and share and support school-related activities, including studying, because they are all in the same environment."This is not to dismiss or put a negative spin on a child's friends from outside school.