Project management: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marion Reindl

Project team: Tanja Auer, MA

Period: 2017-2021

Funding: DFG (German Research Foundation)

Brief description:

The project analyzes the importance of the peer context for academic motivation. Despite the increasing importance of peers in adolescence, the relationship to the development of academic motivation has received comparatively little attention. However, previous research shows that peers play an important role in other areas of development, such as psychosocial adjustment. In order to further differentiate influences within the peer context, both dyadic and group relationships in the form of best friends and cliques are considered. A quantitative longitudinal study with five measurement points was designed to test the hypotheses. The sample comprises a total of around 1200 adolescents in the fifth and seventh grades. This means that different age groups in early adolescence and their variation in the importance of peers can be taken into account.