Abstract
Despite the important role of peers in the social process of classroom citizenship, the peer influence related to moral disengagement, social goals, and a sense of peer community remain unclear. To this end, it was examined to what extent youth become similar to their friends in moral disengagement, social goals, and a sense of peer community. Participants were 283 South Korean third to sixth graders (Mage = 9.60 years, SD = 0.97; 51.6% girls) who completed an online survey for moral disengagement, social goals, the sense of peer community and friendship network across the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of the school semester (September to December). Longitudinal social network analyses indicated that youth became more similar to their friends concerning moral disengagement and a sense of peer community, but did not select friends based on these aspects. The strength of these influence effects varied in terms of different levels of these aspects. Specifically, youth were more likely to become similar to their friends at lower levels of moral disengagement. Youth tended to be similar to the friends’ level of sense of peer community. This tendency was relatively strong at the lowest and the highest levels of a sense of peer community. Future research should address the role of friendship in shaping classroom citizenship and the importance of classroom daily teaching practice in youth citizenship development.
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Acknowledgements
This project was enabled by a Radboud Excellence fellowship from Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
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J.K. conceived the study, collected the data, participated in its design, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; J.S. conceived the study, participated in its design, and helped to draft the manuscript; R.T. conceived the study and helped to draft the manuscript; S.C. conceived the study and helped to draft the manuscript; J.H. participated in its design and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Kim, J., Sijtsema, J.J., Thornberg, R. et al. Shaping Citizenship in the Classroom: Peer Influences on Moral Disengagement, Social Goals, and a Sense of Peer Community. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 732–743 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01916-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01916-1