Does Best Friendship Quality Protects Teenagers with a Negative Relationship with Their Teacher from Dropout?

INTRODUCTION: Dropping out of high school is related to high risks of unemployment, mental and physical health problems, and criminal behavior (Lafond, 2010). Dropout rates are influenced by negative social experiences in school, including poor teacher–student relationship (Lagana, 2004). However, friendship quality, in the present study conceptualised as positive feelings towards one’s friend, is related to school engagement and achievement levels, and could therefore act as a protective factor. In fact, Lagana (2004) showed that peer support discriminates between students who are at low versus high risk of dropping out. This study tests the hypothesis that having high quality relationships with best friends protects students who are at risk for dropping out of school because of their negative relationships with teachers.

METHOD: Our 143 participants (mean age 16.6 years) were recruited from two high schools in suburban areas of Montreal, Canada, and were assessed in Grades 10 and 11. They filled out online questionnaires in school. Eight questions of the McGill Friendship Questionnaire (MFQ; a=.93; Mendelsion & Aboud, 1999) were used to assess friendship quality. We measured participants' risk for dropping out with the Evaluation Toolkit for Potential Dropouts (24 items; Janosz et al., 2007) and the quality of their relationships with teachers with the Perception of School Context Questionnaire (10 items, a=.82; Galland & Philippot, 2005). Moderation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS and analyses statistically controlled for initial dropout risk levels.

RESULTS: Low-quality relationships with teachers increases dropout risk over time (b= –0.17, SE=.06, 95%, CI [–0.2944, –0,05], p<.01). In contrast with our hypothesis, this link is marginally moderated by friendship quality, and only when friendship quality is low (b=.1598, p=.08). In other words, having low quality friendships may increase the risk associated with having a low-quality relationship with teachers, but having high-quality best friendships does not protect students from this risk.

CONCLUSION: Prevention efforts aiming to decrease school dropout rates must continue to promote positive teacher-student relationships, and must pay close attention to adolescents who are at heightened risk due to their low quality relationships with both teachers and close friends. Future research needs to identify other protective factors that can be targeted in prevention efforts to decrease dropout rates.