Student Peer Relations at a Community College

Recent studies have reported little student social activity and conflicting findings of positive, negligible, or even negative effects of social integration on academic outcomes at community colleges. These conflicting research findings may be partially attributable to the use of instruments originally developed for the study of traditional social relations at four-year institutions. This study explored the possibility of distinctive patterns of student peer relations at a community college in terms of two questions: (a) frequency of peer relations and (b) variation among students. Classroom surveys were given to students in 19 general education courses at the beginning of the semester (N=1, 359) and midsemester (N=744). The findings indicated that few students engaged in some of the traditional activities of four-year college students and that over half of the students occasionally or frequently studied together.