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This study investigated the relationship between student-faculty informal relationships and three freshman year educational outcomes. After controlling for the influence of 14 student pre-enrollment characteristics, such as high school academic performance, academic aptitude, personality needs, and expectations of certain aspects of college, eight measures of the frequency and strength of student-faculty informal relationships accounted for statistically significant increases in the variance in freshman year academic performance and self-perceived intellectual and personal development. Partial correlations, controlling for the influence of all pre-enrollment characteristics and all other student-faculty relationship variables, indicated that frequency of student-faculty informal interactions focusing on intellectual or course- related matters had the strongest positive association with academic performance and intellectual development. Interactions for the purpose of discussing students’ career concerns had the strongest association with self-perceived personal growth.
Pascarella et al. (Wed,) studied this question.