Peers, Parents, and Attitudes about School

Educational attitudes are an important component of adolescent development linked to long-term educational success and as a component of noncognitive skills. This study focuses on peer and parent roles in shaping adolescent attitude development. First, I explore the relationship between an adolescent and their friends' attitudes and whether this influence is heterogeneous. Second, I ask whether parents can moderate the friend effect. I find that adolescents with poor attitudes and whose friends have particularly poor attitudes are especially at risk of developing low educational attitudes and that working with parents can serve as a channel to decrease the risk.