CompleX Lab, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Big Data Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 6;15(1):4785. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49228-7.
Understanding how student peers influence learning outcomes is crucial for effective education management in complex social systems. The complexities of peer selection and evolving peer relationships, however, pose challenges for identifying peer effects using static observational data. Here we use both null-model and regression approaches to examine peer effects using longitudinal data from 5,272 undergraduates, where roommate assignments are plausibly random upon enrollment and roommate relationships persist until graduation. Specifically, we construct a roommate null model by randomly shuffling students among dorm rooms and introduce an assimilation metric to quantify similarities in roommate academic performance. We find significantly larger assimilation in actual data than in the roommate null model, suggesting roommate peer effects, whereby roommates have more similar performance than expected by chance alone. Moreover, assimilation exhibits an overall increasing trend over time, suggesting that peer effects become stronger the longer roommates live together. Our regression analysis further reveals the moderating role of peer heterogeneity. In particular, when roommates perform similarly, the positive relationship between a student's future performance and their roommates' average prior performance is more pronounced, and their ordinal rank in the dorm room has an independent effect. Our findings contribute to understanding the role of college roommates in influencing student academic performance.
了解学生同伴如何影响学习成果对于复杂社会系统中的有效教育管理至关重要。然而，同伴选择和不断发展的同伴关系的复杂性，使得使用静态观测数据来识别同伴效应具有挑战性。在这里，我们使用零模型和回归方法，利用来自 5272 名本科生的纵向数据来检验同伴效应，其中室友分配在入学时是合理随机的，并且室友关系持续到毕业。具体来说，我们通过在宿舍内随机打乱学生来构建室友零模型，并引入同化度量来量化室友学业成绩的相似性。我们发现实际数据中的同化程度明显大于室友零模型，这表明存在室友同伴效应，即室友的表现比仅由机会决定的表现更相似。此外，同化随着时间的推移呈现出总体上升的趋势，这表明室友在一起生活的时间越长，同伴效应就越强。我们的回归分析进一步揭示了同伴异质性的调节作用。特别是，当室友表现相似时，学生未来表现与其室友平均先前表现之间的正相关关系更加显著，并且他们在宿舍中的顺序排名具有独立的影响。我们的研究结果有助于理解大学室友在影响学生学业表现方面的作用。
