Peer relationships facilitate student learning and sense of belonging in higher education (HE) (Mishra, 2020). This is particularly true for first year international students, who not only need to adapt to a new academic, but also a new cultural context during their transition to HE. Small group education facilitates peer relationship development, but psychosocial factors may influence the extent to which students actually make use of such opportunities. For instance, students’ perceptions of their own academic capabilities (self-efficacy) and sense of belonging are likely to shape their engagement with peers, influencing both who they choose to build ties with, and how these ties evolve over time. Conversely, social interactions may, in turn, strengthen or weaken students’ self-efficacy and belongingness. To understand these dynamic and reciprocal processes, a longitudinal social network perspective is needed, capturing how (psycho)social and academic factors co-develop within international student populations (Brouwer & Froehlich, 2023). Therefore, this study examines the role of academic self-efficacy and sense of belonging in international students’ selection process of friends and collaboration partners as well as the influence of these partners on students’ self-efficacy and sense of belonging.

We conducted a longitudinal complete social network study among 289 first-year students enrolled in a bachelor’s program at a university in the Netherlands. Data were collected during students’ first academic semester, a key transitional period, across three survey waves administered in September, November, and January. This design allowed us to examine changes in students’ social networks and individual outcomes over time. At each wave, students nominated peers within their cohort with whom they collaborated academically (e.g., studying together or working on assignments) and peers they considered friends. These nominations were used to construct longitudinal networks of academic collaboration and friendship. In addition, students completed survey measures assessing their sense of belonging in the program and their academic self-efficacy. Both constructs were treated as time-varying individual attributes. Administrative data were obtained from the university’s student information system and linked to the survey data using unique identifiers. These data included measures of academic achievement, such as grades and credits earned, as well as background characteristics (e.g., demographic and educational information). The data were analyzed using stochastic actor-oriented models (SAOMs), which are specifically designed to analyze the co-evolution of social networks and individual attributes in longitudinal data (Snijders, 2011). SAOMs model network change as a series of micro-steps driven by actors’ preferences, enabling the examination of selection and influence processes. This approach allowed us to investigate how collaboration and friendship networks developed during the first semester and how these networks were associated with changes in students’ sense of belonging, academic self-efficacy, and academic outcomes.

Descriptive results firstly show that tutorial groups are an important context for initial relationship development. SAOMs revealed that networks are influenced by cross-network dynamics and psychosocial factors. Existing help-seeking ties significantly predicted formation of collaboration ties (Est. = 0.70, p <.001), and existing collaboration and friendship ties increased the likelihood of new friendship nominations (Est. = 1.02, p <.01; Est. = 1.42, p <.001). Sense of belonging showed positive effects on collaboration tie formation (Est. = 0.24, p <.01), meaning that students who feel connected to their academic environment are more inclined to collaborate. Self-efficacy had contrasting effects: higher ego efficacy reduced the probability of establishing collaboration ties (Est. = -0.32, p <.001). Alter efficacy had small negative effects, implying a lower tendency among student to nominate peers with high academic self-efficacy as preferred collaboration partners (Est. = -0.17, p <.05) or as friends (Est. = -0.18, p <.05). Findings enhance understanding of international students’ peer networks formation within small group learning environments and the role of psychosocial factors in this process. Small groups appear to enhance tie formation, but self-efficacy and sense of belonging affect whether students actually make use of relationship possibilities in small groups, suggesting a need for interventions targeted at improvement of such psychosocial outcomes. Further analysis of the data will provide insight into the effect of peer networks on self-efficacy and sense of belonging.

Brouwer, J., & Froehlich, D. E. (2023). The dynamics of social networks: Towards a better understanding of selection and influence mechanisms in social capital building. In Re-theorising Learning and Research Methods in Learning Research. Routledge. Mishra, S. (2020). Social networks, social capital, social support and academic success in higher education: A systematic review with a special focus on ‘underrepresented’ students. Educational Research Review, 29, 100307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100307 Snijders, T. A. B. (2011). Statistical Models for Social Networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 37(1), 131–153. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102709