Links between peer relationships, academic motivation, and performance

The link between peer relationships, academic motivation, and performance has been investigated by researchers for many years, and nowadays many studies aim to understand this complex relationship more thoroughly. The purpose of this bibliographic paper is to compare older findings with new ones, highlighting how the importance of peer relationships and academic motivation remains crucial in predicting performance. Moreover, this paper examines various mediating factors that have been found by researchers through the years: perceived academic competence, the role of the teacher, socioeconomic status, self efficacy, students’ age, and culture. The studies analyzed in this paper support the idea that peer relationships and academic motivation (both intrinsic and extrinsic) are predictors of academic performance. Positive teacher-student relationships were found to play an important role in predicting academic achievements, as well as high levels of perceived academic competence. Academic performance was also found to be influenced by socioeconomic status, self-efficacy, and culture. The findings of the reviewed studies suggest that further research is needed to investigate the interesting link between peer relationships, academic motivation, and performance.