Do Your Child’s Friends Influence Your Child’s Grades?

We all know that friends are very important for a child’s development and they could have an influence in the child’s life. Friends provide support when needed and also share happiness and success. But one question which sits in every Singaporean parent’s mind is ‘Do friends influence my child’s grades?’. Leading home tuition in Singapore is aware of that question every parent would have in their minds. So, we would like to discuss further on whether friends affect your child’s grades, does it have a positive influence and lastly, what can you do about it?

Before we discuss how friends influence your child’s grades, let us discuss how friends influence your child in general. Some of the changes in your child’s actions and behavior is often caused due to peer pressure. Peer pressure is a situation where children change their behaviour and habits to fit in with a group of friends even if it means suppressing their actual behaviour and habits. If your child is surrounded by friends who are doing well in school and positive minded, due to peer pressure your child also tries his/ her best to fit in with such friends. This makes the child perform well in school and develop a positive attitude, which every parent in Singapore wants.

On the other hand, there are people who think that school is unnecessary and education is not very important. If your child is surrounded by such individuals, there is a chance your child might develop undesirable qualities and have a negative outlook towards life and academics.

So, it is extremely important to surround your child with peers who provide a good example for them and have a positive attitude. It is very good if your child is surrounded by friends who secure good grades because your child will also try their very best to secure good grades so that they can fit in with their peers.

Jealousy is another factor which can influence your child. If your child is performing well, there might be few friends who feel jealous and try to damage your child’s success.

Unambitious students with no long term plans could be another group of students who could potentially influence your child negatively. Unambitious students tend to demotivate potential students to bring them down to their level so that they don’t feel bad over wasting their time. It is very important to keep away from these types of students.

Another negative impact your child might face due to friends in class is being bullied. Some students are rude to others and they often tease or insult others. Bullying is a problem many students in Singapore might face in different intensities in different grades of their academic life. Among children, it might have a long lasting affect and we strongly recommend an adult’s intervention at an early stage to prevent consequences of bullying. After feeling bad due to bullying, we strongly recommend parents to focus on building self confidence in the child immediately so that they can be successful.

It is often hard to say whether your child might come across friends who could influence negatively and the child might not identify sometimes. However, it is very important to talk to your child frequently about their experiences in school, and based upon the experiences you as an adult can determine if your child is coming across negative individuals or not. Aso, as parents, we advise you to have conversations with the teacher to learn how the child is behaving in school and at home. Based upon the child’s behaviour you can let the teachers know what is the best method to resolve any issues, such as letting the child sit with more friendly and academically successful students. While in the house, you can provide motivational support to the child so that difficulties could be resolved.