Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Traag Tanja 
Author-Name: Lubbers Miranda Jessica 
Author-Name: Velden Rolf van der
Author-workplace-name: METEOR
Title: That’s what friends are for? The impact of peer characteristics on early school-leaving
Abstract: In this paper we investigate if peer relations affect a student’s risk of early school-leaving. Weuse the sociometric data collection from the Dutch “Secondary Education Pupil Cohort 1999” toidentify peer relations in a sample of almost 20,000 students in the first grade of secondaryeducation (mean age 13). This information is matched to data on educational attainment from 1999to 2010 for these students, to measure later early school-leaving by both the focal students aswell as their peers. Our results show that both being friends with future early school-leavers aswell as popularity among future early school-leavers increases the risk of students to be earlyschool-leavers later in their educational career while other characteristics of the peer groupsuch as gender composition, ethnic composition, average (non)cognitive skills and averagesocioeconomic background have no effects on the risk of early school-leaving. And whilecharacteristics like gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background play an important role inpeer selection, the future dropout status does not have a major impact on peer selection. 
Keywords: education, training and the labour market; 
Series: Research Memoranda
Creation-Date: 2012
Number: 023
File-URL: http://arnop.unimaas.nl/show.cgi?fid=25433
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 415840
Handle: RePEc:unm:umamet:2012023