Student interactions with peers and their influence on first-semester GPA.

This study focuses on the extent peer interactions in first-year college students affect their first-semester GPA by utilizing the Academic, Social, and Deeper Life Interactions Instrument to measure the experience of college students through their interactions with peers (Sriram et al., 2020a). I created a structural equation model to illustrate the pathways of relationships between the latent variables—Academic Interactions with Peers, Social Interactions with Peers, and Deeper Life Interactions with Peers—to the dependent variable of GPA. The social interaction's direct path to deeper life interactions was significant (β = .66, p < .001). The academic interaction's direct path to deeper life interactions was also significant (β = .22, p < .002). Deeper life interactions had a direct effect on GPA that was significant (β = .24, p < .01). This is the first study to demonstrate that peer interactions—and in particular deeper life interactions—positively influence GPA.