I was recently reading a study by Christina Hinton, Ed.D who discovered a correlation between happiness and good grades. Her study shows that student happiness is based on school culture and relationships formed with teachers and peers. When reading into this, I found another study conducted by researchers at Research Schools International. The researchers had students at St. Andrews Episcopal School and The Center for Transformative take a survey in which the students answered they were happy because they had good friends and teachers at school.

The results of the survey caused the researchers to conclude that relationships are fundamental to happiness. Basically, good relationships equal good grades. Not to say people fail because they have bad relationships, but could that be the case? This brings me to cliques, which can be a constant group of friends that a student has, or what stops people from making more friends. This raises the question: do cliques kill a student's Grade Point Average (GPA, or help it?

Let's look at cliques as a source for constant friends. The definition of a clique is, “a small group of people with shared interests or other features in common…” Is that not essentially what friends are? If students have their clique in school, they will have peers with whom they have a good relationship. In a clique, everyone has similar interests, which creates a comfortable environment where the student can talk to someone. Also, looking forward to seeing that close-knit group of friends at school can make school a more enjoyable place for the student. This seems like what the study proved: students who have good relationships with their peers are happy – causing them to enjoy school, be motivated and resulting in good grades.

On the other hand, cliques could have the opposite effect.

They could make other students who are not a part of the clique feel left out. If there was a clique of book lovers, and you’re a book lover but not in the clique, you might wonder why you were excluded. The rest of the definition of a clique is, “…[people] who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them.” Even if everyone had their own clique, it would not create an open environment for all students to work together. Everyone would be too invested in their own clique to befriend others outside of the clique.

There is also the problem of some students not having a clique. If someone moves to a new school or just never found a group to join, they might feel very lonely. A school needs to have an all-inclusive environment for students to have good relationships with each other. Cliques do not provide that. The study observes that if you don't have a good relationship with your classmates, you will have less desire to go to school and to be as invested, which could cause your grades to suffer.

Do cliques help create close groups of friends or keep peers from getting to know each other? Do they give students an aspiration to go to school or make students feel left out? Do cliques make students happier so they do better in school, or does it kill their GPA?