Research

My research examines how students’ relationships—with both teachers and peers—shape behavior, motivation, and social-emotional development during early adolescence. I focus on pivotal transitions (especially into middle school), when young people face new social challenges and opportunities. I collaborate with teachers and school leaders to explore how different types of relationships work together—and under what conditions— they can enable affirming and supportive class environments.

Why Multiple Relationships Matter

Students draw on many sources of connection at school—including teachers, friends, and classmates, while negotiating their place in the peer system. My work shows that:

  • Strong student-teacher relationships boost engagement and foster more respectful, helpful peer interactions (Kilday & Ryan, 2019, Kilday & Ryan, 2024).

  • Having a high-quality best friend in class can improve engagement—even beyond the influence of teacher relationships (Kilday & Ryan, 2019).

  • Positive peer norms (e.g., kindness and cooperation being valued) make students more likely to seek help and participate (Kilday & Ryan, 2024).

  • When it comes to help-seeking, having one friend or high-achieving peer isn’t always enough—students benefit most when multiple sources of support are present (Kilday & Ryan, 2022a; Kilday & Ryan, 2024).

When Relationships Matter Most

Not all relationships “work” the same way for all students. I investigate when and for whom social relationships matter the most. For example:

  • Women in STEM courses are more likely to use effective help-seeking strategies when they have a respectful, high-quality relationship with their instructor (Oh, Patrick, Kilday, & Ryan, 2024).

  • Students from minoritized backgrounds report varied experiences of discrimination, underscoring the need for teacher awareness and culturally responsive support (Montoro, Kilday, et al., 2020).

  • Being widely liked by classmates is associated with greater behavioral engagement only in classrooms where peer norms value kindness and cooperation. In other words, the overall peer values can shape how much specific social relationships benefit learning (Kilday & Ryan, 2025).

  • Students need guidance on how to effectively seek help from peers. When students ask high-achieving classmates (who are not friends) for help, it is more often to expedite task completion instead of learning (Kilday & Ryan, 2022a). 

How Teachers Can Build Supportive Classroom Communities

A major goal of my research is to identify practical strategies that help teachers cultivate inclusive, collaborative environments:

  • Teacher self-efficacy acts as a motivational resource, helping educators remain resilient in challenging social environments (Kilday et al., 2016; Kilday et al., in prep).
  • Managing peer dynamics involves teaching social skills and structuring peer interactions, while modeling and reinforcing positive behavior (Kilday et al., 2022).
  • Professional development focused on changing how teachers interact with students via praise, inductive discipline, and relationship-building enhances teachers’ confidence and job satisfaction (Brass, Bergin, Rose, Kilday, et al., under review). 
  • Confident teachers praise student prosocial behavior more frequently, which strengthens peer support and peer values of prosocial behavior among students (Kilday et al., in prep). 

Overall, through research and collaborative partnerships, my goal is to provide actionable insights that help educators and decision-makers create socially supportive classrooms where everyone feels connected, confident, and motivated to learn.

Recent Publications

Kilday, J. E., & Ryan, A. M. (2025). Connecting engagement to classroom friendships and popular peers’ prosocial behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12770

Kilday, J. E., & Ryan, A. M. (2024). The intermediary role of peer relationships between teachers and students’ classroom engagement. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 92, 101649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2024.101649

Oh, H., Patrick, H., Kilday, J., & Ryan, A. (2023). The need for relatedness in college engineering: A self-determination lens on academic help seeking. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000831.supp

Ryan, A. M., & Kilday, J. E. (2023). How interpersonal factors matter for help seeking in the classroom. In T. Urdan & E. N. Gonida (Eds.), Remembering the Life, Work, and Influence of Stuart A. Karabenick (Vol. 22, pp. 27–47). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0749-742320230000022004

Kilday, J.E., & Ryan, A.M. (2022b). The intersection of the peer ecology and teacher practices for student motivation in the classroom. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi-org/10.1007/s10648-022-09712-2

Kilday, J. E., Brass, N. R., Ferguson, S., Ryan, A. M., & Pearson, M. I. (2022). Teachers’ management of peer relations: Associations with fifth grade classroom peer ecologies. The Journal of Experimental Education, 91(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2022.2039890

Kilday, J. E., & Ryan, A. M. (2022a). Who do students ask for help with classwork? Sources of help and changes in help-seeking from peers during early adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1177/02724316221124784

Ryan, A.M., Kilday, J.E., & Brass, N.R. (2022). Can friends help motivate each other to do well in school? In M. Jones (Ed), Peer relationships in classroom management: Evidence and interventions for teaching.

Montoro, J.P., Kilday, J.E., Rivas-Drake, D., Ryan, A. M., & Umaña-Taylor, A. (2020). Coping with discrimination from peers and adults: Implications for adolescents’ school belonging. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01360-5

Kilday, J.E., & Ryan, A.M. (2019). Personal and collective perceptions of social support: Implications for classroom engagement in early adolescence. Journal of Contemporary Educational Psychology, 58, 163-174. doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.03.006

Kilday, J.E., Lenser, M.L., & Miller, A.D. (2016). Considering students in teachers’ self-efficacy: Examination of a scale for student-oriented teaching. Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, 56, 61-71. doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.01.025