Exploring the Relationship of Network Centrality and Academic Performance of Female Students
Abstract
This research endeavor aims to investigate the impact of
network centrality (degree, closeness and betweenness) on academic
performance (CGPA) of female students in an academic advice network.
Where degree centrality refers to the number of direct links that an actor
has with other actors, betweenness centrality refers to the degree to
which an actor lies on the geodesic paths between other actors and
closeness centrality focuses on how close a member is to all other
members in network. Data was collected from 182 female students
enrolled in various programs at a public sector University in Baluchistan
through name generators for egocentric network by Burt. Techniques of
correlation and standard multiple regression analysis are employed to
test the hypotheses. The results of statistical analysis revealed that high
degree and betweenness centrality leads to increase academic
performance of students whereas higher closeness centrality leads to
decrease academic performance. The result of the study has practical
implications for students’ academic life: it will aid the female students to
discover structural pattern of social ties of their advice network and
enhance their tendency for forming more ties related with academic
advices for the achievement of excellent academic performance.
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