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My research seeks to understand how and why people connect, particularly how college students make friends, the structure of their friendship networks, and ways their friends help and hinder their success. In my new book Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students' Networks (The University of Chicago Press, 2025), I investigate students' friendship networks at three types of institutions (a community college, a liberal arts college, and a research university) to better understand differences and similarities in how students make and keep friends as well as how their friendship networks help and hinder their academic and social success. My first book Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success (The University of Chicago Press) explores how undergraduates' friendships help and hinder their success during and after college. Broadly, my work focuses on inequalities, identities, and networks, particularly among students.
Janice McCabe. 2025. Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students' Networks. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Estéfani Marín and Janice McCabe. 2024. "Is Belonging What You Do, Who You're With, or Who You Are? Three Pathways of Belonging among Latina/o Co-Ethnics at a Predominantly White Institution." Journal of Latinos in Education. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2024.2396922
Janice McCabe. 2023. "Friendships and Student Success in College." Journal of Postsecondary Student Success 2(3):1-18. doi: 10.33009/fsop_jpss132950
Janice McCabe. 2022. "Peer Relations and Friendship among Postsecondary Students." Pp. 130-142 in Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Higher Education, second edition, edited by James Côté and Sarah Pickard. London and New York: Routledge.
"How Gender Shapes Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends." Adele Ramos Salzer '40 Lecture and Reading Series, Newcomb Institute. Tulane University, April 2026.
"Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends." Eloon University, March 2026.
Webinar, Understanding Students' Friendships: How Friendship Networks Matter During College,
-October 2023, Christie Campus Health
Keynote, Residential College Symposium, October 2023, Virginia Tech.
Keynote, "Connecting: The 2023 Division of Student Affairs Professional Development Day," November 2023, Dartmouth College.
"Designing Friendships: Fostering Friendships and Social Connections."
- Invited Presentation at the American College Health Association (ACHA) Innovations Summit, "Inspiring Hope & Real Solutions to Address College Mental Health and Well-Being," October 2019, College Park, Maryland.
- South Carolina College Personnel Association's Fall Virtual Drive-In Conference. Afternoon Keynote Address. October 2020.
"Friends with Academic Benefits: Tight-Knitters, Compartmentalizers, and Samplers."
- Vermont Humanities, First Wednesday, Ilsley Public Library, December 2020.
- University of Maryland, Department of Sociology, October 2019
Selected media coverage of my research:
FRIENDSHIP:
Washington Post OpEd: Want to Succeed in College? Spend More Time Playing Video Games with Friends
Time magazine: How To Make Friends as an Adult and Why It's Important
NPR: How College Friendships May Affect Academic Success
USA Today: It's not me, it's Netflix: With password sharing on the block, how to boot your friends
BBC: Can Gen Z make friends in the pandemic era?
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Friendships and Their Influence on Academic Success
Quartz: The Sociological Argument for Breaking Up With Bad Friends
Boston Globe: What Kind of Friend Are You?
NBC News: These Are the Types of Friendships That Exist - And How They Impact GPA
Inside Higher Ed: Friends With (Academic) Benefits
NY Mag: Here Are The Three Types of Friendship Networks
Quartz: An Ivy League Professor Says There Are Only Three Types of Friendships We Make
Mental Floss: Most People's Friendships Fall Into One of Three Categories
CNBC: How To Decide If You Should Transfer to Another College
GENDER ATTITUDE AND BELIEF INVENTORY (GABI):
Teaching Sociology podcast: : http://tso.sagepub.com/content/41/3/282/suppl/DC1
GENDER IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS:
The Telegraph: 5 literary heroines to inspire girls this international women's day
New York Times: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/new-study-finds-gender-bias-in-childrens-books/?_r=0
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/06/gender-imbalance-children-s-literature
Live Science: http://www.livescience.com/14078-males-dominate-childrens-books.html
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/06/study-suggests-winnie-pooh-isnt-gender-equal-does-matter/
San Francisco Chronicle: http://blog.sfgate.com/mmagowan/2011/05/16/new-study-reports-huge-gender-imbalance-in-kidlit/