1. Negative emotionality and peer status: Evidence for bidirectional longitudinal influences during the elementary school years.
- Author
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Bengtsson, Hans, Arvidsson, Åsa, and Nyström, Beatrice
- Subjects
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AFFINITY groups , *FEAR , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *EMOTIONS , *PSYCHOLOGY of school children , *STATISTICAL models , *ANGER , *SOCIAL skills , *SADNESS - Abstract
Prior research indicates that high negative emotionality in combination with low peer status is conducive of clinically identified problems in childhood. This three-wave longitudinal study examined how negative emotionality and peer status are linked over time in middle and late childhood. Participants were recruited from second grade (n = 90, mean age = 8.85) and fourth grade (n = 119, mean age = 10.81) and were followed across a period of 2 years. Cross-lagged structural models examining concurrent and longitudinal associations between teacher-reported negative emotionality and peer ratings of likability were analyzed separately for externalizing emotion (anger) and internalizing emotion (sadness and fear). Both analyses provided support for a conceptual model in which high negative emotionality lowers peer status, and low peer status, in turn, through a feedback loop, increases negative emotionality over time. Bidirectional influences are interpreted as reflecting a transactional process involving the effects of negative emotionality on social behavior. The findings highlight the need for active efforts to help children with high negative emotionality gain acceptance from classmates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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