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Despite its importance, replication has remained in the background of social development research. The aim of this special section was to elucidate and elevate the role of replication in peer relations research. examining its challenges and its utility for moving the field forward. To accomplish this aim, five sets of researchers undertook identifying an important finding from a widely cited article in the peer literature and tried to replicate its basic results using new data. As a group, the resulting five articles cover a broad range of topics, measures, and methods that are seen in peer research. Four of the five articles provide evidence of replication. This evidence was seen more for basic principles or processes observed in earlier studies than for exact or specific findings. In addition, the authors used varied approaches to replication, highlighting the need to embrace diverse methods when attempting to replicate complicated mechanisms of social development. It is argued that replication efforts should be aimed at identifying basic principles and processes of social development while clarifying the parameters that account for variability across studies in the specific findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from 790 older school-age (Mage = 10.2 years, SL) = 1.2 years) girls (N = 427) and boys from Barranquilla, Colombia (N = 449) and Montréal, Canada (N = 331) were used to replicate findings reported by Valdivia et al. (2005). This prior study revealed contextual variations in the association between two measures of social behavior, specifically aggression and withdrawal, and two measures of effective functioning with peers, specifically sociometric preference and friendship. The Montréal participants were primari]y from families with European backgrounds. The ethnicity of the participants from Barranquilla can be described as Latinx/Caribbean. Multilevel analyses provided evidence of replication of place differences only for the associations between measures of aggression and sociometric preference. Stronger negative associations weree observed between (a) measures of aggression and sociometric preference, (b) measures of withdrawal and sociometric preference, and (c) withdrawal and friendship in peer groups that were high in collectivism. These findings are interpreted as largely replieating the deep structure of the findings from the Valdivia et al. study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the current study was to examine how the presence of a best friend might serve as protection against the effect of negative experiences on global self-worth and the hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenocortical axis (HPA axis). A total of 103 English-speaking male (n = 55) and female (n = 48) participants from Grade 5 (AÍ = 10.27 years) and Grade 6 (M = 11.30 years) completed booklets about their experiences that occurred 20 min previously and how they felt about themselves at the moment, and they provided saliva multiple times per day over the course of 4 consecutive days. Having a best friend present during an experience significantly buffered the effect of the negativity of the experience on cortisol and global self-worth. When a best friend was not present, there was a significant increase in cortisol and a significant decrease in global self-worth as the negativity of the experience increased. When a best friend was present, there was less change in cortisol and global self-worth due to the negativity of the experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a prospective design spanning 17 years, the authors studied in a sample of 231 boys and girls the predictive links of verbal abuse by the teacher during childhood to high-school graduation and behavioral and emotional problems in young adulthood, as well as the putative mediating role of individuals' generalized and domain-specific self-concept in this context. Results show that verbal abuse by the teacher during childhood was positively related to behavior problems and (for girls) a low probability of having obtained a high school diploma by age 23 years, even when controlling for childhood levels of antisociality, anxiety, school performance, and social preference in the peer group. No conclusive evidence was found for a mediation effect of children's general or domain-specific self-concept, however. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings am discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participants included 165 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; 130 boys, 35 girls) and their 1,298 same-sex classmates (1 ,026 boys, 272 girls) who served as raters. For each child with ADHD, a child of the same sex was randomly selected from the same classroom to serve as a comparison child, which yielded 165 dyads. Consistent with predictions, contrasted with the comparison children, those with ADHO were lower on social preference, higher on social impact, less well liked, and more often in the rejected social status category; they also had fewer dyadic friends. When liking ratings that children made versus received were examined, children with ADHD had less positive imbalance and greater negative imbalance relative to comparison children. Analyses that considered the types of peers who chose children with ADHD as friends or nonfriends demonstrated that children with ADHD were nominated as nonfriends by children of higher social preference and who were better liked by others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the variations in the patterns of attraction to same- and opposite-sex peers during early adolescence. Longitudinal study of early adolescent boys and girls; Attraction of teenage girls to aggressive boys; Decline in attraction to peers who presented features associated with good classroom-based behavior.

Assesses through meta-analysis, the sociometric group differences on be+havioral & information source typologies and their role in the investigation of children's peer relations. History of sociometric classification; Reviews of sociometric status literature; Typology of information sources & behavioral constructs; Purpose of meta-analysis; Research process.

Comments on the cross-cultural research on social development. What is provided by the research; Details on the benefits from cross-cultural research; Information on the local knowledge model.

Studies children's and early adolescents' preference for same-sex peers and the consistency of individual differences in reputation and popularity across the same- and other-sex domains with three samples. Method; Results; Discussion.

This study tests the hypothesis that adolescents with romantic partners are less similar to their friends on rates of alcohol abuse than adolescents without romantic partners. Participants (662 girls, 574 boys) ranging in age from 12 to 19 years nominated friends and romantic partners, and completed a measure of alcohol abuse. In hierarchical linear models, friends with romantic partners were less similar on rates of alcohol abuse than friends without romantic partners, especially if they were older and less accepted. Follow-up longitudinal analyses were conducted on a subsample (266 boys, 374 girls) of adolescents who reported friendships that were stable across 2 consecutive years. Associations between friend reports of alcohol abuse declined after adolescents became involved in a romantic relationship, to the point at which they became more similar to their romantic partners than to their friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the longitudinal profile and peer preference of children during elementary school. Relation of children peer relations with behavioral adjustment; Identification of five groups in the children's categorical peer status longitudinal shift patterns; Advantages of clustering technique in social preference researches.