Search

The frequency and length of games, conflicts, and contingency sequences that took place between toddlers as they got to know one another were studied using archival data. The sample consisted of 28 unfamiliar 20- and 30-month-old toddlers (predominantly White, 16 males) who met separately with each of two other toddlers for 18 play dates. The frequency of games increased over time, while the frequency of conflict and contingency sequences decreased. The length of games increased over time while the length of conflicts and contingency sequences were stable. Age and language ability predicted changes in frequency and length of the different types of sequences. Thus, toddlers engage in less structured interactions when they first meet; their interactions become increasingly more organized and positive as the relationship evolves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associations between implicit theories of personality, perceived social competence, and attributions to explain positive and negative outcomes in social tasks were examined in a study of 103 fifth‐ and sixth‐grade girls and boys. Consistent with the basic model formulated by Dweck and Leggett (1988), it was hypothesized that having an entity, rather than an incremental, perspective would vary as a function of the degree to which children had a positive view of their social competence. The results showed that an entity theory of personality was associated with emphasis on the importance of personal characteristics and task difficulty following social failure, whereas an incremental theory was associated with emphasis on the importance of task ease following social success. High scores on the positive perceived social competence measure were associated with emphasis on the importance of personal characteristics, effort and task ease following social success and the importance of personal characteristics, luck and task difficulty following social failure. Preadolescents with an entity theory of personality were less likely to make attributions of personal characteristics and task difficulty to social failure if they had a positive view of their social competence. Preadolescents with an incremental theory of personality were not likely to make these attributions about social failure regardless of whether they viewed their social competencies as positive. These findings indicate that the association between entity and incremental views and social attributions needs to be considered in conjunction with perceptions of the self. They provided support for Deck and Leggett's (1988) model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 history of research on peer relations consists of stability and change. Even as our questions about how the features and processes of experiences with peers affect development have remained constant, our methods and the measures we use have evolved. The goal of the six articles in this special issue is to push peer research into the future. Two articles focus on well-known peer constructs, specifically friendship and withdrawal; another focuses on a basic peer-related process, specifically peer influence. Two other articles show how the study of peer relations can intersect with emerging areas of research, specifically social developmental neuroscience and the study of computer-mediated communication. Another article shows how multilevel modeling can be used to assess in a single model effects from different levels of social complexity. Together these articles provide guidance about the next wave of research on peer relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to analyse the interpersonal relationships in the school context of children living in different care settings (adoptive families, residential care centres, birth families). Participants were 76 children between eight and fourteen years of age (M = 10.78, SD = 1.38), belonging to one of three groups: international adoptees, children living in residential care in Spanish institutions, and a comparison sample of Spanish children living with their birth families with no connection with child protection. Sociometric information was collected in the classroom of each child during school hours. Internationally adopted children from Russia showed considerable difficulties in their relationships with peers; they were more likely to be rejected and their peers described them as less prosocial and somewhat more aggressive. With a better sociometric position than the adoptees, children in residential care were rated by their peers as more aggressive and less prosocial than the normative population. Coordination and integrated work between the family, protection centres, schools, and other social services should be a strategic priority in the promotion of healthy social development in these groups of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although peer relations are recognized as a fundamental developmental context, they have been rarely studied as a means of understanding the effects of socioeconomic status and inequality. In this paper, we show how and why peer relations provide a unique and powerful opportunity to assess the differential risks and resources available in the peer system to children and adolescents from different SES spectra. We argue that research on the intersection between SES and peer relations will enrich both these domains of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) peer relationships short form (PR-SF), including association with peer-reported friendships, likeability, and social reputation.Method: 203 children (Mage = 10.12 years, SD = 2.37, range = 6-14) in Grades 1-8 completed the 8-item PR-SF and friendship nominations, like ratings, and social reputation measures about their peers during 2 classroom visits approximately 4 months apart, as part of a larger study. A confirmatory factor analysis, followed by an exploratory factor analysis, was conducted to examine the factor structure of the PR-SF. Spearman correlations between the PR-SF and peer-reported outcomes evaluated construct validity.Results: For the PR-SF, a 2-factor solution demonstrated better fit than a 1-factor solution. The 2 factors appear to assess friendship quality (3 items) and peer acceptance (5 items). Reliability was marginal for the friendship quality factor (.66) but adequate for the acceptance factor (.85); stability was .34 for the PR-SF over 4 months. The PR-SF (8 items) and acceptance factor (5 items) both had modest but significant correlations with measures of friendship (rs = .25-.27), likeability (rs = .21-.22), and social reputation (rs = .29-.44).Conclusions: The PR-SF appears to be measuring two distinct aspects of social functioning. The 5-item peer acceptance scale is modestly associated with peer-reported friendship, likeability, and social reputation. Although not a replacement for peer-reported outcomes, the PR-SF is a promising patient-reported outcome for peer relationships in youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue serves as a "Call to Action." It shows how research on peer relations can be used to expand our knowledge about critical social forces and concepts including race, socioeconomic status and inequality, culture, genders, refugee status. It poses a challenge to peer researchers. We can use our variables and methods to promote our understanding of what it means to grow up in particular social circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the hypothesis that peer rejection acts as a social regulation mechanism by reinforcing conformity to group norms, particularly those related to direct and indirect aggression. The sample consisted of 682 boys and girls ( Mage = 10.21 years) which was divided into three sub-groups: girls in all-girls schools, girls in mixed-sex schools, and boys in mixed-sex schools. Within-sex difference analyses indicated that indirect aggression was more normative than direct aggression for girls; conversely, direct aggression was more normative that indirect aggression for boys. In line with the view that non-normative behaviors are penalized by peers via rejection, direct aggression was more strongly associated with rejection in female groups whereas indirect aggression was more strongly related to rejection in male groups. Specific comparisons of the girls from the all-girl and the mixed-sex schools did not reveal any differences in the normativeness of either type of aggression between these contexts. Consistent with this result, no differences between types of school were found in the extent to which both forms of aggression were associated with rejection in females. This study shows that peer rejection occurs to a higher extent when group members engage in behaviors that are non-normative for their sex group, and that this process does not seem to vary as a function of the availability of a social comparison, as in mixed-sex schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How early adolescents characterize their friendships has yet to be fully explored. The current report examines this issue from two different models of friend selection (the similarity model vs. the features model). Friendship choice order was examined as a function of prosocial and aggressive behavior of the friend. Using multi-level modeling, we tested whether these associations differed based on the individual's prosocial and aggressive behavior. Finally, contextual variables such as individualism and collectivism were also used to explain same-sex peer group differences. Data was collected from 420 early adolescents ( Mage = 9.49 years, SD = .67; 124 male, 296 female) from six all-girls classes and six mixed-sex classes from Bogotá, Colombia. Interactions between friend and individual prosocial behavior and aggression were observed. In sum, the results provided support for both the similarity model and the features model of friendship and contextual differences were observed as a function of peer group levels of individualism and collectivism. The discussion highlights the novelty of this research question and methodological approach and offers potential future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adjusting nomination-based sociometric and peer assessment scores for biases due to variations in group size has been a long-standing concern for peer relations researchers. The techniques that have been typically used to make these adjustments (e.g., proportion and standardized scores) are known to have fundamental problems that limit their utility. This study introduces a regression-based procedure that adjusts nomination-based scores for variations in group size and compares it with the standardization and proportion procedures. Analyses were conducted on sociometric and peer assessment scores of 1594 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders from 63 classrooms. The advantages of the regression-based procedure over standardization and proportion transformations are outlined. Implications for the accuracy and validity of nomination-based measures and the research findings based on them are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined social dominance and peer victimization as possible intervening and moderating variables of the association between peer liking and relational aggression because previous findings suggest that social dominance and peer victimization are important for predicting the acceptableness and success of aggression. A total of 367 5th- and 6th-grade students from Quebec, Canada, completed peer ratings of their classmates on measures of peer liking, relational aggression, social dominance, and peer victimization. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that peer victimization worked as a mediator and a moderator, such that victimization explained the link between peer liking and relational aggression, and that this association was only significant at high levels of peer victimization. Alternatively, social dominance worked as a suppressor, with the link between peer liking and relational aggression becoming stronger once social dominance was controlled in the multiple regression. Social dominance did not moderate the same association. [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]

As the study of peer relations has grown and developed, it has gained a prominent position in the understanding of developmental process and psychopathology. During its development, research in peer relations has moved from a more undifferentiated, global state to a state of increased articulation and complexity. This introductory essay attempts to provide examples of five models that reflect the state of the art in peer relation research: Markers, moderators, mediators, mechanisms, and meanings. Examples from the papers in the special issue and research from the general field of peer relations are used to illustrate these five approaches to the study of peer relations and developmental psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-assessed outcomes were examined at the end of treatment (14 months after study entry) for 285 children (226 boys, 59 girls) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were rated by their classmates (2,232 classmates total) using peer sociometric procedures. All children with ADHD were participants in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). Treatment groups were compared using the orthogonal treatment contrasts that accounted for the largest amount of variance in prior MTA outcome analyses: Medication Management + Combined Treatment versus Behavior Therapy + Community Care; Medication Management versus Combined Treatment; Behavior Therapy versus Community Care. There was little evidence of superiority of any of the treatments for the peer-assessed outcomes studied, although the limited evidence that emerged favored treatments involving medication management. Post hoc analyses were used to examine whether any of the four treatment groups yielded normalized peer relationships relative to randomly selected-classmates. Results indicated that children from all groups remained significantly impaired in their peer relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Growth hormone treatment of hormone-sufficient short youths is predicated on the belief that short stature is associated with social problems with peers. This study assessed peer relations and social adjustment as a function of height in a community sample. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted at 1 public school district in Western New York of students of both genders who attended grades 6 to 12 (N = 956). Target groups included participants of short stature (height ≤1.6 standard deviation, ie, ≤5th percentile for age- and gender-adjusted population norms; n = 68) and tall stature (≥1.6 standard deviation; ≥95th percentile; n = 58) and classmates of average height (between the 25th and 75th percentiles; n = 123) used for within-class comparisons. All remaining unclassified classmates (n = 704) also provided data. Self- and peer-rated assessment of social reputation and social acceptance was measured. Results. Minimal effects of height on measures of social functioning were detected despite substantial statistical power. We detected no significant relationships between height and measures of friendship, popularity, or reputation with peers. Findings did not vary by gender of participant, by peer- or self-report, or by whether data from the entire sample were used or target groups were contrasted with comparison participants. Shorter students were perceived by peers to be younger than their age. This influence was restricted to lower grades and did not have an impact on measures of social acceptance or reputation with peers. Conclusions. Extremes of stature in the general population--either short or tall--have minimal detectable impact on peer perceptions of social behavior, friendship, or acceptance. Findings are not supportive of the need to intervene a priori because of the potential risk of negative stature-related social sequelae. Furthermore, if problems with peer relationships are identified... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of stability plays an important role in the measurement of children's peer relations. This article focuses on the temporal stability of children's peer relations, as assessed with sociometric methods. Even before the use of sociometrics, researchers studied the stability of social structure in children's playmates and workmates across a five-month period. The boys' peer preferences were obtained two months into the school year and again three months later. The results of this study indicated that 92 percent of the boys' first choice and 82 percent of their second choices remained unchanged across the three-month interval.

Sociometry has had a prominent place in the research literature on children's social development. It has been used widely in the study of peer relations as both a technique for measuring the positive and negative forces among children and as a conceptual scheme for understanding the basic processes of the peer system. However, in spite of sociometry's rich conceptual and methodological heritage, some issues regarding the use of sociometric measures remain unresolved and, in some cases, unexamined. In this article, two of the unresolved issues are being addressed. One, how the two sociometric constructs, acceptance and rejection, are related to each other and to other sociometric constructs. Two, whether nomination and rating scale measures index the same constructs.

This article presents an introduction to the basic ideas of Jacob Moreno's historical model of sociometric judgment and a brief history of the use of this model in child development research. The authors' goal is to show how developmental psychologists have used the sociometric perspective to understand social development. By highlighting the concepts and ideas that researchers took from Moreno's perspective, as well as what was left behind, the strengths and limitations of contemporary sociometric methods is revealed.

The challenge and pleasures of studying child and adolescent peer experiences come from the complexity and the significance of these relationships for development in childhood and adolescence. In spite of the recognized strengths of the current literature on the effects of experiences with peers, research on peer experiences is often limited by an inattention to the effects of the hierarchical structure of the peer system. Experiences with peers are known to be situated in complex and multilevel social contexts. These contexts can be as small (or as focal) as a relationship dyad (e.g. two best friends interacting together), a peer group (e.g. more than two peers interacting together simultaneously), or as large and diverse as the cultural contexts of nation-states. A consequence of this multilevel organization peer research would benefit from the use of models that can account for variables and processes that occur at different levels of social complexity. This multilevel approach would also be multidisciplinary because it would require the integration of constructs typically studied in different scholarly disciplines. We show how a broader and less disciplinarily focused perspective can enrich our understanding of the features and processes of peer experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of contextual variations in the features and effects of children's experiences with agemates have enriched our understanding of the basic functioning of the peer system. They have also expanded our understanding of specificity of developmental processes. Using existing research on contextual variations in peer relations as our point of departure, our "Call for Action" consists of eight "rules" designed to guide research on the role of peer relations in the effects of culture and socioeconomic status and inequality on development. These rules are concerned with how peer researchers conceptualize the contexts they study, how they measure and study the features of these contexts, and how they engage with other researchers interested in contextual analyses. The goal of our "Call To Action" is to promote the conceptual clarity and empirical power of research on contextual variability in the features and effects of experiences with peers. • We propose asset of eight rules for improving research on how peer experiences account for the effects of culture, socioeconomic status, and socioeconomic inequality on development. • Our "rules" are designed to alter how peer researchers: (a) think about cultural contexts; (b) assess and examine contextual differences; (c) approach the multiple processes that may be observed in cultural comparisons; (d) assess within context variation as well as between context differences; (e) design interventions organized around peer relations; (f) study cultural differences so as to go beyond the dimensions of collectivism and individualism; and (g) can take advantage of recent developments in methods for studying experiences with peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]