Same-sex and cross-sex help exchanges in the classroom.

For this study, we combined interviews and naturalistic observations of the same children to examine same-sex and cross-sex help exchanges in reading and math classes among third- and fifth-grade boys and girls. Overall, girls were perceived by their classmates to be more academically competent and more likable as helpers than were boys. Nevertheless, girls were not the targets of cross-sex help seeking more than boys were. Both boys and girls sought help more frequently from same-sex than from opposite-sex classmates. When help seeking occurred between opposite-sex classmates, girls were more likely than boys to report liking these helpers as much as their same-sex helpers. The implications of these findings for children's learning and peer status are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in predictors of adolescent smoking cessation.

Sex differences in predictors of smoking cessation were investigated among 337 male and 490 female participants in the RAND adolescent panel study. Participants reported smoking at least 11–20 times during the past year at Grade 10, with cessation defined as not smoking during the past year at Grade 12. Controlling for demographics, sex-specific analyses indicated that girls who quit smoking within 2 years had friends who smoked less frequently, perceived less parental approval of their smoking, had weaker intentions to continue smoking, used marijuana less frequently, attended fewer different schools, were more likely to have an intact nuclear family, experienced greater peer support, and rated themselves as healthier. Similar analyses for boys yielded results that were generally weaker and nonsignificant, with smoking quantity accounting for several associations in the sex-specific models. Despite these differences, interaction tests revealed significant sex differences for only three predictors. Implications of these results for understanding adolescent smoking cessation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victimization by peers: Associations with children's reports of mother–child interaction.

Children who are chronically victimized by peers are at risk for personal difficulties. This study examined whether victimization is associated with mother–child interaction at home. Preadolescents (N?=?184; mean age?=?11.7 years) reported on their mother"s child-rearing practices and on how they cope during conflicts with their mother. Peers reported on victimization at school. Sex-specific links between perceived family interaction and peer victimization were found. For boys, victimization was associated with perceived maternal overprotectiveness, especially when boys reported reacting with fear during mother–child conflict. For girls, victimization was associated with perceived maternal rejection and with girls" reports of aggressive coping during mother–child conflict. Results support the theory that parenting that hinders children"s development of gender-salient competencies (autonomy for boys and communion for girls) places children at risk for peer victimization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self- and peer perceptions and attributional biases of aggressive and nonaggressive boys in dyadic interactions.

This study assessed differences in self-perceptions, peer perceptions, and attributions of relative responsibility for 20 aggressive and 18 nonaggressive boys. Subjects completed semantic differential ratings of themselves and of their peer partners following a brief competitive dyadic discussion, and research assistants also rated videotapes of the interactions. The four experimental cells consisting of aggressive and nonaggressive subjects interacting with similar and opposite-status peers were found to be appropriately comparable on actual behavior during the interaction task. The results indicate that aggressive boys' perceptual and attributional biases do operate in actual social interactions. In comparison with nonaggressive boys, aggressive boys minimized their perceptions of their own aggressiveness and perceived their peer partners as more aggressive than they themselves were. An opposite pattern was found for nonaggressive boys. The differences in perceptions and attributions were significantly evident only in dyads of boys with different behavioral status. The implications of this attributional pattern for perceived responsibility are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nepali children's ideas about emotional displays in hypothetical challenges.

Although culture plays an important role in specifying socially prescribed ways to communicate and act in emotional situations, few cultures have been studied. This study describes the ideas of 50 first-grade boys and girls (aged 6–9 years) from 2 different Nepali cultures (Tamang and Chhetri-Brahmin) regarding how they would feel and act in 6 emotionally challenging situations (e.g., peer conflict, family conflict). Significant cultural differences were found. Chhetri-Brahmin children were more likely than Tamang children to endorse negative emotions and to report masking negative emotion. These differences appeared to be related to socialization processes in the respective cultures. Chhetri-Brahmin mothers reported teaching their children about emotion, whereas Tamang mothers reported that children learned by themselves. The children's responses may reflect ideas about emotion regulation that emerge from the differing socioreligious contexts in which they live. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with perceived peer stress: Gender-specific and common pathways to symptoms of psychopathology.

This study investigated gender differences in the moderating and mediating effects of responses to stress on the association between perceived peer stress and symptoms of psychopathology. A sample of 295 middle school students (63.7% female; Mage = 12.39 years, SD = 0.99) completed self-report surveys on stress, coping, and behavioral problems. Involuntary responses to stress (e.g., physiological arousal, intrusive thoughts, impulsive action) mediated the association between perceived stress and anxiety/depression and aggression for girls and for boys. Disengagement coping (e.g., denial, avoidance) partially mediated the association between peer stress and anxiety/depression for boys and for girls. In contrast, disengagement coping mediated the association between peer stress and overt aggression for boys only. Finally, engagement coping (e.g., problem solving, emotion regulation, cognitive restructuring) buffered the indirect effect of peer stress on symptoms of psychopathology for girls only. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict and childhood friendship in Taiwan and Canada.

The present study assessed cross-cultural differences in friendship characteristics among children (aged 8–9 yrs) from collectivist and individualist cultures. Same-sex dyads of Grade 3 and Grade 4 students in a middle-class suburb of Toronto, Canada (n?=?1,227) and students from a middle-class suburb of Taipei, Taiwan (n?=?965) reported on the presence of companionship, conflict, help, security, and closeness in their friendships. The analysis reveals that long-term stability rates for friendships were not significantly different between nations or between boys and girls. Companionship was a significant predictor of friendship continuation among students in Taiwan. Friends in Taiwan reported significantly less conflict in their relationships than did friends in Canada. There was also greater agreement among friends in Taiwan than in Canada on the presence of conflict in the friendship relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's help-seeking in the classroom: The role of motivational factors and attitudes.

Structural modeling was used to explain children's intentions to seek help with schoolwork. One hundred seventy-seven 3rd, 5th, and 7th graders were administered questionnaires assessing perceived academic competence, intrinsic orientation (preference for challenge and striving for independent mastery), and attitudes and intentions regarding help-seeking in math class. A multisample procedure tested for grade differences in covariance structures. At Grades 3 and 5, the child's expressed likelihood of seeking help was explained by intrinsic preference for challenge, extrinsic dependence on the teacher, and attitudes about the benefits of help-seeking. At Grade 7, expressed likelihood of seeking help was explained by attitudes about the benefits as well as the costs of help-seeking. Discussion focuses on developmental and individual-difference factors related to instrumental help-seeking and academic performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School functioning in early adolescence: Gender-linked responses to peer victimization.

Research indicates that peer victimization contributes to poor school functioning in childhood and adolescence, yet the processes by which victimization interferes with school functioning are unclear. This study examined internalizing and externalizing problems as domain-specific mediators of the association between subtypes of peer victimization (relational, physical) and school functioning (engagement, achievement) with a cross-sectional sample of 337 early adolescents. School engagement was examined further as a proximal process that intervenes in the associations between internalizing and externalizing problems and achievement. Gender differences in these associations were assessed. As expected, internalizing problems showed stronger links with relational than with physical victimization and partially mediated the influence of both on engagement for girls but not boys. Externalizing problems partially mediated the influence of both subtypes of victimization on school functioning for girls and physical victimization for boys. Notably, engagement was a robust mediator of the contributions of internalizing problems and physical victimization to achievement for girls and externalizing problems to achievement for girls and boys. Findings also suggest that physical (but not relational) victimization partially mediates the link between internalizing and externalizing problems and school functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in writing self-beliefs of elementary school students.

The authors investigated the nature of gender differences in the writing self-beliefs of elementary school students in Grades 3, 4, and 5 (N?=?363). Girls were judged superior writers, but there were no gender differences in writing self-efficacy after controlling for writing aptitude. However, girls expressed that they were better writers than were other boys or girls in their class or in their school to a greater degree than did boys. Only writing self-efficacy beliefs and aptitude predicted writing performance in a path model that included writing apprehension, self-efficacy for self-regulation, and perceived usefulness of writing. Self-efficacy mediated the effects of aptitude and self-efficacy for self-regulation on performance. Writing self-concept was higher and apprehension lower for students in Grade 3 than in Grade 5. Data were consistent with A. Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory and suggest that boys and girls may use a different metric when responding to traditional self-efficacy scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational dynamics of children's academic help-seeking and concealment.

Models of self-regulated learning and of children's coping both consider help-seeking an adaptive response to academic problems, yet students do not always seek help when it is needed, and help-seeking generally declines across early adolescence. A study of 765 children in elementary and middle school (Grades 3-6) during fall and spring of the same school year investigated whether motivational resources predicted help-seeking and whether losses in motivational supports across the middle school transition mirrored age declines. As predicted, 3 motivational self-perceptions were tightly correlated with coping in fall and spring; relatedness was the primary predictor of increases in help-seeking, whereas a sense of incompetence predicted increases in concealment. Teacher reports of motivational support also predicted changes in student coping and were mediated by children's self-perceptions. Analyses of reciprocal effects of students' help-seeking and concealment on changes in teacher support corroborated hypothesized cycles in which motivationally "rich" children, by constructively seeking help, become "richer," whereas motivationally "poor" children, by concealing their difficulties, become "poorer." Age differences in children's motivational resources across the transition to middle school paralleled age differences in help-seeking and concealment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in learned helplessness: II. The contingencies of evaluative feedback in the classroom and III. An experimental analysis.

Girls show greater evidence than boys of learned helplessness in achievement situations with adult (but not peer) evaluators: They attribute their failures to lack of ability rather than motivation and thus show impaired performance under failure. Two studies are reported linking sex differences in attributions to adults' use of evaluative feedback. Study 1, with 52 4th graders and 27 5th graders, revealed that both the contingencies of feedback in classrooms and the attributions made by teachers were ones that would render negative evaluation more indicative of ability for girls than boys. For example, negative evaluation of girls' performance referred almost exclusively to intellectual inadequacies, whereas 45% of boys' work-related criticism referred to nonintellectual aspects. Moreover, teachers attributed the boys' failures to lack of motivation significantly more than they did the girls' failures. In Study 2, with 60 5th graders, teacher–boy and teacher–girl contingencies of work-related criticism observed in classrooms were programmed in an experimental situation. Both boys and girls receiving the teacher–girl contingency were more likely to view subsequent failure feedback from that evaluator as indicative of their ability. Implications for developmental theories and for development are addressed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parents' management of preschooler's peer relations: Is it related to children's social competence?

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the relation between parents' efforts to initiate and monitor children's peer contacts and qualities of children's peer relations in nonschool and school settings. Parents of 58 preschool children completed logs of their initiation and monitoring practices and of their children's peer contacts in nonschool settings during late preschool. Parents were classified as high versus low initiators, and direct versus indirect monitorers, depending on the form of management they tended to use for children's peer contacts. Information about children's peer relations in school was obtained through observational, sociometric, and teacher assessments conducted during preschool and kindergarten. Parents who initiated a higher proportion of peer contacts tended to have children who possessed a larger number of different play partners and more consistent companions in nonschool settings. For boys but not girls, higher levels of parental initiation were also associated with greater peer acceptance and lower levels of peer rejection in school. Direct or indirect forms of parental monitoring were unrelated to children's peer relations in nonschool settings, but directive styles were predictive of children's social maladjustment in school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-representations and socioemotional competence in young children: A 3-year longitudinal study.

In a longitudinal study, the connections between children's self-representations at age 5 and their self-perceptions, socioemotional competence according to the teacher, and peer acceptance at age 8 were examined. The sample consisted of 60 children (33 boys, 27 girls). Self-representations at age 5 were assessed by the Puppet Interview (J. Cassidy, 1988). Results generally revealed the expected connections between the positiveness of self at age 5 and self-perceptions and socioemotional functioning 3 years later. These findings support the predictive validity of the Puppet Interview. Moreover, they suggest that young children do possess at least a rudimentary sense of being generally worthy and lovable, which can be assessed by using adequate, age-appropriate interviews. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The African American minister as a source of help for serious personal crises: bridge or barrier to mental health care?

Using data from the National Survey of Black Americans, this article explores the role of African American ministers in the help seeking of African Americans for serious emotional problems. The authors explore which demographic characteristics and psychosocial factors are related to contacting Black clergy for help, whether certain types of personal problems increase the likelihood of clergy contact, and whether those who go to ministers are also likely to seek help from other professional help sources. Results indicate that women are more likely than men to seek help from ministers. People with economic problems are less likely to contact clergy, while those with death or bereavement problems are more likely to seek help from the clergy. Regardless of the type or severity of the problem, those who contact clergy first are less likely to seek help from other professionals. It is recommended that African American clergy and mental health professionals engage in a mutual exchange of information to increase access to professional care among African Americans with serious personal problems.     

Self-discipline gives girls the edge: Gender in self-discipline, grades, and achievement test scores.

Throughout elementary, middle, and high school, girls earn higher grades than boys in all major subjects. Girls, however, do not outperform boys on achievement or IQ tests. To date, explanations for the underprediction of girls' GPAs by standardized tests have focused on gender differences favoring boys on such tests. The authors' investigation suggests an additional explanation: Girls are more self-disciplined, and this advantage is more relevant to report card grades than to achievement or aptitude tests. Eighth-grade girls at an urban magnet school were more self-disciplined than their male counterparts according to delay of gratification measures and self-report, teacher, and parent ratings. Whereas girls earned higher grades in all courses, they did only marginally better on an achievement test and worse on an IQ test. Mediation analyses suggested girls earned higher GPAs at least in part because they were more self-disciplined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational aggression, gender, and peer acceptance: Invariance across culture, stability over time, and concordance among informants.

It has been proposed that overt physical and verbal aggression are more prevalent among boys and that covert aggression in the context of interpersonal relationships is more typical of girls. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend American research on this topic to Italy. Italian elementary school pupils (n?=?314) and their teachers provided nominations for aggression and prosocial behavior on 2 occasions within a single school year. Both peer and teacher nominations were highly stable, though there was very poor concordance between them. Peer nominations for both overt and relational aggression were linked to peer rejection. Contrary to expectations, boys scored higher than girls in both overt and relational aggression. Nevertheless, on the basis of the gender composition of extreme groups, the authors conclude that the distinction between overt and relational aggression is as useful in facilitating research on aggressiveness among girls in Italy as it is in the United States. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identification of Nramp2 as an iron transport protein: another piece of the intestinal iron absorption puzzle

The attitudes of young men and women to breastfeeding were examined including perceived incentives and barriers to the practice in cross sectional survey and focus group discussion. The study involoved 177 (100%) fifth and final year students of both sexes and a subsample of 48 students in 6 focus groups in three post primary schools in an Irish midland town. Overall 28% reported that they themselves were breastfed. The most frequent sources of information were the media rather than home or school. A majority of girls (86%) and boys (77%) agreed that breastfeeding was the best method of feeding, but less intended the practice for their children (54%), girls being significantly less likely than boys. There were no patterns in relation to social class and lifestyle. Reasons for breastfeeding in the focus groups included its naturalness, facility of feeding and adequate nourishment. Reasons against related to embarrassment in public, but mainly related to perceived problems with the practicalities of feeding. Health promotion strategies need to reach young people before they initiate pregnancies. Skills based health education courses would be helpful and girls should be aware of the positive attitudes of boys generally.     

Relation between types of aggression and sociometric status: Peer and teacher perceptions.

Examined the relation between aggressive behavior and sociometric status (the extent to which a child is liked by his or her peers) in third and fourth graders. 47 boys and 51 girls from a northern New England elementary school were given a group-administered peer rating of social status and a peer nomination measure assessing five types of aggressive behavior. Teachers of the same children were given modified versions of these measures. Significant negative correlations were found between social status and all categories of aggressive behavior for both sexes except provoked physical aggression in boys for which the correlation was not significant. Indirect aggression (tattling, stealing, or breaking others' property) was the type of aggressive behavior that correlated most highly with low peer ratings. There were significant differences between boys and girls on all five categories of aggressive behavior. Teachers' ratings of peer social status correlated more highly with boys' ratings than with girls' ratings, and teacher perceptions of aggressive behavior correlated significantly and positively with peers' ratings on only two categories, unprovoked physical aggression and indirect aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)