Children's attachment representations: Longitudinal relations to school behavior and academic competency in middle childhood and adolescence.

A longitudinal study examined children's (N?=?108) attachment representations in relation to behavior and academic competency at school during middle childhood and adolescence. Attachment representations were assessed from children's responses to a separation story at age 7 years. At ages 9, 12, and 15, teachers rated children on four dimensions of school behavior: attention–participation, extroversion, disruptive behavior, and insecurity about self. Children's grade point average (GPA) in school was also examined. Children's attachment representations (secure vs. insecure) did not predict either disruptive behavior or extroversion, but they were significantly linked to attention–participation, insecurity about self, and GPA, with secure representations being associated with more favorable outcomes. The study controlled for social class, gender, IQ, perspective-taking ability, and prior competency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting boys' social acceptance and aggression: The role of mother–child interactions and boys' beliefs about peers.

Seven- to 9-year-old boys (N?=?177) and their mothers participated in this study in which the associations between boys' experiences with their mothers, their beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers, and their peer adjustment were examined across a 2-year period. Boys' negative behavior with mothers was associated with their having more negative beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers and with their being more aggressive and less well-liked. Beliefs about familiar peers predicted changes in boys' social acceptance, whereas negative beliefs about unfamiliar peers predicted changes in aggression. In addition, boys' beliefs about peers changed in response to their social experience. The implications of these findings for children's social development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of expectancy inductions on rejected children's acceptance by unfamiliar peers.

Examined the role of interpersonal expectations in rejected children's social difficulties by inducing a positive expectancy prior to their joining unfamiliar peers and assessing whether this influenced their group entry behavior and the opinions that new peers formed of them. Rejected boys receiving the expectancy induction were preferred by new peers over control, rejected boys, but no behavioral effects were found. Rejected girls who received the induction were again better liked than controls and behaved more competently. These results indicate that rejected children can make better impressions on peers when they expect interpersonal success and suggest that rejected children's interpersonal expectations should be considered in interventions designed to improve their peer relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multimethod comparison of similarity in school adjustment of siblings and unrelated children.

Examined similarities among 45 sibling pairs in Grades 2–5 in their social and academic adaptation to the school setting. Measures included teacher ratings and ranking of academic skills, social behavior, and peer acceptance; peer sociometric ratings; and direct observations on the playground with peers and in the classroom with teachers and peers. Comparisons were made with randomly selected, unrelated S pairs matched on sex, grade, and classroom. Significant correlations were found only among sibling pairs on peer ratings of social preference, teachers' judgments of academic competence, popularity, social behavior and school adjustment, positive behavior with peers on the playground, and teachers' disapproving behavior in the classroom. Results underscore the need for more multiagent and multimethod research on sibling concordant–discordant adjustment regardless of theoretical orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational victimization predicts children’s social-cognitive and self-regulatory responses in a challenging peer context.

In this study, the authors examined whether exposure to relational victimization was associated with children’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior in an unfamiliar, challenging peer context. Children (110 girls, 96 boys; mean age = 10.13 years, SD = 1.16) reported on their exposure to relational victimization by peers. Following a challenging interaction with an unfamiliar peer, children reported on their beliefs about their interaction partners and their social goals (i.e., focus on getting to know their partner vs. impressing their partner) during the interaction. Coders rated children’s emotion and behavior regulation and the quality of the dyadic context. Results from hierarchical linear modeling analyses reveal that relational victimization predicted maladaptive social-cognitive processes (i.e., more negative peer beliefs and a heightened performance goal orientation) and heightened emotion and behavior dysregulation. Several of these effects were particularly salient in the context of a conflictual dyadic interaction. This research provides insight into impairments associated with relational victimization that may contribute to the emergence and/or perpetuation of peer difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormal social behavior in phenylketonuric monkeys.

Compared 4 rhesus monkeys, given a diet high in phenylalanine early in life, with 2 control groups in learning and social behavior when all Ss were on a normal diet. In comparison with the controls, the phenylketonuric (PKU) Ss were slow in learning a conditioned shock-avoidance task and showed extreme subnormal and inadequate social behavior. This gross incompetence in social interaction was reflected in the inconsistence of dominance rankings in a competitive food stituation and in the excessive hostility, excessive fear, and deficient play responses, both in the relatively unfamiliar playroom situation with familiar peers and in the home cage with unfamiliar stimulus monkeys. These PKU Ss were normal in more primitive, more reflexive behaviors, e.g., behaviors reflecting activity, simple social, environmental, and self-stimulating behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment and representations of peer relationships.

Three studies explored the connection between attachment and peer-related representations. Children heard stories in which a peer with ambiguous intent caused a negative event. Study 1 examined three aspects of peer-related representations in 3.5-yr-olds: representations of (1) peer intent, (2) behavioral responses to the event, and (3) peer feelings. Children's representations of the mother's response to the event were also examined. Study 2 examined the connection between attachment and the same aspects of peer-related representations in kindergarten and 1st-grade children. The proposition implicit in attachment theory that it is children's representations of peer relationships that in part account for the connection between child–parent attachment and relations with peers was also tested. Study 3 focused on representations of peer intent in connection with self-reported maternal and paternal rejection in 5th graders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Susceptibility to peer influence: Using a performance-based measure to identify adolescent males at heightened risk for deviant peer socialization.

A substantial amount of research has suggested that adolescents' attitudes and behaviors are influenced by peers; however, little is known regarding adolescents' individual variability, or susceptibility, to peer influence. In this study, a performance-based index from an experimental paradigm was used to directly measure adolescents' susceptibility to peers. A total of 36 adolescent boys participated in a “chat room” experiment in which they ostensibly were exposed to deviant or risky social norms communicated either by high-peer-status (i.e., popular, well-liked) or low-peer-status (i.e., unpopular, disliked) grade mates who actually were electronic confederates. Changes in adolescents' responses before and after exposure to peer norms were used as a measure of peer influence susceptibility. These same adolescents completed a questionnaire assessment at the study outset and again 18 months later to assess their actual engagement in deviant behavior and their perceptions of their best friend's engagement in deviant behavior. Only among adolescents with high levels of susceptibility to high-status peers was a significant longitudinal association revealed between their best friend's baseline deviant behavior and adolescents' own deviant behavior 18 months later. Findings support the predictive validity of a performance-based susceptibility measure and suggest that adolescents' peer influence susceptibility may generalize across peer contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal stability of temperamental exuberance and social–emotional outcomes in early childhood.

The goals of the current study were to investigate the stability of temperamental exuberance across infancy and toddlerhood and to examine the associations between exuberance and social–emotional outcomes in early childhood. The sample consisted of 291 4-month-olds followed at 9, 24, and 36 months and again at 5 years of age. Behavioral measures of exuberance were collected at 9, 24, and 36 months. At 36 months, frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry was assessed. At 5 years, maternal reports of temperament and behavior problems were collected, as were observational measures of social behavior during an interaction with an unfamiliar peer in the laboratory. Latent profile analysis revealed a high, stable exuberance profile that was associated with greater ratings of 5-year externalizing behavior and surgency, as well as observed disruptive behavior and social competence with unfamiliar peers. These associations were particularly true for children who displayed left frontal EEG asymmetry. Multiple factors supported an approach bias for exuberant temperament but did not differentiate between adaptive and maladaptive social–emotional outcomes at 5 years of age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers in relation to their sociometric status.

Examined children's general beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers in relationship to their sociometric status and their experience with parents. In the initial phase involving 886 4th and 5th graders, submissive rejected children but not aggressive rejected children reported less positive beliefs about peers than average status children. In the 2nd portion, which included 77 boys and girls from the larger sample, no relationship between children's sociometric status and their beliefs about unfamiliar peers was found. Beliefs about unfamiliar peers were related, however, to children's perception of the amount of acceptance and support they received from parents. Implications of these findings for children's social competence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment relationships among children with aggressive behavior problems: The role of disorganized early attachment patterns.

Reviews attachment-related studies of early aggression to show that aggressive behavior toward peers is related to disorganized or controlling patterns of attachment behavior toward parents but not to avoidant or ambivalent patterns. Longitudinal attachment studies indicate that risk factors identified in cross-sectional studies of aggressive school-age children, such as family adversity, parental hostility, parental depression, and child cognitive deficits, are already evident in infancy and predictive of later aggression, before the onset of coercive child behavior. In infancy, these risk factors are associated with disorganized attachment behaviors toward the caregiver characterized by signs of fear or dysphoria, irresolvable conflict between opposing behavioral tendencies, and elevated cortisol levels after separation. Disorganized attachment behaviors, in turn, predict aggression in school-age children with other family factors controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infant-adult attachments on the kibbutz and their relation to socioemotional development 4 years later.

Studied the predictive validity of Stange Situation classifications among infants raised on kibbutzim in Israel. C-type (resistant) attachments are frequently found on Israeli kibbutzim, but the long-term correlates of this "insecure" pattern have not been identified. 59 Ss, whose attachments to parents and metaplot were assessed at age 11–14 mo, were seen again when they were 5 yrs old to assess socioemotional development. Ss who had B-type attachments to their metaplot were later less ego controlled and more empathic, dominant, purposive, achievement-oriented, and independent than C-group Ss. Group differences were in the direction predicted on the basis of prior research on the correlates of infant–mother attachment. Measures of socioemotional development reflected Ss' behavior at the kibbutz but not at home or with parents. This may explain the relatively strong predictive power of attachment status with metapelet as opposed to attachment status with parents. Results may underscore the central importance of the careprovider as a key figure in the early social life of kibbutzim. Findings raise questions regarding developmental significance of attachment relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology: James Patrick Connell.

The Early Career Awards, given for the first time in 1974, recognize the large number of excellent young psychologists. Recipients of this award may not have held a PhD for more than nine years. For purposes of this award, psychology has been divided into nine areas: human learning and cognition, psychopathology, physiological animal learning and behavior, personality, developmental social sensation and perception, and applied research. Three areas are considered each year, with areas rotated in three-year cycles. The areas considered in 1988 were animal learning, behavior, and ethology; personality; and developmental. This year's recipient in the developmental area is James Patrick Connell. Connell is cited for his use of sophisticated analytic procedures to explicate rich, complex representations of developmental changes and individual differences in motivational processes across the life span. He has proposed a reconceptualization of attachment-system functioning and presented a new component-process approach for examining parent-infant attachment data. In addition to the citation, a biography and selected bibliography of Connell's works are included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's peer selection: Experimental examination of the role of self-perceptions.

Although previous studies have examined characteristics of children selected as friends, little research has examined the role played by characteristics of the selecting child. In 2 experimental studies that examined the role of self-perceptions in peer selection, participants (91 seventh graders in Study 1 and 83 third graders in Study 2) viewed various evaluations of themselves. Participants either believed evaluations were written by unfamiliar peers (Study 1) or were asked to imagine that the views of puppets were views of unfamiliar peers (Study 2). Participants were asked to select the pees they wished to meet and interact with. When evaluations were related to specific competence domains, 7th graders preferred positive peers to negative peers, whereas 3rd graders selected peers who viewed them as they viewed themselves. When evaluations were related to global self-worth, children's selections were unrelated to views of their own global worth. Selection of a globally negative peer was associated with attachment-insecurity/maternal-rejection and depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peers as primary attachment sources in yearling rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).

Peer bonds were examined in 2 experiments using juvenile rhesus monkeys to determine (1) whether specific attachment bonds are formed between age-mates, (2) whether preferred age-mates can provide a secure base, and (3) whether a previous attachment bond affects the quality of subsequent attachment bonds. In Exp 1, 8 peer-only reared (POR) monkeys demonstrated a specific preference for a predicted favorite peer when given a choice between a familiar and 2 unfamiliar peers. In Exp 2, POR Ss were placed in a novel setting with either their most preferred peer, a familiar but not preferred peer, or an unfamiliar peer, and their responses were compared with those of a 2nd group of monkeys, reared for their 1st 6 mo of life by their mother. Both mother-reared (MP) and POR monkeys displayed significantly more intimate contact and significantly less distress when with their most preferred peer; nevertheless, even when they were with their most preferred peer, POR Ss exhibited more distress than MP Ss. Findings are discussed with reference to current attachment theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A tale of two methods: Comparing regression and instrumental variables estimates of the effects of preschool child care type on the subsequent externalizing behavior of children in low-income families.

We apply instrumental variables (IV) techniques to a pooled data set of employment-focused experiments to examine the relation between type of preschool childcare and subsequent externalizing problem behavior for a large sample of low-income children. To assess the potential usefulness of this approach for addressing biases that can confound causal inferences in child care research, we compare instrumental variables results with those obtained using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. We find that our OLS estimates concur with prior studies showing small positive associations between center-based care and later externalizing behavior. By contrast, our IV estimates indicate that preschool-aged children with center care experience are rated by mothers and teachers as having fewer externalizing problems on entering elementary school than their peers who were not in child care as preschoolers. Findings are discussed in relation to the literature on associations between different types of community-based child care and children's social behavior, particularly within low-income populations. Moreover, we use this study to highlight the relative strengths and weaknesses of each analytic method for addressing causal questions in developmental research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Les relations avec l'entourage et l'adaptation psychosociale a l'ecole secondaire.

This study examined adolescents' relationships with their mother, their teachers, and their peers and the contribution of these relationships to the variability of their psychosocial adaptation. Two-hundred and ten students from two schools completed questionnaires. The findings showed that adolescents' levels of attachment to mothers was associated with teacher support, the adolescents' levels of self-esteem but not with attachment to friends. Attachment to friends was associated with adolescents' self-rated social skills. Teacher support was the best predictor of school belongingness. Gender and school grades moderated some of these associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of health protective behaviors among college students

This study uses structural equation modeling and a panel design to explain participation in health protective behavior (HPB) among college students. The direct, indirect, and total effects of gender, social influences (parental and peer behavior), social attachments (activity involvement, social support, and romantic involvement), social triggers (personal health, acute illnesses, and personal or family health crisis), health value, and effort to improve health behavior on HPB are examined. A path model with a high goodness of fit and an R2 of .418 shows that gender; health value, and effort to change health behaviors are the most powerful predictors of HPB participation, while parents and peers influence HPB indirectly through influence on health value and effort to change. Neither the social attachment nor social trigger items influenced HPB in this sample. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Flunking kindergarten after Head Start: An inquiry into the contribution of contextual and individual variables.

The author examined the extent that nonpromotion to 1st grade after kindergarten can be predicted from information about school and family contexts as well as Head Start children's individual characteristics. The sample comprised 261 Head Start children and parents who were participating in a study on the transition to school. Children who lagged behind their peers on academic achievement and social adjustment indicators were more likely to be in the nonpromoted group. Parental school involvement, parental estimates of children's school adjustment, and parental satisfaction with school programs were predictive of risk for nonpromotion. Head Start children were less likely to be retained in public schools that provided educational as well as family services intended to support the transition to public school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment behavior of adult dogs (Canis familiaris) living at rescue centers: Forming new bonds.

In this study, 60 shelter dogs (Canis familiaris) were observed in the modified version of the Strange Situation Test, which has proved to be a useful method for studying dogs' attachment behavior toward humans (J. Topàl, à. Miklòsi, V. Csònyi, & A. Dòka, 1998). Before testing, 40 dogs were handled 3 times for 10 min. In the test, handled dogs encountered 2 persons: the handler in the role of the "owner"(OW) and an unfamiliar person (UP), whereas the 20 nonhandled dogs encountered unfamiliar persons in both roles. Dogs in the handled group exhibited more contact seeking with the entering OW, less physical contact with the UP, less frequent following of the leaving UP, and less standing by the door in the presence of the OW. The specific response of the handled dogs toward the handler fulfilled the operational criteria of attachment. In shelter conditions, the remarkable demand for social contact with humans may result in rather fast forming of attachment even in adult dogs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)