Social relationships and motivation in middle school: The role of parents, teachers, and peers.

Adolescents' supportive relationships with parents, teachers, and peers were examined in relation to motivation at school (school- and class-related interest, academic goal orientations, and social goal pursuit). On the basis of 167 sixth-grade students, relations of perceived support from parents, teachers, and peers to student motivation differed depending on the source of support and motivational outcome: Peer support was a positive predictor of prosocial goal pursuit, teacher support was a positive predictor of both types of interest and of social responsibility goal pursuit, and parent support was a positive predictor of school-related interest and goal orientations. Perceived support from parents and peers also was related to interest in school indirectly by way of negative relations with emotional distress. Pursuit of social responsibility goals and school- and class-related interest in 6th grade partly explained positive relations between social support in 6th grade and classroom grades 1 year later. Continued research on the social origins of classroom motivation in early adolescence is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Socialization of prosocial behavior in the preschool classroom.

Videotaped the naturally occurring classroom behaviors of 33 preschool children 51–63 mo old. Instances of prosocial, defensive, and social behaviors were coded, as well as peer and teacher reactions to prosocial behaviors. Although teachers responded positively to Ss' prosocial behaviors only a small percentage of the time, peers reacted positively a moderate proportion of the time. Ss who frequently responded to requests for prosocial behavior received fewer positive reactions from peers than Ss who complied with requests less often. In contrast, teachers were more likely to react positively to girls who exhibited high levels of "asked for" (compliant) prosocial behaviors. The type of reactions an S received for prosocial behaviors was related both to the type of reactions given to others' prosocial behaviors and to positive sociability. Frequent performance of spontaneous prosocial actions was related to a different pattern of behaviors than was frequency of prosocial behaviors in response to a request. (21 ref) (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)     

Strategies for making friends: Relations to social behavior and peer acceptance in early adolescence.

Examined relations among strategy knowledge about making friends, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and peer acceptance at school during early adolescence. Based on a sample of 423 6th- and 7th-grade students, findings indicated that knowledge of both appropriate and inappropriate strategies for making friends was related significantly to both types of social behavior and to peer acceptance. Results also suggested that displays of prosocial (but not antisocial) behavior represent an intermediate process that links knowledge about making friends to peer acceptance. These results were obtained even when taking into account significant relations of IQ to strategy knowledge, social behavior, and peer acceptance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescents' social goals, beliefs about the causes of social success, and satisfaction in peer relations.

The social goals and beliefs involved in adolescent peer relationships were examined for 266 9th-grade students (approximate age?=?14 years). Factor analysis of questionnaire responses revealed 6 goals pursued by adolescents in their relationships with their peers: Intimacy, Nurturance, Dominance, Leadership, Popularity, and Avoidance. Six beliefs about behaviors or circumstances that lead to success in peer relationships were also identified: Being Sincere, Having Status, Being Responsible, Pretending to Care, Entertaining Others, and Being Tough. The prediction that there should be meaningful connections between sets of goals and beliefs was supported. Finally, prosocial goals and beliefs were positively associated with satisfaction with peer relationships but not related to peer sociometric nominations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increasing peer praise of socially rejected delinquent youth: Effects on cooperation and acceptance.

This study assessed the effects of positive peer reporting (PPR) on the cooperative behaviors and peer acceptance of 3 socially rejected, delinquent youths (2 males and 1 female) in residential care. PPR involved rewarding classroom peers with token points for publicly praising the social behavior of target students. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline was used to assess the effects of the procedure. Results indicated that PPR increased the use of cooperative statements made to peers. For all 3 students, PPR also led to increases in their peer status. Social validity measures indicated high treatment acceptability and a match between the amount of cooperative behavior emitted by participants and randomly selected classmates. Findings support the use of peers as sources of reinforcement for a rejected youth's prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"I'm OK but You're Not" and Other Peer-Relational Schemas: Explaining Individual Differences in Children's Social Goals.

This study examined the links among 5th and 6th graders' (279 girls and 310 boys) self- and peer perceptions, social goals, and social behavior. Social goals mediated the effects of self- and peer perceptions on 3 types of behavior: proactive aggression, prosocial behavior, and withdrawal. In addition to their main effects (self-perception predicting variance in agentic goals, peer perception being related to communal goals), self- and peer perception interacted in influencing social goals; for instance, the effects of a positive view of oneself were different in the contexts of a positive versus a negative perception of peers. It is suggested that in order to predict children's social behavior more accurately, researchers should investigate children's dual perceptions of themselves and of their peers--that is, their peer-relational schemas--instead of assessing self-perception and peer perception in isolation from each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does being good make the grade? Social behavior and academic competence in middle school.

Examined relations of prosocial and antisocial classroom behavior to academic achievement, taking into account the possible mediating effects of academically oriented classroom behavior and teachers' preferences for students. Correlational findings based on 423 students in 6th and 7th grade indicated that prosocial and antisocial behavior are related significantly to GPA and standardized test scores and to teachers' preferences for students and academic behavior. Results from multiple-regression analyses suggested that both types of social behavior are significant, independent predictors of classroom grades, even when academically oriented behavior and teachers' preference for students, IQ, family structure, sex, ethnicity, and days absent from school are taken into account. Results of regressions suggested that significant correlations between social behavior and academic outcomes can be explained in part by significant relations between social and academic behavior. The role of social behavior in promoting classroom learning is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cognitive-social learning approach to social skill training with low-status preschool children.

Changes in the behavior and peer acceptance of low-status preschool children as a result of social skill training were examined. Children who had low sociometric status and were also low in classroom use of social skills were randomly assigned to a skill training group (n?=?18) or to an attention control group (n?=?15). Children in the training group were coached in 4 skills: leading peers, asking questions of peers, making comments to peers, and supporting peers. Trained children showed a significant increase in their use of the trained skills comments and leads from pretest to posttest, whereas control-group children showed no change. Neither control nor skill-trained children changed significantly on sociometric measures from pretest to posttest. Increases in skill use in the classroom with peers was correlated with improvements in children's knowledge of friendly social strategies from pre- to posttest. Results are interpreted as evidence of a social skill basis for peer acceptance and of the need to develop procedures to assess the mechanisms of change during social skills training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classroom Social Experiences as Predictors of Academic Performance.

A model linking children's peer acceptance in the classroom to academic performance via academic self-concept and internalizing symptoms was tested in a longitudinal study. A sample of 248 children was followed from 4th to 6th grade, with data collected from different informants in each year of the study to reduce respondent bias. A path analysis supported the model; a lack of peer acceptance in the classroom in 4th grade predicted lower academic self-concept and more internalizing symptoms the following year, which in turn, predicted lower academic performance in 6th grade. An alternative path with internalizing symptoms predicting declines in peer acceptance was tested and received some support as well. Implications of the findings for schools are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement: Examining Achievement Goals, Classroom Goal Structures, and Culture.

The purposes of this study were to examine the predictors and achievement consequences of academic self-handicapping and to explore cultural variations in the pursuit and effects of performance goals and perceived classroom performance goal structures. Data were collected in 2 consecutive academic years from a diverse sample of high school students (N=675). Performance-avoidance and classroom performance goal structure were positively associated with self-handicapping, whereas performance-approach goals negatively predicted handicapping. Self-handicapping was negatively associated with achievement in English. Cultural differences in the effects of performance goals on achievement and in the effects of classroom performance goal structure on the subsequent adoption of personal performance goals were found. Implications for efforts to alter classroom goal structures are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer acceptance and school-related variables in an integrated junior high school.

Interracial peer acceptance at the junior high school level was related to 9 predictor variables: grade point average (GPA), IQ, attendance, self-concept of academic ability, sex, race, age, years in the school, and classroom racial composition. 322 7th- and 8th-grade students from predominantly lower-middle-class backgrounds were administered modified Syracuse Scales of Human Relations, measuring academic and social acceptance. Analysis of variance results show that White Ss slightly preferred Whites for the satisfaction of their academic and social needs. However, with stepwise multiple regression analysis, race was not a significant predictor variable for academic or social acceptance by White Ss. GPA and sex were the most prominent predictors of acceptance. Black Ss accepted both Black peers and White peers equally for academic interaction but preferred Blacks for social interaction. Race was a significant predictor variable for academic and social acceptance by Black Ss. However, race was secondary to GPA and/or sex for academic acceptance by Black females and Black males. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mediating Teacher Liking and Moderating Authoritative Teachering on Chinese Adolescents' Perceptions of Antisocial and Prosocial Behaviors.

The authors present a model of adolescents' peer relations in the classroom that integrates 3 social processes involving the adolescent students, the classroom teacher, and peers. One of the hypotheses was that teacher liking of students mediated the relation between students' social behaviors (e.g.. antisocial disruption and prosocial leadership) and peer acceptance. This mediating teacher influence was also hypothesized to be moderated by the extent to which adolescent students perceived their teacher to be authoritative in teachering. These hypotheses were tested and supported on the basis of a sample of 659 Chinese middle school students. A discussion of these results focuses on the classroom teacher as a social context in the study of children's social interactions in the classroom. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations of moral reasoning and vicarious emotion to young children's prosocial behavior toward peers and adults.

Four- and 5-year-old (primarily) Euro-American children (40 girls, 34 boys) participated in a study of moral reasoning, vicarious emotional responding, and prosocial behavior. Children's prosocial behavior and self-reported and facial reactions of vicarious emotion were obtained in response to 2 peer distress films and 2 adult distress simulations. Moral reasoning was assessed with prosocial moral dilemmas. Children's emotional responses were found to be related to analogous types of moral reasoning and were associated in expected ways with helping of peers and adults. Higher levels of moral reasoning were positively related to prosocial behavior. Children high in both other-oriented moral cognitions and sympathy were most helpful toward peers. The pattern of findings suggested that linkages are being formed in the preschool years not only between other-oriented affect and cognitions but also between those that are self-focused in nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer Academic Reputation in Elementary School: Associations With Changes in Self-Concept and Academic Skills.

The developmental significance of children's academic reputation among peers was examined in a longitudinal study of 400 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5. In the fall of Year 1, teachers rated children's academic skills and behavior, and peers provided nominations describing classmates' academic skills, social acceptance versus rejection, and aggressive behavior. In the fall and spring of Year 1, children provided reports of their academic self-concept, social self-concept, and global self-worth. In the fall of Year 2, teachers rated children's academic skills. Results indicated that 4 items assessing peer academic reputation formed an internally consistent scale that was correlated moderately and distinctively with teacher-rated academic skills. Peer academic reputation and teacher-rated academic skills each contributed independently to the prediction of fall-to-spring changes in children's academic self-concept. Peer academic reputation and academic self-concept contributed uniquely to the prediction of changes in teacher-rated academic effort and skills over a 1-year period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting preschoolers' peer behavior and status from their interpersonal strategies: A comparison of verbal and enactive responses to hypothetical social dilemmas.

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare a verbal and an enactive procedure for assessing preschool children's social strategies in hypothetical situations in terms of their ability to predict social behavior with peers and peer acceptance and (b) to examine some of the psychometric properties of the two assessment methods. Children's responses to a set of hypothetical social situations were elicited both with puppets and props (enactive assessment) and with a set of pictures (verbal assessment). The responses were rated in terms of their friendliness and assertiveness. Enactive friendliness ratings contributed significantly to regression equations predicting teacher and observer ratings of prosocial and aggressive behavior but not to peer group acceptance, whereas the verbal method contributed little predictive power beyond that provided by the enactive ratings. Implications for social skill assessment and intervention with children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early adolescents' perceptions of the classroom social environment, motivational beliefs, and engagement.

This research examined whether 5th-grade students' (N = 602) perceptions of the classroom social environment (teacher support, promotion of mutual respect, promotion of task-related interaction, student support) were related to their engagement in the classroom (self-regulation and task-related interaction) and whether those relations were mediated by personal motivational beliefs (mastery goals, academic and social efficacy). Teacher support, promotion of interaction, and student support were related to both types of engagement, and those relations were fully or partially mediated by motivational beliefs. Relations with promoting mutual respect were not significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social status of aggressive students across contexts: The role of classroom status hierarchy, academic achievement, and grade.

This study tested the effects of 5 classroom contextual features on the social status (perceived popularity and social preference) that peers accord to aggressive students in late elementary school, including classroom peer status hierarchy (whether within-classroom differences in popularity are large or small), classroom academic level, and grade level as the main predictors of interest as well as classroom aggression and ethnic composition as controls. Multilevel analyses were conducted on an ethnically diverse sample of 968 fourth- and fifth-graders from 46 classrooms in 9 schools. Associations between aggression and status varied greatly from one classroom to another. Aggressive students were more popular and better liked in classrooms with higher levels of peer status hierarchy. Aggressive students had higher social status in Grade 5 than in Grade 4 and lower social preference in classrooms of higher academic level. Classroom aggression and ethnic composition did not moderate aggression–status associations. Limitations and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in conformity to peers and parents.

Investigated developmental changes in conformity to parents and peers and relations between parent and peer conformity. In Study 1, 251 children in the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, or 12th grade responded to hypothetical situations in which peers urged the child to perform either antisocial, prosocial, or neutral behaviors. For all types of behavior, the age trends for conformity were curvilinear, and peer conformity peaked in the 6th or 9th grade. In Study 2, 273 children in the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, or 12th grades responded to situations testing conformity to peers on antisocial and prosocial behavior and conformity to parents on prosocial and neutral behavior. For antisocial behavior, a peak in peer conformity was found at the 9th grade. Significant age changes were not found for prosocial behavior. Conformity to parents on both types of behavior decreased steadily with age. With some but not all measures, conformity to parents and conformity to peers were negatively correlated. In addition, the relations between parents and peer conformity changed with age. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-contextual analysis of boys' social competence: From family to school.

Examined the extent to which the hostile attributions and coercive behaviors of mothers and sons were associated with indices of aggression, acceptance by peers, and teacher-rated social competence in the peer group. Ss were 104 married and divorced mothers and their sons (aged 7–9 yrs). Mothers' and sons' hostile attributions were significantly related to the coerciveness of their interactions, but only mothers' attributions related to reports of the children's aggression in the classroom. Boys who reported many stressful events in their lives behaved coercively with their mothers and were viewed as more aggressive and less socially competent with peers. The relation between stressful life events and the boys' aggression with their peers was mediated, in part, by boys' coerciveness with their mothers. The association between boys' coerciveness with their mothers and social acceptance by peers appeared to be mediated by the aggressiveness of their interactions with their peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)