The peer relations of dropouts: a comparative study of at-risk and not at-risk youths

Little research has been devoted to exploring the relationship between high school disengagement and friendship network changes. In this study, the characteristics of friends, the environments of the friendship network and the nature of peer relations of students at-risk and not at-risk of dropping out of high school were compared. A questionnaire was given to 191 high school students (109 males, 82 females) from a middle class environment at the beginning and end of the school year. Results indicated that at-risk students had more dropout friends, more working friends, fewer school friends and fewer same-sex friends. Sex differences were discovered in several areas. Findings are discussed in relation to research and theories pertaining to dropouts and adolescent development.     

Close friend and group influence on adolescent cigarette smoking and alcohol use.

The relative influence of adolescents' closest friends and their friendship group on their cigarette smoking and alcohol use was investigated in a short-term, longitudinal study of 1,028 students in the 6th, 8th and 10th grades in 2 school systems. The amount of influence over the school year was modest in magnitude and came from the closest friend for initiation of cigarette and alcohol use. Only the friendship group use predicted transition into current cigarette use, whereas only the close friend use predicted transition into current alcohol use. Both group and close friends independently contributed to the prediction of adolescents' drinking to intoxication. No difference in the amount of influence, was found between stable and unstable close friendships or friendship groups; neither grade nor gender of the adolescents related to the amount of influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two social worlds: social correlates and stability of adolescent status groups

Adolescents' peer group status in high school was examined using self-report, peer nominations, and archival data collected during 2 consecutive school years. Higher status students (popular and controversial) had more close friends, engaged more frequently in peer activities, and self-disclosed more than lower status students (rejected and neglected). They were also more involved in extracurricular school activities and received more social honors from their schoolmates. Although the higher status students were more alike than different, controversial adolescents did report more self-disclosure and dating behavior than popular students. Lower status students were also highly similar, although rejected students reported lower grades. Regarding the temporal stability of these status groups, the adolescent sample exhibited slightly higher overall stability than that found in previous investigations of younger children.     

Stability and change in childhood and adolescent friendships.

Two studies examined the stability of existing friendships and the formation of new friendships during a school year. In Study 1, the friendships of 16 female and 33 male 1st graders and 31 female and 32 male 4th graders were assessed in the fall and again in the spring. In Study 2, the friendships of 25 female and 34 male 4th graders and 32 female and 22 male 8th graders were assessed in the fall and the spring. In both studies, most friendships present in the fall remained constant in the spring. Although the stability of friendships generally increased between 1st and 4th grade, it did not increase regularly between 4th and 8th grade. The formation of new friendships varied consistently with age. First and 4th graders made more new friends during the year than they lost; 8th graders lost more old friends than they gained. Sex differences in friendship stability were not consistent, but several findings suggest that girls tend more often than boys to limit the size of their friendship groups. The importance of examining stability and change in friendships simultaneously, and the significance of individual differences in friendship stability are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social networks and aggressive behavior: Peer support or peer rejection?

Studied social networks and aggressive behavior in school in 2 cohorts of boys and girls in the 4th and 7th grades (N?=?695). Measures of social networks yielded convergent findings. Highly aggressive subjects (both boys and girls) did not differ from matched control subjects in terms of social cluster membership or in being isolated or rejected within the social network. Peer cluster analysis and reciprocal "best friend" selections indicated that aggressive subjects tended to affiliate with aggressive peers. Even though highly aggressive children and adolescents were less popular than control subjects in the social network at large, they were equally often identified as being nuclear members of social clusters. Aggressive subjects did not differ from matched control subjects in the number of times they were named by peers as "best friend," nor did the two groups differ in the probability of having friendship choices reciprocated by peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in functions of three relations during adolescence.

Three functions of interpersonal relations (attempt at behavior control, intimacy, and nurture) were assessed in friendship, mother–child, and father–child relations of adolescents to examine age, relational, sex, and mother–father differences. 60 female and 60 male 4th, 7th, and 10th graders and undergraduates rated 8 statements that portrayed interpersonal interactions for each relationship to indicate how closely the statements described Ss' actual interpersonal relations. Parents exerted greater control than friends across grades. Intimacy in friendship was lower than in parent–child relations at 4th grade, but it surpassed the parent level by 10th grade. Nurturance remained relatively consistent and high across grades for parents, whereas it increased with increasing age of adolescents in friendship. Female friendship involved higher intimacy than male friendship. Only males perceived fathers to be more nurturant than mothers. Results are interpreted in terms of their consistency with the Piagetian/relational framework of social development and their implications for research concerning parental and peer conformity in adolescent socialization. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Girlfriend, boyfriend: Age and sex differences in intimate friendship.

Investigated changes in intimate friendship with same- and opposite-sex friends in preadolescence and adolescence, using the Intimacy Scale. Ss were Israeli children from the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th grades (60 boys and 60 girls from each grade), who rated their friendship with a same- or opposite-sex best friend. There was a significant age difference in overall intimacy with same-sex friends. Frankness and spontaneity, knowing and sensitivity, attachment, exclusiveness, and giving and sharing were factors that changed with age. Trust and loyalty, and taking and imposing did not. Opposite-sex friendship revealed a significant increase in intimacy with age. Boys and girls did not differ in reported opposite-sex friendship in the 5th and 7th grades, whereas girls in the 9th and 11th grades reported higher intimacy than did boys. This sex-by-age pattern of interaction was particularly evident for attachment and for trust and loyalty. Girls were higher in knowing and sensitivity, giving and sharing, and taking and imposing. The implications for further differentiation among types of peer relations and interrelation of dyadic friendship and cognitive growth are discussed. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer relations among adolescents with female same-sex parents.

This study examined associations among family type (same-sex vs. opposite-sex parents), adolescent gender, family and relationship variables, and the peer relations of adolescents. Participants included 44 adolescents parented by same-sex female couples and 44 adolescents parented by opposite-sex couples, matched on demographic characteristics and drawn from a national sample. On both self-reported and peer-reported measures of relations with peers, adolescents were functioning well, and the quality of their peer relations was not associated with family type. Regardless of family type, adolescents whose parents described closer relationships with them reported higher quality peer relations and more friends in school and were rated as more central in their friendship networks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendships in Middle School: Influences on Motivation and School Adjustment.

In this 2-year longitudinal study (n=242), the authors examined relations of having a reciprocated friend and characteristics of a reciprocated friend to students' social and academic adjustment to middle school. With respect to having a friend, 6th-grade students without friends showed lower levels of prosocial behavior, academic achievement, and emotional distress than did students with reciprocated friendships. Not having a friend in 6th grade also was related to emotional distress 2 years later. Evidence that motivational processes mediate relations between friends' and individuals' prosocial behavior was obtained. For students with reciprocated friendships (n=173). friends' prosocial behavior predicted change in individuals' prosocial behavior in 8th grade by way of changes in goals to behave prosocially. Implications for studying friendship influence in middle school are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer relations and school adjustment in ungraded primary children.

Researchers have reported a significant relationship between peer relations and school adjustment in same-age classrooms, but little is known about the contribution of peer relations to school adjustment in mixed-age classrooms. The present study investigated the contributions of peer acceptance, friendship, social status, and age relative to mixed-age classmates to children's attitudes toward school and to achievement in ungraded primary. Children's attitudes toward school were positively related to composite achievement scores. Achievement was predicted from demographic variables, children's attitudes, peer acceptance, and friendship status. With the effects of gender and race controlled, differences in school adjustment were related to both children's social status and whether they had friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability and determinants of sociometric status and friendship choice: A longitudinal perspective.

In a design that combined assessment of short- and long-term stability, 175 boys and 159 girls in the 5th grade were met twice while they were in 5 elementary schools and 3 times after they had entered a single consolidated middle school. At each of these meetings, Ss were asked to nominate 3 same-sex best friends and 3 disliked same-sex peers and to nominate peers for 14 roles in a hypothetical class play. Although there was greater consistency in the Ss' choices of best friends than disliked peers, the stability of acceptance was roughly equal to the stability of rejection. Correction of the test–retest correlations for measurement error indicated that previous studies probably underestimated stability on these measures. Analysis of the association between sociometric measures and social reputation revealed possible causal links between social reputation and subsequent social preference and social impact as assessed by structural equation modeling techniques. No evidence indicated greater consistency of liked and disliked peer choices among girls than among boys, and popularity was only slightly related to consistency in friendship relations. Results indicate that by early adolescence sociometric standing appears to be a relatively stable phenomenon. The need for the assessment of qualitative aspects of friendship relations is stressed. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Links between social network closure and child well-being: The organizing role of friendship context.

Third grade children (N = 404) and their mothers completed questionnaires and participated in interviews designed to identify children's friendships across multiple contexts, determine levels of social network closure for these friendships, and assess child well-being. Cluster analyses revealed distinct patterns in the contexts in which children's friendships were maintained. Closure was highest for children whose friendship clusters heavily represented relatives as friends and lowest when friends were from schools and the broader community. Intermediate levels of closure were observed for the clusters of neighborhood friends and friends from church and school. Both friendship cluster and, to some extent, ethnicity moderated associations between closure and indicators of well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer rejection and unpopularity: Associations with GPAs across the transition to middle school.

The unique effects of peer rejection and unpopularity on student GPAs across the transition from elementary school to middle school were investigated with a sample of 901 students followed longitudinally from 4th grade through 8th grade. Two types of longitudinal models, a cross-lagged panel model and a piecewise growth model, were used, with peer-nominated rejection and unpopularity and GPAs derived from school records. The cross-lagged panel model assessed the over-time directionality of the association between GPAs and peer status. It revealed that peer rejection preceded lower GPAs within 4th grade and across the transition from elementary to middle school, whereas lower GPAs predicted greater peer rejection from 4th to 5th grade. In contrast, unpopularity predicted higher GPAs across the transition from elementary to middle school. The piecewise growth model demonstrated that student GPAs declined in middle school and that peer rejection was associated with lower concurrent GPAs in both school settings, whereas unpopularity was associated with higher concurrent GPAs in middle school. Peer rejection and unpopularity in the last grade of elementary school were also predictive of GPA in the first grade of middle school above and beyond the effects of concurrent rejection and unpopularity. The results demonstrate how 2 forms of low peer status are associated with GPAs during this period of significant change in the social and academic lives of students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age changes and changes over time in prosocial intentions and behavior between friends.

During the fall of the school year, 86 1st and 4th graders named their best friends and rated their liking for each child of the same sex in their grade. Ss' intentions to share with or help their friend, as well as Ss' actual behavior, were assessed. In both the fall and the spring, age changes were found that suggested an increase in compromise or mutual accommodation between friends. Fourth graders not only showed more prosocial intentions and prosocial behavior toward their friends than 1st graders did, they also assumed that their friends would expect a more moderate amount of prosocial behavior and would be more satisfied with their decisions about how much to share and help. Changes in intentions and behavior between fall and spring were significant only for 1st graders. First graders' intentions to share and help were less positive in the spring than in the fall. Their actual sharing also decreased over time. The changes appeared to reflect less stability in younger Ss' friendships and relations among strength of friendship, prosocial intentions, and prosocial behavior. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's goals and strategies in response to conflicts within a friendship.

Little is known about the skills required for friendship, as distinct from those required for peer acceptance. The present study examined whether children's goals and strategies in friendship conflict situations are predictive of their friendship adjustment, after accounting for level of peer acceptance. Fourth- and 5th-grade children (N?=?696) responded to 30 hypothetical situations in which they were having a conflict with a friend. Results indicated that children's goals were highly related to their strategies and that children's goals and strategies were predictive of their real-life friendship adjustment. Pursuing the goal of revenge toward a friend was the goal or strategy most strongly associated with lacking friends and having poor-quality friendships. Gender differences were also found for each goal and strategy, with girls displaying a more prosocial goal and strategy orientation than boys. (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)     

Developmental changes in gender composition of friendship networks in adolescent girls and boys.

This article describes both normative changes and individual differences in the gender composition of girls' and boys' friendship networks across adolescence and predicts variations in these changes. It also examines changes in the characteristics (context, age difference, closeness, and support) of same- and other-sex friendships in the network. Girls and boys (N=390) were interviewed annually from Grades 6 to 10 (76% retention). Growth in the proportion of other-sex friends was significantly more pronounced for girls and was related to different predictors for girls and boys. Moreover, over time, girls had other-sex friends that were increasingly older than themselves, and most of these friendships took place outside of the school, which was not the case for boys. Growth in the proportion of other-sex friends was more pronounced for secondary than for best friends. Finally, both girls and boys reported receiving higher levels of help from girls than from boys. These findings suggest that other-sex friendships might place some of the girls on a problematic developmental trajectory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-concept and peer acceptance in students with learning disabilities: A four- to five-year prospective study.

Examined the peer relations and self-concepts of students prior to and following their identification by the school district as learning disabled (LD) in a 4- to 5-yr prospective study. Self-concept ratings (kindergarten–4th grade) and peer acceptance ratings (kindergarten–3rd grade), as well as academic achievement scores, were compared across 3 groups: LD students who were placed in resource special education programs during 2nd grade, low-achieving (LA) students, and average-achieving/high-achieving (AA/HA) students. For peer acceptance, AA/HA students' scores were higher than LA students' scores only. No between-groups differences were obtained during any school year on the self-concept measure. Findings suggest that LD students' self-perceptions are not negatively affected by academic and social difficulties in the early grades or by the identification and labeling process. Though generalization is limited by the small sample size, few studies have examined students with learning disabilities longitudinally or prior to and following their identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendship as a moderating factor in the pathway between early harsh home environment and later victimization in the peer group.

Two prospective investigations of the moderating role of dyadic friendship in the developmental pathway to peer victimization are reported. In Study 1, the preschool home environments (i.e., harsh discipline, marital conflict, stress, abuse, and maternal hostility) of 389 children were assessed by trained interviewers. These children were then followed into the middle years of elementary school, with peer victimization, group social acceptance, and friendship assessed annually with a peer nomination inventory. In Study 2, the home environments of 243 children were assessed in the summer before 1st grade, and victimization, group acceptance, and friendship were assessed annually over the next 3 years. In both studies, early harsh, punitive, and hostile family environments predicted later victimization by peers for children who had a low number of friendships. However, the predictive associations did not hold for children who had numerous friendships. These findings provide support for conceptualizations of friendship as a moderating factor in the pathways to peer group victimization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendship and friendship quality in middle childhood: Links with peer group acceptance and feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction.

The distinction between friendship adjustment and acceptance by the peer group was examined. Third- through 5th-grade children (N?=?881) completed sociometric measures of acceptance and friendship, a measure of loneliness, a questionnaire on the features of their very best friendships, and a measure of their friendship satisfaction. Results indicated that many low-accepted children had best friends and were satisfied with these friendships. However, these children's friendships were lower than those of other children on most dimensions of quality. Having a friend, friendship quality, and group acceptance made separate contributions to the prediction of loneliness. Results indicate the utility of the new friendship quality measure and the value of distinguishing children's friendship adjustment from their general peer acceptance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)