Children's peer relations: A meta-analytic review of popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average sociometric status.

Two-dimensional sociometric models have had a critical role in the investigation of children's peer relations in the past decade. In a meta-analysis, fitting categorical models (L. V. Hedges, 1982), sociometric group differences on behavioral and information source typologies were assessed. The broadband behavioral analysis showed that popular children's array of competencies makes them likely recipients of positive peer nominations, whereas high levels of aggression and withdrawal and low levels of sociability and cognitive abilities are associated with rejected peer status. A consistent profile marked by less sociability and aggression emerged for neglected status. Controversial children had higher aggressive behavior than rejected children but compensated for it with significantly better cognitive and social abilities. The moderator effects of narrow-band behavioral categories and information source were also examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of their peer experiences: Attributions, loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance.

338 3rd and 5th graders completed a sociometric questionnaire and 3 instruments designed to assess their feelings of loneliness, social anxiety, social avoidance, and their attributions for social outcomes. Results show that children's feelings and attributions varied as a function of peer status, gender, and grade. For example, compared with peers, rejected children reported higher levels of loneliness and were more likely to attribute relationship failures to external causes. Children's feelings were also significantly related to their attributions about social events. Popular, average, and controversial status children who were socially distressed exhibited a non-self-serving attributional style, whereas distressed rejected children exhibited a self-serving attributional pattern. Neglected children who were distressed exhibited elements of both of these attributional styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple perspectives of rejected, neglected, and accepted children: Relation between sociometric status and behavioral characteristics.

Hypothesized, on the basis of findings from several studies, that rejected children are more disruptive, aggressive, and socially inappropriate than are their classmates. Three groups of 39 rejected, 29 neglected, and 39 accepted children were randomly selected from 282 boys and 210 girls who were identified separately on the basis of sociometric scores for 492 children in Grades 3–6. The 3 groups were compared using multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) on measures from 4 domains: peer behavioral attributions, teacher ratings, analog assertiveness task, and self-evaluation. Rejected Ss were clearly distinguished from their same-sex neglected and accepted classmates and were described by teachers and peers as aggressive, disruptive and inattentive. Neglected Ss were only marginally discriminable from same-sex accepted children. Neither neglected nor rejected Ss were differentiated from accepted Ss with respect to observed assertiveness and self-ratings of shyness, unhappiness, and feeling unaccepted. The results replicate previous findings for rejected children. Currently, there is not sufficient justification to consider the group of socially neglected children as a clinical category. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent-child physical play with rejected, neglected, and popular boys.

This study compares the parent–child interactions of rejected, neglected, and popular boys in a paradigm emphasizing physical play. Twelve boys, 3 to 5 years of age, of each sociometric category were recruited from nursery schools and observed in interactions with their parents at home. It was found that the fathers of neglected boys engaged in less affectively arousing, physical play than the fathers of popular and rejected boys. In addition, there was more overstimulation and avoidance of stimulation among the rejected boys compared with the popular boys. The results indicate the importance of the regulation of affect for social competence and illustrate strong links between the parent and peer social systems. (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)     

Samuel Fernberger's rejected doctoral dissertation: A neglected resource for the history of ape research in America.

I summarize a never-completed 1911 doctoral dissertation on ape behavior by Samuel Fernberger of the University of Pennsylvania. Included are observations on many behavioral patterns including sensory and perceptual function, learning, memory, attention, imagination, personality, and emotion in an orangutan and two chimpanzees. There are examples of behavior resembling insight, conscience, tool use and imitation. Language comprehension was good but speech production was minimal. The document appears to contradict a brief published article on the project by William Furness in that punishment was frequently used. The document is important for understanding Fernberger's early career, for anticipations of later research, and for understanding the status of ape research at the time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's emotion regulation: Self-report and physiological response to peer provocation.

The authors examined the notion that children's emotion regulation (ER) is a uniform skill by (a) investigating the concordance between self-report of ER and physiological measures and by (b) examining ER in a specific context (e.g., peer provocation) and context-free manner (e.g., during a semistructured interview of ER abilities). Seventy-two children in middle childhood (average age = 9 years) participated. Time-locked measures of heart rate reactivity and recovery were obtained in response to provoking comments, and vagal regulation was measured throughout the provocation session. Children who reported greater dysregulation showed increased heart rate reactivity to provocative comments (i.e., steeper heart rate slope) but no difference in heart rate recovery. The context-free but not the context-specific self-report measure was associated with a failure to suppress vagal tone. Implications for ER measurement and children's peer relations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's naturalistic entry behavior and sociometric status: A developmental perspective.

Extended previous research by examining the relation between children's entry behavior and sociometric status under more naturalistic conditions. First, 3rd, and 5th graders (N?=?72) of high, low, and average status were observed during recess. Observers coded Ss' entry and noninteractive behaviors, peers' responses, and the size of groups with whom Ss interacted. Low-status Ss engaged in more passive entry attempts and less sustained group interaction than high-status Ss, and were accepted less and ignored more. Compared with 5th graders, 1st graders attempted entry proportionately more, were alone more, joined smaller groups, and sustained interaction with groups a smaller proportion of time. Group size influenced both the choice of entry bids and the group's response to an entering peer. (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)     

Children's recall of television and print news: A media comparison study.

An experiment was conducted (a) to compare children's recall of news information presented either audiovisually or in print, and (b) to establish whether the relative effectiveness of both media in conveying the news is dependent on children's reading proficiency and expectation of a memory test. A sample of 152 4th and 6th graders was presented with a sequence of 5 children's news stories, either in their original televised form or in a printed version. In each condition, half of the children were led to expect a memory test, whereas the other children were not. The results of a cued-recall test indicated that children who had watched the news on television remembered more than those who had received the same news in print, regardless of their reading proficiency or expectation of a memory test. (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)     

Changes in attractiveness of elected, rejected, and precluded alternatives: A comparison of happy and unhappy individuals.

In 3 studies the authors compared the responses of self-rated happy and unhappy students in situations involving choice. In Study 1, high school seniors evaluated colleges after applying for admission and then later after making their selections. Happy students tended to be more satisfied than unhappy ones with the colleges they ultimately chose and those they ultimately rejected, and they more sharply devalued the colleges that rejected them. Studies 2 and 3 dealt with postdecisional consequences of less consequential decisions about fancy desserts. In Study 2, unhappy participants sharply derogated the desserts they rejected or were denied, relative to those selected by or for them, whereas happy participants showed no such derogation. These group differences, moreover, proved to be largely independent of self-esteem and optimism. The design of Study 3 helped explicate underlying mechanisms by inducing both groups to distract themselves or to self-reflect. Doing so eliminated all group differences. Implications of the results for the link between cognitive processes and hedonic consequences are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improving the social behavior and peer acceptance of rejected boys: Effects of social skill training with instructions and prohibitions.

Thirty-two boys who were rejected by their peers in Grades 1–3 were identified on the basis of negative sociometric nominations and negative social behavior. They were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: (a) instructions to promote positive social behavior, (b) prohibitions to reduce negative social behavior, (c) a combination of instructions and prohibitions, or (d) no treatment. Interventions were applied during 10 half-hour school play sessions. Behavioral observations and peer and teacher ratings were collected prior to treatment, immediately after treatment, and at a follow-up assessment 6 weeks after treatment. Additional peer and teacher ratings were collected at a 1-year follow-up. Prohibitions combined with a response cost for negative behaviors resulted in immediate and stable declines in negative behavior and led to temporary increases in positive responses received from peers. Instructions and the reinforcement of specific social skills promoted sustained positive peer interactions 6 weeks after treatment. Only the combination of instructions and prohibitions led to improved sociometric ratings from nontarget treatment partners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-concept and peer status among gifted program youth.

The authors examined the relation between self-concept and peer status among 465 high-ability youth (Grades 5–11) attending a university summer enrichment program. The differential relation of 4 facets of self-concept (social, academic, athletic, and physical appearance) was investigated in both an academic and a nonacademic peer group setting. Results indicate that (a) self-concept, particularly social self-concept, is moderately predictive of peer status; (b) there appear to be developmental and gender differences in the role that self-concept plays in peer status; and (c) most findings are consistent across both peer group settings. This study supports the theoretical link between self-concept and peer status in high-ability youth and suggests directions for further research on the role of specific facets of self-concept in children with peer status difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social and emotional loneliness: An examination of Weiss's typology of loneliness.

Examined R. S. Weiss's (1973) conceptualization of social and emotional loneliness, using survey data on 505 college students that included the UCLA Loneliness Scale—Revised. Social and emotional loneliness, Ss' affective and behavioral reactions to loneliness, Ss' social relationships, and their judgments of the degree to which their relationships supply the 6 social provisions described by Weiss were measured. There were differences in the subjective experiences of social and emotional loneliness, although both forms of loneliness were also characterized by a common core of experiences. Results generally support Weiss's ideas concerning the determinants of social and emotional loneliness. Predictions concerning the affective and behavioral consequences associated with each type of loneliness, however, were only partly supported, although the 2 forms of loneliness were associated with different affective reactions and coping behaviors. (25 ref) (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)     

Personality and status profiles of peer counselors and suicide attempters.

3 groups of 20 female college students-peer counselors, suicide attempters, and a control group of nonsuicidal Ss-were compared for personality characteristics and family background, using the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule and a questionnaire. The control group consisted of Ss who thought about suicide frequently, but had never attempted it (high thinkers) and Ss who thought about suicide infrequently or not at all (low thinkers). The peer counselors presented a personality profile similar to high thinkers or attempters, but they thought about suicide infrequently, and unlike the attempters, they had more stable family backgrounds and showed more adaptive modes on the behavioral items measured. Peer counselors are therefore regarded as especially effective helpers for suicide attempters. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation between loneliness and depression: A structural equation analysis.

Research on loneliness has been hampered by its strong association with depression. The 2 states frequently co-occur, and measures of the 2 states are substantially correlated. Inability to manipulate experimentally loneliness or depression makes it difficult to untangle the causal influence of one on the other. The combination of longitudinal design and structural equation methodology is proposed as a solution to this general problem. Measures of loneliness and depression (e.g., the Beck Depression Inventory and Profile of Mood States) were administered to undergraduates at 2 points 5 wks apart. Data from 333 Ss were correlated and analyzed under a succession of structural equation models. Results indicate that loneliness and depression were correlated but clearly different constructs; neither was a direct cause of the other, although both probably share some common origins; both were highly stable over the 5-wk period. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's coping strategies: Moderators of the effects of peer victimization?

Coping strategies were examined as potential moderators of the effects of peer victimization on children's adjustment. Self-report data on victimization experiences, coping strategies, and loneliness were collected on ethnically diverse 9-10-year-old children (177 girls, 179 boys). Teacher ratings of children's anxious-depressed and social problems and peer nominations of social preference were also obtained. Findings revealed that strategies such as problem solving that were beneficial for nonvictimized children exacerbated difficulties for victimized children. The effects of specific forms of coping were dependent on gender: Social support seeking buffered victimized girls from social problems but was associated with lower peer preference for victimized boys. Data also revealed the need to examine the effects of coping on multiple adjustment outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The experimenter: A neglected stimulus object.

In single E experiments it is not possible to generalize to a population of E's. There are 3 cases for multi-E experiments: In Case I different Es do not differentially affect the results; in Case II one E obtains higher scores for all groups than does a second E; and in Case III E characteristics interact with treatment conditions. Results are potentially generalizable for Cases I and II, but not for Case III. Evidence indicates that multi-E experiments are common, but that reports of procedure and results for different Es are almost nonexistent. It is essential that we explicitly attempt to generalize to a population of Es; specify techniques of controlling the E variable; and accumulate knowledge in a variety of experimental situations about the effects of Es on their Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)