"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)     

Intrapersonal and interpersonal risk factors for peer victimization in immigrant youth in Finland.

This study (a) compared native Finns and immigrant children with respect to different forms of peer victimization and (b) tested whether intrapersonal (e.g., depression) and interpersonal (e.g., peer rejection) risk factors help to explain the association between immigrant status and peer victimization. The sample was drawn from the first phase of a large intervention evaluation project, KiVa, in Finland, composed of 4,957 native Finns (51% girls), 146 first-generation immigrants (48% girls), and 310 second-generation immigrants (53% girls) 9 to 12 years of age. The concurrent data included self- and peer reports collected via Internet-based questionnaires. Compared with native youth, first- and second-generation immigrants were more often targets of both peer- and self-reported victimization. Both immigrant groups experienced higher levels of physical, racist, and sexual victimization than natives. Furthermore, second-generation immigrants reported higher levels of property damage, threats, and cybervictimization than native Finns. Significant indirect effects were found between immigrant status and victimization. Interpersonal but not intrapersonal risk factors helped to explain these associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Interpersonal Circumplex Model of Children's Social Goals: Links With Peer-Reported Behavior and Sociometric Status.

The objective of the present research was to develop an assessment model for children's social goals. The aims were (a) to fit children's social goals to a circumplex model and to examine links between goals and peer-reported social behaviors (aggression, withdrawal, and prosocial behavior) in a sample of 276 participants (134 girls, 11- to 12-year-olds) and (b) to replicate these findings and examine whether social behavior mediates the relationship between goals and sociometric status in an independent cross-validation sample of 310 participants (143 girls, 11- to 13-year-olds). Results showed a satisfactory fit to the circumplex model and adequate psychometric properties of the goal scales of the new measure, the Interpersonal Goals Inventory for Children. Other findings included significant and meaningful relations between goals and peer-reported behavior. Social behavior mediated the relations between goals and sociometric status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship specificity of aggressogenic thought–behavior processes.

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the relationship specificity of aggressogenic thought–behavior processes and to investigate the role of self-esteem in translating or inhibiting aggressogenic thought into aggression toward personally liked and disliked targets. Participants (186 Finnish boys and girls; 11–12 years old at Time 1) completed measures twice over a 1-year interval. We assessed children's attributions of hostility, relational goals, expectations of anger, and self-efficacy at Time 1 as well as aggression, at both time points, toward their previously identified liked and disliked peers. Our results mostly supported our hypothesis that cognitions guide behavior mainly within the relationship context. Moreover, high self-esteem potentiated cognition–behavior links toward children's own liked peer but inhibited the actualization of aggressogenic thought toward children's disliked peer. These findings highlight the importance of taking a Person × Situation approach when studying cognition–behavior processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)