The current study examined school variations in academic engagement norms and whether such norms affect those most susceptible to peer influence. We presumed that behaviors associated with perceived popularity make norms salient and are most likely to affect socially marginalized (rejected) youth. Focusing on differences across 26 middle schools,…

The current study was designed to examine one possible weight stigma-reduction mechanism: school-level weight diversity. It was hypothesized that greater weight diversity among same-sex peers at school would attenuate the negative association between weight and academic achievement. Across 26 urban public middle schools, 5,991 sixth-grade students…

This study examined the mediating role of self-blaming attributions on peer victimization-maladjustment relations in middle school and the moderating role of classroom ethnic diversity. Latino and African American 6th grade participants (N = 1105, 56% female) were recruited from middle schools in which they were either members of the numerical…

The current study was designed to gain insights into shifting school culture by examining perceived peer group norms and social values across elementary and middle school grades. Perceived norms were assessed by asking participants (N = 605) to estimate how many grade mates were academically engaged, disengaged, and antisocial. To capture social…

By focusing on school-based behaviors, this study examined the validity of a lay assumption that peers match, and even surpass, parents in terms of their importance as socialization agents by early adolescence. Self-reported academic and social behaviors, peer group norms, and perceived parent values were assessed among fourth, sixth, and eighth…

The goal of the study was to examine whether social motives (social mimicry, mutual attraction, and unreciprocated attraction) predict changes in antisocial behavior across middle school grades. The 2,003 initial participants (55% girls) were drawn from a larger longitudinal study of urban public school students: 44% Latino, 26% African-American,…