Teacher assessments of interpersonal characteristics were used to identify subtypes of rural African American early adolescents (161 boys and 258 girls). Teacher ratings of interpersonal characteristics were used to identify popular and unpopular aggressive subtypes for both boys and girls. Unpopular aggressive youths did not have elevated levels…

Peer competence in preschool children in two classes was assessed via (a) teacher rankings of social competence, (b) peer sociometrics, and behavioral measures of (c) social participation, and others. Affective expression and social behavior were temporally stable and consistent across contexts for both classes; however, patterns of…

Findings provide tentative support for the hypothesis that strategy information derived from enactive interviews is more predictive of children's behavior in peer situations than is information derived from the verbal interview method. This suggests that preschool children automatically access cognitive scripts for behavior in social interactions.…

Examined development of relations between causal explanations, the anticipated emotional consequences for others if these causes were communicated, and the decision to disclose or withhold causal explanation. Within a role-playing paradigm, children aged 5-12 were given scenarios involving social rejection or broken social engagement. Data…

This longitudinal study identified subgroups of rejected boys with different developmental pathways of aggression and prosocial behavior during middle childhood. Four subgroups were identified associated with different patterns of sociometric acceptance and rejection over time and with social emotional adjustment in the last measurement wave.…

Assessed preschoolers' peer aggression and emotional displays outside of and during aggressive interactions, their emotion knowledge, and peer acceptance. Found that connections between affective dispositions and aggression and peer acceptance varied as a function of the emotion context and the particular emotion involved. Significant connections…

This study examined the connections between children's self-representations at age 5 and their self-perceptions, socioemotional competence, and peer acceptance at age 8. Findings generally revealed the expected connections between the positiveness of self at age 5 and self-perceptions and socioemotional functioning 3 years later, supporting the…

Open-ended questions were used to obtain narrative accounts of what makes a girl (or a boy) popular (or unpopular) at school. The participants were 489 African American students in Grades 1, 4, and 7 recruited from high-risk inner-city neighborhoods. Appearance and self-presentation were mentioned the most in Grades 4 and 7. Prosocial…

Examined age-related changes in the organization underlying children's ratings of peer social deviance. Peer ratings of aggression, withdrawal, and likeability using the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI) were collected from first, fourth, and seventh graders. For all ages aggression and likeability items were found to comprise cohesive categories…

Two studies examined children's perceptions of popular and unpopular peers. Findings indicated that fourth- through eighth-graders viewed "liked others" as prosocial and "disliked others" as antisocial, but associated perceived popularity with both prosocial and antisocial behavior. Children described popular peers as…

Assessed preschoolers' peer relations and measured the frequency of parents' and children's initiations of children's play interactions with peers. Frequent parent initiations were associated with high levels of children's prosocial behavior. Children who more often initiated interactions displayed less anxious behavior than children who less…

This study introduces a social context model within which peer acceptances of prosocial-leadership, aggression, and social withdrawal were examined as functions of the contextual norms of these behaviors. The major postulate of the model is that the extent to which a behavior permeates a social context facilitates peer acceptance of the behavior.…

Information on children's academic achievement and social adjustment was gathered from multiple sources over two years, beginning in grades four and six. Found that children's academic achievement predicted their social competence and peer acceptance; and children's social competence, aggression, leadership, and peer acceptance contributed to…

Defined peer-rated, narrow-band dimensions of undercontrolled behavior of 362 third through sixth grade boys that was associated with peer rejection. Results revealed three narrow-band dimensions in the peer perceptions of grade school boys: (1) aggression; (2) hyperactivity; and (3) inattention-immaturity. (SH)