This study examined the relations between facial attractiveness, aggression, and popularity in adolescence to determine whether facial attractiveness would buffer against the negative effects of aggression on popularity. We collected ratings of facial attractiveness from standardized photographs, and teachers provided information on adolescents'…

Researchers typically employ either peer or self-reports to assess involvement in bullying. In this study, we examined the merits of each method for the identification of child characteristics related to victimization and bullying others. Accordingly, we investigated the difference between these two methods with regard to their relationship with…

The role of children's on-task behavior in the prevention of aggressive behavior was assessed among 570 Dutch speaking children followed from second- to third-grade elementary school in Flanders, Belgium. A first objective was to investigate whether individual level variation of on-task behavior moderated the impact of a universal preventive…

Social rejection is associated with a wide variety of negative outcomes. Early identification of social rejection and intervention to minimize its negative impact is thus important. However, sociometric methods, which are considered high in validity for identifying socially rejected children, are frequently not used because of (a) procedural…

The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate a model in which children's social behaviors, including prosocial behavior, setting limits, and social withdrawal, were hypothesized to mediate the links between local language competence (LLC) and peer acceptance and victimization. Longitudinal data were collected via teacher and peer reports…

Relational aggression was studied within classroom environments by examining individual and classroom correlates among 2731 children (3rd-5th graders) during two successive measurement years. Multilevel analyses yielded small gender differences for relational aggression, indicating that such aggressive behavior was more associated with girls as…

Recent studies have found distinct subtypes of aggressive youth, marked by either high social status or social marginalization, and that various measures of status differentially associate with aggression. The majority of these studies, however, focused on boys, adolescents, and/or relational aggression in girls. The current research examined how…

Several lines of theory and research suggest that power (e.g., social dominance) and status (e.g., social prominence and positive peer regard) are enjoyed by those blessed with good looks. The present work addresses the relations among physical attractiveness, power, status, and aggression from a resource control theoretic perspective that…

This study used hierarchical linear modeling to predict first grade students' peer acceptance, classroom engagement, and sense of school belonging from measures of normative classroom teacher-student support and individual teacher-student support. Participants were 509 (54.4% male) ethnically diverse, first grade children attending one of three…

We tested the structure of the Pictorial Scale of Competence and Social Acceptance (PSPCSA) across groups of first and second grade children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We used confirmatory factor analysis, including latent mean structures analysis, to test the fit of competing PSPCSA factor models and examined invariance across…

This study assessed the importance of teacher preference of individual students, relative to peer rejection and student aggression, as an independent predictor of children's emotional adjustment and grades. First, a longitudinal, cross-lagged path analysis was conducted to determine the patterns of influence among teacher preference, peer…

Examined the nominations that elementary students with mild disabilities made for peers they perceived as cool. The total sample was comprised of 948 students (496 girls, 452 boys) from the metropolitan Chicago area and North Carolina and included 107 (11.3%) students with mild disabilities. Overall, students with mild disabilities nominated…

This study integrated research on aggression, peer status, and social and academic functioning across the middle- and high-school transitions. We examined how peer status and aggression are related to adolescents' expectations about their academic and social functioning in a new school system before the transition into that system, and their…

Investigates the nature of children's self-reported recess problems and the degree to which these were correlated with children's peer acceptance and mutual friendships. Modest relations were reported between inclusion recess problems and children's mutual friendships and peer acceptance. Results suggest that self-reported recess problems are a…

Investigates differences in social cognitive processing between two sub-types of aggressive children in grades two through four: those rejected by their peers and those not rejected. Descriptive discriminant analysis reveals that aggressive nonrejected children were more likely to believe that aggression leads to positive outcomes, and were more…