Victimization in early adolescence can have severe negative consequences later in life. Friendships are especially important in this time period. The present study investigated friendship selection and influence (contagion) processes with regard to victimization, as well as prosocial and aggressive characteristics of victims' friends. Using social…

The paper "Exploring Prosocial Behavior through Structured Philosophical Dialogue: A Quantitative Evaluation" ambitiously made the argument that a pedagogy grounded in dialogical inquiry as part of the Philosophy for Children program will positively affect incidents of bullying in schools. This response to the author's work includes a…

The construct of moral disengagement has increasingly been used by researchers to account for the asymmetry between children's moral reasoning and their moral behavior. According to this theory, moral disengagement occurs most aptly when children are motivated to violate their moral beliefs, such as when they hold antisocial goals during social…

This study examined the structural relations of preadolescents' inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, aggressive and prosocial behaviors, and peer functioning. There were 739 fourth (n = 239) and fifth (n = 500) graders (52.23% boys) in Taiwan who participated in this study. Preadolescents' inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity were…

This study investigates the extent to which teacher-student interactions in fifth grade classrooms are associated with peer behavior in fifth grade, accounting for prior peer functioning. Participants included 894 fifth grade students from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The quality of teacher-student interactions…

Many social interactions between school-age children contain both competitive and cooperative elements. In order to gain a better understanding of how students at risk for emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) negotiate social exchanges in cooperative and competitive-related tasks in comparison with non-EBD students: (a) prosocial; (b)…

Behavioral descriptors were identified as variant or invariant predictors of perceived popularity in a sample of 516 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children located in 26 majority-Black or majority-White classrooms. Athletic ability, prosocial behavior, being "cool", social withdrawal, and "personal privilege" (i.e., having a lot of expensive…

Familiar or unfamiliar rejected, popular, neglected, and average Black fourth-grade boys met in play groups once a week for six weeks. The investigation focused on the extent to which social status becomes reestablished in new social circumstances and behavior patterns associated with the evolution of status positions in new groups. (RH)

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…

In order to address the federal "No Child Left Behind Act", the state of Oklahoma required that all public schools address the problem of bullying. Although numerous anti-bullying programs exist, few have been evaluated to determine their effectiveness. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of one such program,…

This guide provides an approach for teachers of grades 4-5 to teach media literacy and promote an informed public conversation about the impact of violent imagery in our culture today. Five key goals govern the program: (1) to reduce exposure to media violence; (2) to change the impact of violent images that are seen; (3) to locate and explore…

This study examined associations between sociometric status and friendship quality using observational and questionnaire data from 139 fourth-grade girls and their friends. Multivariate analyses of covariance (controlling for ethnicity and socioeconomic status) showed that rejected girls and their friends did not differ in their reported…

This study examines whether behaviorally withdrawn children differ from aggressive and prosocial children in their attributional styles, social goals, and self-efficacy perceptions. Fourth and fifth-grade students (n=506) responded to a set of hypothetical situations involving ambiguous provocation. Specifically, they interpreted the protagonist's…

The intent of this curriculum guide is to help students learn how attitudes help determine values. The document is the fourth-grade component of a teacher-developed K-eighth grade crime prevention program. General objectives of the program are to promote and maintain positive student attitudes and behavior, to assist students in meeting their…