Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:41:27.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Peer variables as predictors of later childhood adjustment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Betsy Hoza ,
Brooke S. G. Molina ,
William M. Bukowski  and
Lorrie K. Sippola
Betsy Hoza*
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic
Brooke S. G. Molina
Affiliation:
Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic
William M. Bukowski
Affiliation:
Concordia University
Lorrie K. Sippola
Affiliation:
Concordia University
*
Betsy Hoza, 1364 Psychological Sciences Building, purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907–1364.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined the relation between children's peer relationships and teacher-rated psychological adjustment. A number of shortcomings in the peer literature were addressed by: (a) employing carefully delineated peer variables (passive isolation, rejected isolation, aggressive-disruptive, peer preference, mutual friendship); (b) employing a data analytic strategy that permitted simultaneous examination of main effects of and interactions among peer variables; (c) using an outcome measure that is well-normed for children and widely used in studies of adjustment; and (d) controlling for outcome measures' autocorrelations across time points. For 236 school children in the third, fourth, and fifth grades, concurrent associations were examined between these peer variables and internalizing and externalizing problems. Longitudinal associations were examined over a period of 2 years. In so doing, we found that passive isolation was a risk factor for internalizing problems, and rejected isolation was marginally predictive of externalizing problems. Furthermore, we found complex moderating effects of mutual friendship, such that children who were not isolated may derive benefits from having a close mutual friend, but the results were not clear for children with poor peer-group relationships. Much additional research is needed to further clarify these findings.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 7 , Issue 4: Developmental Processes in Peer Relations and Psychopathology , Fall 1995 , pp. 787 - 802
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1986). Manual for the Teacher's Report Form and Teacher Version of the Child Behavior Profile. Burlington: University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. S. (1987). Manual for the Youth Self-Report Form and Youth Version of the Child Behavior Profile. Burlington: University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Berndt, T. J. (1992). Friendship and friends' influence in adolescence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 156–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bierman, K. L., Smoot, D. L., & Aumiller, K. (1993). Characteristics of aggressive-rejected, aggressive (nonrejected), and rejected (nonaggressive) boys. Child Development, 64, 139–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bukowski, W. M., & Hoza, B. (1989). Popularity and friendship: Issues in theory, measurement, and outcome. In Berndt, T. J. & Ladd, G. W. (Eds.), Peer relationships in child development (pp. 15–45). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bukowski, W. M., Hoza, B., & Boivin, M. (1993). Popularity, friendship, and emotional adjustment during early adolescence. In Laursen, B. (Ed.), Close friendships in adolescence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Ladd, G. W. (1989). Nominator attrition: Does it affect the accuracy of children's sociometric classifications? Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 35, 197–207.Google Scholar
Dishion, T. J., Andrews, D. W., & Crosby, L. (1995). Antisocial boys and their friends in early adolescence: Relationship characteristics, quality, and interactional process. Child Development, 66, 139–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Furman, W., & Robbins, P. (1985). What's the point? Issues in the selection of treatment objectives. In Schneider, B. H., Rubin, K. H., & Ledingham, J. E. (Eds.), Children's peer relations: Issues in assessment and intervention (pp. 41–54). New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Huesmann, L. R., Eron, L. D., Lefkowitz, M. M., & Walder, L. O. (1984). Stability of aggression over time and generations. Developmental Psychology, 20, 1120–1134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupersmidt, J. B., Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1990). The role of poor peer relationships in the development of disorder. In Asher, S. R. & Coie, J. D. (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S., Morison, P., & Pellegrini, D. S. (1985). A Revised Class Play method of peer assessment. Developmental Psychology, 21, 523–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreno, J. L. (1934). Who shall survive? A new approach to the problem of human interrelations. Washington, DC: Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreno, J. L. (1978). Who shall survive? Foundations of sociometry, group psychotherapy, and sociodrama (3rd ed.). Beacon, NY: Beacon House.Google Scholar
Neter, J., Wasserman, W., & Kutner, M. H. (1989). Applied linear regression models. Homewood, IL: Irwin.Google Scholar
Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1993). Friendship and friendship quality in middle childhood: Links with peer group acceptance and feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction. Developmental Psychology, 29, 611–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Hymel, S., Mills, R. S. L., & Rose-Krasnor, L. (1991). Conceptualizing different developmental pathways to and from social isolation in childhood. In Cicchetti, D. & Toth, S. L. (Eds.), Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology: Vol. 2. Internalizing and externalizing expressions of dysfunction (pp. 91–122). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., & Mills, R. S. L. (1988). The many faces of social isolation in childhood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 916–924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Weiss, R. S. (1974). The provision of social relationships. In Rubin, Z. (Ed.), Doing unto others. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar