Peer group interactional style was examined as a moderator of the relation between peer group school misconduct and group members' school misconduct. Participants were 705 students (M[subscript age] = 11.59 years, SD = 1.37) in 148 peer groups. Children reported on their school misconduct in fall and spring. In the winter, group members were…

The long-term import of a fundamental challenge of adolescent social development--establishing oneself as a desirable peer companion while avoiding problematic behaviors often supported within peer groups--was examined in a community sample of 184 adolescents, followed from ages 13 to 23, along with parents, peers, and romantic partners. The…

This study aimed to understand how relationships with peers and teachers contribute to the development of internalizing problems via children's social self-concept. The sample included 570 children aged 7 years 5 months (SD = 4.6 months). Peer nominations of peer rejection, child-reported social self-concept, and teacher-reported…

Research suggests that sibling--peer connections are important for understanding adolescent problem behaviors. Using a novel behavioral genetic design, the current study investigated peer network overlap in 300 child--child pairs (aged 7-13 years) in 5 dyad types: monozygotic (MZ), dizygotic twins, full siblings (FSs), friend pairs, and virtual…

Examined whether maternal control protected African American adolescents from the negative influence of problem peers in a sample of 95 seventh- and eighth-graders. Found support for the hypothesis of a curvilinear relation between control and adolescent problem behavior, and suggested that high-quality parenting can play a modest but critical…

Examined relative influence of parenting behaviors (support, behavioral control, and psychological control) and deviant peers on trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems in early adolescence. Found that parents' firm behavioral control seemed to halt the upward trajectory in externalizing problems among adolescents with deviant…

Examined the influence of friends' behaviors and the features of their friendships on 297 adolescents' school adjustment. Found that students whose friends described themselves as more disruptive increased in self-reported disruption over the course of the school year. Girls' self-reported disruption was more influenced by that of their best…

Examined individual differences in friendship characteristics and their cross-sectional and longitudinal interrelations with adolescent problems. Assessed four salient friendship characteristics: reciprocity of relations, overt hostility, covert hostility, and self-disclosure. Suggests that adolescent problem behaviors have a more potent…

Obtains standardized parent and teacher behavior ratings of neglected and rejected 8- to 11-year-old boys and girls. No age or sex differences were found. Rejected children were found to exhibit more behavior problems on both scales than neglected, popular, or average children. (Author/AS)

Examined whether sixth graders' adjustment to the school context (assessed by grades, achievement scores, and disruptive behaviors) was affected by factors from both the family context (as represented by the number of divorce-related parenting transitions and perceptions of current family climate) and the peer context (represented by peer norms…