Adolescence is characterized as a period of social reorientation toward peer relationships, entailing the emergence of sophisticated social abilities. Two studies (Study 1: N = 42, ages 13-17; Study 2: N = 81, ages 13-16) investigated age group differences in the impact of relationship reciprocation within school-based social networks on an…

This meta-analytic review of 148 studies on child and adolescent direct and indirect aggression examined the magnitude of gender differences, intercorrelations between forms, and associations with maladjustment. Results confirmed prior findings of gender differences (favoring boys) in direct aggression and trivial gender differences in indirect…

Neural correlates of social-cognition were assessed in 9- to- 17-year-olds (N = 34) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants appraised how unfamiliar peers they had previously identified as being of high or low interest would evaluate them for an anticipated online chat session. Differential age- and sex-related activation…

Spontaneous peer interactions of toddlers paired in mixed- or same-age dyads were observed in an effort to see whether the toddlers would adjust their social behavior to the age of their partners. (PCB)

Concludes that the movement from parallel play to group play may be more a matter of minutes that months. For the 41 children observed, who ranged in age from 32 to 42 months, parallel play often functioned in the stream of activities as a bridge to group play. (Author/RH)

Eight stump-tailed macaques were reared individually and either given all of their daily social experience in darkness or given half in the dark and half in the light. Results suggest that vision is especially important in the maintenance of assertive behaviors and in the instigation and direction of aggressive behaviors. (Author/RH)

Results showed that infants as young as 10 months of age are responsive to the person and behavior of an unfamiliar peer and that they are no less responsive than older infants (22-24 months of age) to the social versus nonsocial aspects of a novel setting. (Author/JMB)

A stable ordered dominance hierarchy was found via observational and sociometric methods for a group of 13-year-old boys during a 5-week camp. (SB)

Applied the concepts of agonism and dyadic dominance to the analysis of children's behavior. (SB)

Argues that developmental significance of friendships cannot be examined without distinguishing between the concepts of having friends, the identity of the child's friends, and friendship quality. Concludes that the identity of the child's friends and friendship quality may be more closely tied to developmental outcomes than merely whether the…

Children in the second, fifth, and eighth grades rated the importance and extent of companionship and intimate disclosure experiences in social life in general and in each of eight types of relationships. (PCB)

Infants were observed at 10, 12, and 14 1/2 months to test whether social interaction among infant peers develops as a by-product of object-centered play. Age differences were noted. Object-centered contact did not influence early social interaction; long interactions emerged at later ages regardless of whether or not toys were present. (Author/DB)

Studied 14 peer dyads at 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 months to assess developmental changes in social coordinations. Results indicated a marked increase with age in acts coordinated with those of a peer. Imitations of the peer's nonverbal actions accounted for most of the developmental change. (RJC)

First-, fourth-, seventh-, and eleventh-grade boys and girls were interviewed on the topic of deviant behavior among their peers. They were also asked to make deviance judgements on two story characters. The pattern of reaction to the stories was consistent with age-related shifts in the basis for deviant status. (Author/SB)

Examines the relationship of birth order to sociability with an unfamiliar peer in a group of 101 children, 33 months of age. Differences were found favoring sociability in children with one or no siblings. Assertiveness followed the same pattern. Family influences which may account for these birth order differences are discussed. (Author/DB)