The current study examined whether youth's perceived bullying norms play a role in friendship dynamics related to bullying and victimization among the fifth and sixth grade (N = 736, 52% girls at Wave 1, N = 677, 52% girls at Wave 2) in elementary schools. Youth completed peer nominations (friendship, bullying, and victimization) and a…

The effects of selective missingness on the size of observed correlations between scores derived from peer assessment procedures were examined with a sample of 719 boys and girls drawn from 57 peer groups in seven schools in Montréal, Québec, Canada or Barranquilla, a city on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia in Latin America. Peer groups…

This study examined the role that peer groups play in shaping students' academic re-engagement across their first year in middle school and whether influences are stronger from peers with whom students remained affiliated over time. Data were collected on an entire cohort of 366 sixth graders (48% female) in a small town. Students reported on…

In peer nomination research, individuals who do not provide nominations (nonparticipants) are often included on rosters as potential nominees. This can present ethical questions regarding informed consent, but psychometric consequences of excluding nonparticipants from rosters are unknown. In this investigation, Study 1 simulated both random and…

Contemporary research adopts an evolutionary theoretical perspective in which bullying is strategic behavior that is conducive to peer-group status enhancement. Within this view, a high social status (i.e., popularity) has been associated with bullying others, while a high affiliative status (i.e., preference) has been associated with defending…

To better address the many consequences of peer victimization, research must identify not only aspects of individuals that put them at risk for victimization, such as aggression, but also aspects of the context that influence the extent of that risk. To this end, this study examined the contextual influences of gender, same-sex peer group norms of…

In the current study, associations between individual and friends' direct and indirect aggression and depressive problems were examined. It was expected that social status would moderate these associations such that low-status preadolescents would be more similar to their unilateral friends with regard to indirect, but not direct, aggression.…

This study examines selection and influence related to delinquent behaviors of immigrant and nonimmigrant adolescents attending three majority-immigrant schools (54% to 65.2% immigrant) and four minority-immigrant schools (11.1% to 25.1% immigrant) in one community. The sample included 1,169 youths (50.4% male; 24.2% immigrant) initially between…

This study examined the relations of maternal warmth, behavioral control, and encouragement of sociability to social, school, and psychological adjustment in migrant children in China. The participants were 284 rural-to-urban migrant children (M age = 11 years, 149 boys) in migrant children's schools and their mothers. Data on parenting were…

By integrating the life history theory of attachment with resource control theory, the current study examines the hypothesis that insecure attachment styles reorganized in middle childhood are alternative adaptive strategies used to prepare for upcoming competition with the peer group. A sample of 654 children in the second through seventh grades…

This study investigated whether the members of adolescents' peer groups are similar in terms of their school adjustment and whether this homogeneity varies according to peer group type and gender. A total of 1262 peer group members who had recently moved to post-comprehensive education filled in questionnaires measuring their academic achievement,…

This article reports a study comparing self-concept among 114 immigrant children and adolescents of Ethiopian origin in Israel and among 164 native-born Israelis, including an exploration of how age, gender, and first-language proficiency affect various dimensions of this construct. For the younger children (aged 8-9 years), self-concept was found…

This study examined the effects on 6- and 8-year old children (n = 160) of rejection versus acceptance by an initial group, the reason for the rejection or acceptance (personal versus category-based), and the norms (inclusion versus exclusion) of a new group to which the children were assigned, on their negative affect and attitudes towards the…

Using a puppet procedure depicting hypothetical conflict involving the participant and a peer, 96 preschoolers' (48 boys and 48 girls; M = 5.14 years, SD = 0.78 years) expectations about peer conflict were assessed as a function of their role in the conflict (i.e., initiator of or responder to initial provocation) and the intensity level of the…

This exploratory study investigated Mainland Chinese children's social networks and peer group affiliations with a particular emphasis on their aggressive behaviour. The participants were 294 elementary school students in Tianjin, P. R. China (mean age 11.5 years; 161 boys). Social network analysis identified relatively large and gender-specific…