Examined relation of maternal monitoring and play rules to sixth graders' friendship quality, social behavior, and depression. Found that monitoring was not related to supervision, peer, or restriction play rules. Girls with more monitoring had friendships with less conflict and higher positive qualities. Supervision rules related to boys'…

Examined maternal acceptance and children's social functioning and school adjustment over four years in a Shanghai sample. Found that children's behavioral problems and peer rejection negatively and uniquely predicted maternal acceptance. Academic achievement positively predicted maternal acceptance. Maternal acceptance and rejection contributed…

Identified fourth graders' peer groups and measured social network closure--extent to which meaningful social relationships exist between children and their friends' parents and among parents whose children are friends. Found that higher social network closure related to higher academic achievement and lower parent-reported externalizing…

Considers four issues pertaining to aggression and adaptation: (1) conceptual and operational definitions of aggression; (2) how aggression relates to adjustment difficulties for boys and girls and for children from different ethnic and socioeconomic groups; (3) whether specific forms of aggression relate to truly positive correlates and whether…

Compared five subgroups of aggressive children and adolescents on several adjustment correlates. Found that the reactive group and the group high on both instrumental and reactive reasons for aggression showed consistent maladaptive patterns across the adjustment correlates. The instrumental and typical groups (moderate on instrumental and…

Examined relations of parents' reactions to first- through fourth-graders' negative emotions with children's social and emotional competence at school and the moderating role of children's dispositional emotionality. Found that problem-focused parental reactions related positively to socioemotional competence for boys but negatively for girls.…

Examined children's social status, friendship, and adjustment. Found that peer relationships contributed uniquely to children's socioemotional adjustment, academic performance, and self-concept. Peer status also affected adjustment, with peer rejection and neglect being significant negative predictors. Effects of friendship appeared positive, with…

Examined linkages between the family and school social systems as children make the transition to school. Recorded parent-child interactions in a physical play session prior to children's entrance into school. Found that the length of time in physical play was related to social adjustment in school. (MM)

Findings suggest a certain amount of discordance in teacher and peer perceptions of children's likability, and an association of discordance with differential perceptions of children's social behaviors. A teacher preference measure used in combination with sociometric measures may provide more reliable assessment of social adjustment than peer…

Presents research into second and fifth graders' use of social information about focal peers. Examines the impact of social information on children's evaluations at two levels: attributions focused on the cause of a social event, and more generalized dispositional inferences about the focal peer. Girls were sensitive to the stability dimension,…

Discusses perceptions that sixth graders and their parents have about their relationships. Sociable children were more likely to agree with their parents about the supportiveness of the relationship than were withdrawn or aggressive children. Mothers of withdrawn or aggressive children, and fathers of aggressive children, felt less supportive than…

Studied interrelationships between dating patterns and trajectories of psychosocial functioning over a year in middle adolescents. Found that increasing casual dating was associated with rising problem behaviors and improved close friendship quality; pathways culminating in steady relationships were accompanied by increasing friendship discord,…

Examined links between 91 fourth graders' academic competence and behavioral adjustment and mothers' and fathers' psychological autonomy, controlling for effects of parental limit-setting and warmth. Found that fathers' psychological autonomy was a unique correlate to greater academic competence and fewer signs of depression in the classroom,…

Examined the relationship between early adolescents' involvement in romantic relationships and their emotional, behavioral, and academic adjustment, depending on same-sex peer relationships. Found a negative relationship between romantic involvement and emotional and behavioral adjustment for adolescents who were unpopular with same-sex peers.…

Examined the relevancy of group social functioning to individual social, academic, and psychological adjustment in China. Found that social functioning--including sociability, aggression, and shyness-inhibition--of group peers had unique contributions to individual social and school adjustment and adjustment problems, and that contributions of…