This study investigated how two aspects of the classroom environment (teachers' emphasis on mastery goals and descriptive norms (i.e., the average student disruptive, prosocial, and achievement-related behavior in a classroom), moderated the relationship between student behaviors and coolness. The sample included 976 students nested in 54 fifth-…

Popularity and likability--two measures of adolescent peer status--have been examined frequently within Western cultures but relatively rarely within Eastern cultures. This study offered a cross-cultural comparison of adolescent peer status to examine whether these constructs and their correlates vary between the United States and China. The study…

Two experiments investigated 3- to 5-year-olds' inductive generalizations about social categories. In Experiment 1, participants were shown pictures of children contrasting in appearance and either gender or classmate status, and were asked to generalize either biological properties or behaviors. Contrary to expectations, performance did not…

A growing body of literature indicates that childhood emotion regulation predicts later success with peers, yet little is known about the processes through which this association occurs. The current study examined mechanisms through which emotion regulation was associated with later peer acceptance and peer rejection, controlling for earlier…

Using peer nominations of physical aggression and perceived popularity in the spring semester of fifth grade, we identified 54 popular aggressive and 42 nonpopular aggressive preadolescents in a diverse sample of 318 participants recruited from an urban school district. Physical aggression in the spring semester of sixth grade was included to…

To better understand peer exclusion in young children, 42 four- to six-year-olds were observed in an outdoor setting, and their verbalizations were recorded using wireless microphones. The frequency of peer exclusion and social aggression, the various techniques children used to exclude their peers (unmitigated, mitigated, ignoring, and planning…

This study examined how "homophily" (similarity) and "propinquity" (availability) simultaneously predict both unidirectional and reciprocal cross-ethnic friendships among early adolescents in ethnically diverse classrooms. In a sample of sixth-grade students, liking nominations were used as the indicator of friendship, and both…

This study examined the construct validity of nonverbal social aggression and the relation of nonverbal social aggression to dimensions of children's social status. Peer nominations of verbal social, nonverbal social, direct veral, and physical aggression, as well as social dominance, perceived popularity, and social acceptance, were collected…

The current study follows two cohorts of fourth and fifth graders across 1 school year to better understand why some students change peer groups. The study focuses on popularity and intragroup social status. We examined whether differences between individuals' and group members' self-perceptions of popularity were related to changing peer groups.…

The present study focused on the role of cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal factors in predicting defending of bullied peer. Specifically, the degree to which peer status moderates the effects of emotional and cognitive factors on defending behavior was tested. The sample included 489 students (257 girls) from grades 4 (mean age, 10.6 years)…

This study involved an examination of the role of perceived popularity and social dominance in the social behaviors used within early adolescents' (N = 387) friendship cliques. A status hierarchy between cliques within each grade (based on peer-rated perceived popularity) and a status hierarchy between individuals within each clique (based on…

The Social Cognitive Mapping procedure was used to identify peer social groups in 26 fifth-grade classrooms from six elementary schools in a northeastern urban school district. Four group structural features were examined: size, the number of subcliques, cohesion, and salience hierarchy. Ethnic diversity index was calculated for each group. An…

A model linking children's perceptions of adults' gender stereotypes about mathematics and science ability, children's stereotypes, and children's perceptions of their own mathematics and science competence was tested in 302 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. When boys believed that adults hold more traditional stereotypes, they tended to hold…

Tested on a sample of 1,365 Hong Kong primary school students from five grades, teacher preference or the extent to which the classroom teacher likes a child in the class was found to both mediate and, to a lesser extent, moderate the relations between children's social behaviors and peer acceptance across age groups. The mediating effect suggests…