Two studies examine the convergence between measures of friendship and measures of liking in the assessment of friendship and peer acceptance. In the first study, 551 (301 boys and 250 girls) Canadian primary school children (ages 8-11) nominated friends and liked-most classmates. In the second study, 282 (127 boys and 155 girls) US primary school…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations of children's emotion knowledge (and its components) and socially appropriate behavior to peer likability in a sample of Italian preschool children at two time-points. At both Time 1 (T1; n = 46 boys, 42 girls) and a year later at Time 2 (T2; n = 26 boys, 22 girls), children's emotion…

In preschool classes, sociometric peer ratings are used to measure children's peer relationships. The current study examined a computerized version of preschool sociometric ratings. The psychometric properties were compared of computerized sociometric ratings and traditional peer ratings for preschoolers. The distributions, inter-item…

Children's peer relationships are frequently assessed with peer nominations. An important methodological issue is whether to collect unlimited or limited nominations. Some researchers have argued that the psychometric differences between both methods are negligible, while others have claimed that one is superior over the other. The current study…

Despite research showing that immigrant adolescents differ in the degree to which they feel personally discriminated against, little is known about individual predictors of their perceived personal discrimination. We studied the role of a major developmental task in adolescence that is highly relevant for discrimination experiences: being liked by…

Social relations of second grade students (247 boys, 290 girls) were examined in rural elementary classrooms. Cluster analysis of teacher ratings was used to identify interpersonal competence configurations including perceived unpopular-aggressive (i.e., "Troubled") and perceived popular-aggressive (i.e., "Tough") subtypes for…

Children's agentic and communal goals were examined in hypothetical "conflict," "group entry," "victimization," and "positive" situations (N = 310, 11-13 years). Multilevel modeling was used to separate the variation in goals to the between- and within- (i.e., situation-specific) individual levels. About half of the variation in goals was due to…

The purpose of this study was to explore correlates of childhood social-withdrawal in India. Participants were n = 929 elementary school-aged children in New Delhi. Children completed peer nominations of social-withdrawal, aggression, and sociometric status, as well as self-report measures of loneliness and depressive symptoms. Teachers rated…

Aggressive behavior in childhood has long been separated into that which is proactively motivated and that which is reactive. We report a meta-analytic review of the existing empirical literature that examines the associations of each type of aggression with six indices of psychosocial adjustment: internalizing problems, emotional dysregulation…

Elementary-school children in Cuba and Canada participated in measures of loneliness, sociometric status, friendship, aggression, and social withdrawal. Withdrawal was associated with loneliness in the Cuban data from both cohorts, Grade 4 and Grade 6. In the Canadian data, withdrawal was only linked to loneliness in Grade 6. In contrast with…