The present study examined how school-age children's communicative decisions are influenced by the situation, their social partner, and their own characteristics (gender, shyness levels, and history of peer relationships). Children (8-12 years old, N=246) imagined themselves in social scenarios (depicted through comics) and indicated the…

Peer nominations and teacher ratings were used to examine age and sex differences in behaviors associated with perceived coolness during middle childhood. Participants were 470 students in Grades 1, 3, and 5. Participants nominated peers whom they perceived as cool; separate scores were calculated for samesex coolness and cross-sex coolness (i.e.,…

Although the effect of physical and relational (i.e., traditional) victimization on psychopathology is established, the interdependent contribution of cybervictimization is unclear. We test a longitudinal path model theorizing that (a) children's physical and relational victimization in Grade 4 or 5 is associated with more cybervictimization…

The goal was to assess the role of children's social cognitions about peers in attitudes toward school. Because of gender segregation, we differentiated children's cognitions about same-gender and other-gender peers. We examined the influence of gender-based relationship efficacy for both own-gender and other-gender peers (GBRE-Own and GBRE-Other)…

Although relationship expectations are thought to influence all social interactions, little is known about the function of children's friendship expectations. This study examined the associations among children's friendship expectations and their behavior within their friendships, their friendship adjustment, and their socioemotional functioning.…

The present study examined the unique and joint effects of peer victimization and conflicts with teachers on student behavioral and affective engagement across the school year among a sample of 333 fifth- and sixth-grade students. Results first showed that peer victimization was not a significant predictor of students' affective engagement,…

The effects of guilt, shame, and externalization of blame on aggressive behavior were investigated among a total of 307 Finnish fifth and sixth graders (M[subscript age] = 11.9 years). Self-reported proneness to feel guilt and shame was expected to reduce levels of peer-reported aggressive behavior, whereas self-reported externalization of blame…

This study investigated the prospective association between moral disengagement and bystander behaviors in bullying situations, including both defending and passive bystanding. A diverse sample of Canadian school children (N = 130; 68 boys and 62 girls; mean age = 11.36 years) participated in a three-wave longitudinal study over a 4-month period.…

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…

Contextual differences in the association between different forms of aggressive behavior and victimization were studied with a sample of 197 boys and 149 girls from mixed-sex schools and in 336 girls from all-girl schools (M = 10.21 years of age) in two cities in Colombia. Results showed that boys generally engage in more physical than relational…

Children's relational schemas have been found to account for, and moderate, links between peer victimization and psychosocial difficulties. The present study extends this research by examining whether children's mental representations of their teachers' responses to students' peer harassment moderate associations between peer victimization and…

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…

Prior research has identified ways in which parents and teachers contribute to learned helpless responses to failure, but little is known about the role that interactions with peers might play. In this study, the conversations of fourth- through sixth- grade children and their friends were observed after children experienced an achievement-related…

Do contemporary families promote gender-differentiated or egalitarian attitudes and behavior surrounding mathematics? The current study examined mother-child interactions during mathematics homework as a microcosm of contemporary gender socialization. Results revealed individual differences in mothers' treatment of their fifth-grade sons and…

This study examined variation in friendship formation and friendship stability as a function of children's and their friends' victimization, overt aggression, and relational aggression. Participants were 605 pre- and early adolescents in fifth through eighth grades (M age = 12.05) assessed twice over a three-month period. Scores for stability and…