Identifying Children's Peer Social Networks in School Classrooms: Links Between Peer Reports and Observed Interactions

Links between peer reports of social cluster membership and observed classroom interactions were examined in a sample of 72 children in 4^th grade and 7^th grade. All participating children in each classroom identified as many social clusters in the classroom as they could recall. Using the social‐cognitive map (SCM) procedure, these individual reports were aggregated to summarize the number of times a given child was nominated as being in the same social cluster as each of his or her classmates (i.e., a co‐nomination profile) and to identify the classmates in each child's social cluster. Extensive classroom observations allowed for a parallel summary of the number of times a given child was observed to interact with each of his or her classmates (i.e., an interaction profile). Results indicated that correlations between conomination profiles and interaction profiles were positive and statistically reliable. Children were observed to interact with members of their SCM‐identified social cluster at a rate four times higher than with other same‐sex classmates. These effects did not vary reliably by grade, sex or aggressive risk status.     

The Road to Gang Membership: Characteristics of Male Gang and Nongang Members from Ages 10 to 14

This study examined the stability of belonging to a gang in early adolescence, the behaviour profiles, family characteristics, and friendships of nongang and gang members. The subjects in the present study were originally part of a larger sample of boys. One hundred and forty‐two boys who had a complete data set at ages 11, 12, 13, and 14 were selected for the present study. Loglinear analyses indicated that gang membership was stable from ages 13 to 14, but not at earlier ages. Boys were divided into three groups: stable gang members (children who belonged to a gang at ages 13 and 14); unstable gang members (children who belonged to a gang at either age 13 or 14) and nongang members. Repeated analyses of variance indicated that stable gang members had significantly higher scores than nongang members on teacher ratings of fighting behaviour, hyperactivity, inattention and oppositional behaviour, and self‐reported delinquent activities (drug and alcohol use, stealing and vandalism). Peers rated gang members as more aggressive than nongang members. The results are discussed from a developmental perspective.     

Developmental Changes in the Priority of Perceived Status in Childhood and Adolescence

This study examined the degree to which children and adolescents prioritize popularity in the peer group over other relational domains. Participants were 1013 children and adolescents from grade 1 through senior year of college (ages 6–22 years) who were presented with a series of social dilemmas in which attaining popularity was opposed to five other priorities: friendship, personal achievement, following rules, prosocial behavior, and romantic interests. A curvilinear trend was found for the priority of popularity that peaked in early adolescence. At this age especially, participants prioritized status enhancement over other domains. Across the age range of this study, males and majority students were more preoccupied with reputational status than females and minority students. The discussion focused on the developmental functions of reputational status in early adolescence.     

Predictors of Peer Victimization among Urban Youth

This study examined aggression and withdrawal as predictors of peer victimization. In addition, peer rejection was evaluated as both a moderator and mediator of these relations. The sample consisted of 1956 African-American, Hispanic, and White elementary school-aged boys and girls attending urban and inner-city schools that were classified as high or moderate disadvantage. Correlation and regression analyses revealed that aggression predicted both contemporaneous and longitudinal victimization by peers. This relation maintained across school disadvantage, ethnicity, age, and sex, andwas mediated by rejection. Withdrawal, mediated by rejection, predicted victimization for fourth graders only; withdrawal also reduced risk for victimization for low rejected children. The implications for understanding the dynamics of childhood victimization and intervention are discussed.     

Social Support Networks of African-American Children Attending Head Start: A Longitudinal Investigation of Structural and Supportive Network Characteristics

This study examined the stability and coherence of African‐American children's social support networks. Participants included a total of 106 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children attending Head Start centers located in the southeast. Children completed a social network interview in two consecutive years at the Head Start centers. These interviews tapped multiple dimensions of the support network including social embeddedness, proportion of the network providing support, and perceived support. Analyses focused on both the rank‐order stability of children with respect to network characteristics as well as stability of network relationships (the same individuals included in the network at both time periods). Results indicated age‐related increases in network size for adult and child categories, network size across three support domains, proportion of support scores, and perceived support from adults. In addition to age‐related changes, analyses revealed considerable rank‐order stability with respect to structural network dimensions, but very little rank‐order stability in proportion of support and perceived support scores. In contrast, both structural and supportive components of the children's networks were shown to be coherent over a one‐year period when specific network member relationships were examined. Discussion highlights both continuities and discontinuities in young children's social networks, and how data obtained in this study contribute to theory building and the systematic examination of African‐American children's emerging social networks.     

Characteristics of the Social Support Networks of Maltreated Youth: Exploring the Effects of Maltreatment Experience and Foster Placement

Little is known about the social support networks of maltreated youth or how youth in foster care may compare with those who remain with their parent(s). Social network characteristics and perceived social support were examined between (1) maltreated and comparison youth, (2) maltreated youth who remained with their biological parent, those with a foster parent, or a those with a kin caregiver, and (3) youth in stable placements and those who have changed placements. Data came from a sample of 454 adolescents (241 boys, 9–13 years old at enrollment) who took part in a longitudinal study of child maltreatment. Participants completed three assessments approximately 1 year apart. Results showed that on average, maltreated adolescents named significantly fewer people in their network than comparison adolescents. At Time 2, comparison adolescents reported more same‐aged friends. In the maltreatment group, youth with a foster parent reported significantly more older friends than maltreated youth with a kin caregiver. Fewer maltreated youth named a biological parent on the social support questionnaire at all three time points. More youth in kinship care described their caregiver as supportive than those in foster care. These findings indicate that despite heterogeneous placement histories, social support networks among maltreated youth were very similar.     

Perceptions of Gangs and Crews by Justice-Involved Youth and Implications for Best Practice Work

ABSTRACT

Gangs and crews are at center stage when discussing youth violence. According to client-centered best practices in the social service arena, distinguishing between gangs and crews is not important for developing a trusting relationship; yet these terms are a master status for those agencies aimed at enforcement and suppression. Social service providers must navigate these different landscapes, particularly in light of their increasing involvement in multistakeholder violence-reduction partnerships. However, the voices of youth themselves have been left out of the mix. Perceptions of youth identified as gang affiliated or at risk for gang membership are used to empirically investigate how these best practices tensions should be navigated by service providers. Semistructured interviews with 41 youth involved in an employment program show that crews are perceived as less violent and less dangerous than gangs, and youth actively resisted the gang label, even though there were no differences in criminal records between self-identified gang and crew members. Implications for the important role of service providers in providing client-centered services and bringing forward youth voices into collaborative partnerships are discussed, as are future research needs relating to linking youth voices to best practice work.     

Group Influences on Individual Aggression and Prosociality: Early Adolescents Who Change Peer Affiliations

The present study addresses the influence that group norms exert on individual aggressive and prosocial behavior. The study hypothesis is that for early adolescents who change their peer group affiliations, the characteristics of the group they are leaving (departing‐group influence) are not as influential as those of the group that they are joining (attracting‐group influence). From a larger sample of fifth and sixth graders who were followed over a one‐year period, 198 early adolescents were identified as those who changed peer group affiliations. Peer nominations on aggression, prosociality, social preference and popularity, and social network information were collected. Results confirmed that there were significant attracting‐ but not departing‐group influences on aggression and prosociality. Expected associations between aggression, prosocial behavior, and social status were confirmed. The discussion is framed around a social‐ecological perspective that emphasizes the short‐term adaptive nature of aggressive behavior in some peer groups and the need for considering social mobility when assessing group influence on individual behavior.     

Aggressive Behaviors in Social Interaction and Developmental Adaptation: A Narrative Analysis of Interpersonal Conflicts During Early Adolescence

Using conflict narratives reported by adolescents in grade 7 (mean age = 13.4 years), this study investigated the interactional properties and developmental functions of four types of aggressive behaviors: social aggression, direct relational aggression, physical aggression, and verbal aggression. A total of 475 participants from the Carolina Longitudinal Study ( Cairns & Cairns, 1994 ) were included. Results showed that the majority of conflict interactions involved more than a dyad. The use of social aggression (e.g., concealed social attack) was associated with more individuals involved in the conflict. Social aggression was primarily reported as an initiating behavior for interpersonal conflicts, while direct relational aggression was a responding behavior. Medium to high levels of reciprocity were found for physical, verbal, and direct relational aggression, whereas a low level of reciprocity was reported for social aggression. School authorities were most likely to intervene in physical aggression. The use of social aggression was associated with higher network centrality among adolescents. Developmental maladjustment in late adolescence and early adulthood was primarily predicted by physical aggression.     

Perceived social support among adolescents in Residential Youth Care

Social support may be of particular importance for vulnerable adolescents' development and health and can help them to cope with stressful life events. However, knowledge of perceived social support among adolescents in Residential Youth Care (RYC) is sparse. The present study therefore aimed to investigate perceived social support among adolescents in Norwegian RYC (N = 304, mean age 16.3 years, girls 57.2%), using a short form of the Social Support Questionnaire. The results were compared with adolescents in the general population. The findings revealed that adolescents in RYC reported a lower number of support persons compared with the general population. Both populations reported a decreasing number of support persons as they aged, except for girls in RYC. The adolescents in both populations were satisfied with the support perceived, especially those with the highest number of support persons. However, social support providers differed between the two populations; RYC adolescents reported their extended family, other sources of support, and the institutional staff more often and their parents less. The findings are important for adolescents living in RYC, as knowledge of their social support network could influence the current practices and ensure contact with important support persons, affecting their development and health.     

Social Context of Service Use Among Homeless Youth in Los Angeles,California

ABSTRACT

Little is known about rates and correlates of service use or the role that social context plays in service engagement among homeless youth. This study compares two distinct service areas and uses a social network approach to examine how environmental factors (e.g., neighborhood), social factors (e.g., social capital and network engagement) and individual level factors that relate to service use patterns among homeless youth in Los Angeles, California. A sample of 938 youth was recruited from three drop-in centers in two distinct service sites. Individuals were surveyed about their individual and social network attributes. Univariable and multivariable analyses were utilized to understand the influence of social-contextual variables on service use. Service use behaviors varied across site and service type with youth in Hollywood showing greater engagement than youth at the Beach site. Across both sites and several service types, staff emotional support was positively correlated with levels of service use. The site comparisons also point to the fact that even within a single geographic area, like Los Angeles County, client profiles and rates of service use can significantly vary. Future research needs are presented with specific emphasis on understanding the needs of non-service-seeking youth.     

Family and community support among older Chilean adults: the importance of heterogeneous social support sources for quality of life

Family and community social networks act as social resources that promote well-being at advanced ages. In this study, we analyze the association between social support received from personal social networks (social support from various family members and friends) and community social networks (social support from neighbors and the neighborhood, age, ethnic, or religious group peers and formal social support networks) and quality of life (QoL) for a sample of older Chilean persons (n = 777). The results confirm that social support from family (partner, children, and extended family) and friends, integration in the community (neighbors) and social support from informal systems (social groups) are associated with QoL. Moreover, the model including both types of support explains 25.8% of variance in QoL. The results and their possible implications are discussed.     

Mental Health and Social Exclusion among Unemployed Youth in Scandinavia. A Comparative Study

Although there has been considerable research on the relationship between mental health problems and unemployment among youth in a national context, there have been few comparative studies involving countries with different cultures and different levels of unemployment. Surveys in the five Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark) of nearly 8,000 young unemployed people enable us to study young peoples' experience of unemployment in a comparative perspective. Representative samples of unemployed youth were drawn from the national unemployment registers. In Sweden the sample consisted of 3,998 young people with a response rate of 63%, in Finland 2,386 (response rate 73%), Iceland 2,280 (response rate 60%), Denmark 1,540 (response rate 76%) and Norway 2,000 (response rate 56%). The data were later coupled to data from the unemployment register in the respective countries. The populations were interviewed 6 to 12 months after they were registered as unemployed.     

Aggressive and Prosocial Peer Group Functioning: Effects on Children's Social,School, and Psychological Adjustment

This study examined the effects of aggressive and prosocial contexts of peer groups on children's socioemotional and school adjustment. Data on informal peer groups, social functioning, and different aspects of adjustment were collected from multiple sources in a sample of elementary school children (149 boys, 181 girls; M age = 10 years). Multilevel analyses indicated that group aggressive and prosocial orientations made direct contributions to children's social, school, and psychological functioning. Group contexts also moderated the individual‐level relations between social behavior and self‐perceptions; prosocial behavior was associated with social or scholastic self‐perceptions more evidently in low prosocial and high aggressive groups. The results suggest that the peer group is an important context for children's performance and adjustment in various domains.     

Ability emotional intelligence and children’s behaviour in the playground

We explored whether emotion understanding promotes positive social functioning in childhood using the ability emotional intelligence (AEI) framework, which defines emotion understanding more broadly than is common in developmental science. The prospective study included children ages 9–11 years who completed a measure of AEI at the start of the school year, and whose playground interactions were observed for one full year. Findings showed that, among girls, low AEI was associated with higher levels of direct aggressive behaviour in the playground; boys and girls high or low in AEI were more likely than their peers to watch others during playground social interactions. Further, higher AEI was associated with indirect aggression in school, suggesting higher AEI during childhood may be associated with the developmental transition from direct to indirect forms of aggression. The implications of the findings for school practice in relation to the teaching of emotion understanding are discussed.     

The Relationship between Social Networks and Volunteerism among Seniors

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article was to examine the role of social networks in the fostering of volunteering as a social activity among older adults. Two different data sources were used. First, a secondary analysis was conducted of 2,057 Spanish respondents to the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, previously published in 2013. The features of the social networks of volunteers and non-volunteers (network structure, interaction and quality) were analyzed. Second, a questionnaire was administered to 152 older volunteers in Spain to determine the role played by social networks in the recruitment of older people to volunteer work by looking at which network members had suggested volunteering, among other variables. The analysis of the two datasets found that the low participation of older Spanish people in volunteering is related to the structure of their social networks. While the social networks of older Spanish people are mostly comprised of family members, recruitment to volunteering tends to happen through relationships with friends and acquaintances rather than relatives. Future research in this area should consider the impact of gender on the uptake of volunteering and address other issues such as the role of social networks in the benefits that people get from volunteering.     

Social Competence in Preschool Children: Replication of Results and Clarification of a Hierarchical Measurement Model

This study tested assumptions and conclusions reached in an earlier confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) study of the social competence (SC) construct for preschool children. Two samples (total N = 408; a new Portuguese sample and one from US samples that had participated in the original study) contributed data. Seven SC indicators were tested for mean differences across age, sex, and sample. Significant sex differences were found for peer acceptance (favoring girls) and for initiating affectively neutral interactions (boys had higher rates), and the sex by sample interaction also was significant for initiating interactions (i.e., effect significant only in the Portuguese sample). In CFAs, the hypothesized structure of SC fits the data and was invariant across sample and age within sample in both measurement and structural tests. The model was invariant at the measurement level for sex within sample tests, but not at the structural level. The results replicate and extend understandings of SC reported in the original study.     

Toddlers Assert and Acknowledge Ownership Rights

Two studies compared toddler owners and non‐owners of toys. Children of 24 and 30 months were supplied with toys and told that they were owners. In play with friends, owners were more likely than non‐owners to maintain possession, claim toys verbally (‘mine’), and non‐verbally, by attempting to regain their own toys in their friends' possession. Children communicated their ownership early in each episode and in preference to other information about the toys. Toddlers in both studies identified toys belonging to their friends and acknowledged their friends' ownership with possessive statements (‘yours’), and in Study 2, recognized the relationship between owners and their property by offering toys that their friends owned. In these ways, toddlers' actions were consistent with accepted ownership rights.     

Dyadic Analyses of Preschool‐aged Children's Friendships: Convergence and Differences between Friendship Classifications from Peer Sociometric Data and Teacher's Reports

Peer sociometrics and teachers' friendship reports were compared in 2179 preschool dyads. One hundred twenty of 306 reciprocated friend dyads from peer sociometric data were also identified as good friends by their classroom teachers, and 301 of 600 of non‐reciprocated dyads in peer data were named as friends by one or both classroom teachers (overall kappa = .16). Friendship classifications from both peer and teacher data had significant relations with variables relevant to peer interactions, social skills, peer acceptance, and teacher‐rated scales (six of seven tests significant for peer data; five of eight significant for teacher data). Multilevel analyses indicated that friendship status effects were not qualified by classroom‐level differences. Findings suggest that sociometric tasks can identify preschoolers' peer friendships and that the range of correlates may be broader in peer‐choice data than in teachers' friendship evaluations.     

吸毒人群社会支持网研究对重庆市南岸区戒毒所的调查

本文通过对重庆市南岸区戒毒所的调查,采用社会支持网分析方法,发现吸毒人员的社会支持网规模很小,吸毒网络具有秘密性和牢固性。其相识关系提供毒品支持,朋友关系和亲戚关系提供情感和经济支持。吸毒人员的吸毒年限、有抢劫和偷盗行为对注射吸毒行为和共用针头注射吸毒行为有明显的影响等一系列特征。