Inter-ethnic friendship and negative ties in secondary school

This paper investigates several different aspects of inter-ethnic relationships. It focuses on friendships and negative ties between secondary school students from different ethnic backgrounds, introducing and measuring two different aspects of ethnicity: self-declared ethnicity, and ethnicity based on peer perception. These are first applied separately and then together on a sample of secondary school students in Hungary consisting of two ethnic groups: Roma and non-Roma Hungarian (N = 420). Friendships and negative ties are modelled using cross-sectional exponential random graph models for sixteen classrooms separately, and then individual models are summarized using meta-analysis. Based on the social identity approach, we predict that inter-ethnic friendships are less likely, and negative ties are more likely, than those within ethnic groups; and that majority students reject their minority peers more than the other way around. Moreover, minority students are expected to exclude those whom they perceive as minorities, but who, at the same time, identify with the majority group, since these classmates might seem to them as “traitors” of their “original” ethnic group. Results mostly confirm our hypotheses, emphasizing the role of perceived ethnicity: majority students tend to dislike peers whom they perceive as minorities, regardless of these peers’ self-declared ethnicity; on the other hand, minority students are likely to send friendship nominations towards their perceived minority classmates if these also declare themselves as minorities, but, as predicted, negative nominations if these declare themselves as majorities. This supports our general idea that different ethnicity aspects might influence friendships and negative ties in different ways, and inconsistencies in someone's ethnic categorization might play an important role in social rejection.     

Substance Use,Distress, and Adolescent School Networks

This study examined the associations of substance use, psychological distress, and mental health services receipt with the structure and content of adolescent school‐based networks. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we found that substance use was associated with receiving more, but making fewer, peer nominations. It also was associated with less favorable network characteristics, such as low GPA. Services receipt was associated with receiving and making fewer nominations, less favorable network characteristics, and a lower likelihood of reciprocated best friendships. Psychological distress had fewer significant associations. All associations were modest in magnitude. Our results suggest the importance of considering multiple indicators of socioemotional problems and multiple dimensions of social networks in research on adolescent peer relations.     

Effects of Classroom Composition on the Development of Antisocial Behavior in Lower Secondary School

Early adolescence is a critical period during which classroom composition may affect behavioral development. This study investigated whether classmates’ levels of aggression and delinquency influenced individual antisocial behavior during the first year of secondary school. At this point, students had just transitioned to a new classroom peer environment. A short‐term longitudinal design with four measurement points distributed across the school year was applied. Data were collected from the anonymous self‐reports of 825 seventh graders. Longitudinal negative binomial multilevel analyses revealed that classmates’ antisocial behavior influenced pupils’ behavioral development (other peer influences were controlled). Furthermore, classroom behavioral heterogeneity moderated the peer effect regarding delinquency but not aggression.     

What Protects Rejected Adolescents From Also Being Bullied by Their Peers? The Moderating Role of Peer‐Valued Characteristics

Adolescents rejected by peers are often targets of bullying. However, peer rejection is not a sure path to victimization. We examined whether characteristics valued by peers (i.e., attractiveness, wealth, academic, and athletic ability) moderated the relationship between peer rejection and victimization. We predicted rejected adolescents high on peer‐valued characteristics (PVCs) would receive fewer nominations for being victimized than adolescents with lower levels. Canadian students in Grades 6–10 (N = 549; M_age = 13.32, SD = 1.50) provided peer nominations for peer victimization, rejection, attractiveness, wealth, and academic and athletic competence. As hypothesized, each PVC moderated the relationship between peer rejection and peer victimization. No sex differences were found. This study demonstrates the buffering effects of nonbehavioral characteristics valued by peers.     

香港中学生滥用药物:危险因子、保护因子与抗逆力

在探讨香港中学生的滥用药物情况时考虑其与危险因子及保护因子的相互关系,学生的抗逆力,对危险因子及保护因子的相互作用至关重要。实证研究发现,价值观及自我效能均对滥用药物有显著的负相关;家庭、学校及朋辈等支持因子对滥用药物有显著的负相关,尤以学校支持的负相关最为显著;答题者的心身焦虑症状、朋辈影响及学习压力等危险因子均对滥用药物有显着的正相关,尤以朋辈影响的相关性最为显著。整体来说,危险因子与滥用药物在加入价值观和自我效能等变项后,有轻微的正面力量,有助减少中学生滥用药物。     

Social Causes and Consequences of Rejection Sensitivity

Predictions from the Rejection Sensitivity (RS) model concerning the social causes and consequences of RS were examined in a longitudinal study of 150 middle school students. Peer nominations of rejection, self‐report measures of anxious and angry rejection expectations, and social anxiety, social withdrawal, and loneliness were assessed at two time points. Results indicate that peer rejection at Time 1 predicted an increase in anxious and angry expectations of rejection at Time 2, but only for boys. Being liked by peers, irrespective of level of dislike, predicted a reduction in anxious rejection expectations in both boys and girls. Further, anxious expectations of rejection were uniquely predictive of increased social anxiety and withdrawal. Angry expectations of rejection, an established unique predictor of increased aggression, predicted decreased social anxiety. Both anxious and angry expectations predicted increased loneliness, but neither were unique predictors of loneliness. Implications of viewing anxious and angry expectations of rejection as distinct cognitive–affective vulnerabilities for adolescents are discussed.     

Adult‐Directed and Peer‐Directed Respect for Authority: Relationships With Aggressive and Manipulative Behavior

This study investigated whether respect for adult and peer authority are separate attitudes which have distinct relationships with aggressive and manipulative behavior. Items assessing admiration for and obedience toward parents, teachers, popular students, and friend group leaders were administered to 286 middle school students (M age = 12.6 years). Factor analysis revealed two primary factors which corresponded to adult‐directed and peer‐directed respect orientations. Results suggested that adult‐directed respect was associated with lower levels of aggression and social manipulation, whereas peer‐directed respect was associated with higher levels of these behaviors. The role of peer‐directed respect as a risk factor for negative social behavior in adolescence is discussed.     

Adolescents’ Perceptions and Standards of Their Relationships with Their Parents as a Function of Sociometric Status

This study examined adolescents' cognitions of their relationships with their parents as a function of sociometric status. The adolescents' subjective views of their relationships with their mothers and fathers were assessed with respect to seven relationship qualities (general warmth, displays of warmth, intimate self‐disclosure, parental monitoring, conflict, instrumental aid, and provisions of autonomy) across two cognition types: perceptions (beliefs about “how things are”) and standards (beliefs about “how things should be”). The participants were sixth‐, eighth‐, tenth‐, and twelfth‐grade students. Peer sociometric status was determined based on unlimited peer nominations completed by 462 participants. The 190 adolescents classified as average, popular, or rejected were included in the analyses. Perceptions and standards were shown to be distinct but related cognitions. Rejected adolescents differed from their more accepted peers in their perceptions of relationships with both mothers and fathers, specifically with regard to warmth from both parents and autonomy from mothers. Rejected adolescents also reported lower standards for parental monitoring and a range of support qualities from both parents. In addition, rejected adolescents' reports demonstrated greater perception‐standard discrepancies, indicating unmet standards. Overall, sociometric status group differences were more pronounced and consistent for standards than for perceptions, and most status group differences occurred primarily among older adolescents. Findings are discussed in terms of social cognitive patterns associated with peer rejection and developmental changes in family–peer linkages across adolescence.     

Teachers bullied by students: forms of bullying and perpetrator characteristics

The focus of this study is on the forms in which the bullying of school teachers by students manifests itself, the characteristics of the students who engage in the bullying, and the manner in which the students who engage in bullying behave in their own peer relationships. The data was gathered from primary and lower secondary school teachers by means of an Internet survey. The answers of 70 teachers who had experienced bullying by their students are examined. The teachers had been exposed to different forms of bullying by students. They had typically been bullied by male students. In most cases, the bullying had been perpetrated by an individual student or a small group of students. According to the teachers' assessment, the majority of the students who bullied them also bullied their fellow students.     

‘Your whole life depends on it’: academic stress and high-stakes testing in Ireland

International research consistently shows that high-stakes exams are a significant source of stress and worry for students within secondary education. Existing research focuses on individual variation in exam-related stress levels among students with very little attention given to the influence of school context on student stress. Using data from the Irish Post-Primary Longitudinal Study, a mixed methods study of secondary students, this paper examines both individual and school level factors influencing the levels of stress among students preparing for the nationally standardised Leaving Certificate examination. The paper presents new findings which highlight the potential role of schools in ameliorating student stress. Findings show that student stress is not only influenced by individual-level factors but that certain aspects of the schooling process impact on stress levels. In particular, the quality of student–teacher interaction and peer relations within the school are found to have a significant impact on student stress levels. Students with more positive interactions with their teachers have lower stress levels with higher stress levels among those who have experienced bullying from peers. Stress is also influenced by programme choice at upper secondary level and the extent to which students are facilitated in their choice of subjects.     

Friendless Adolescents: Do Perceptions of Social Threat Account for Their Internalizing Difficulties and Continued Friendlessness?

Adolescents who lack friends at school are at risk of internalizing difficulties. This study examined a social‐cognitive mechanism underlying friendlessness and internalizing difficulties (i.e., depressive symptoms, social anxiety, low self‐esteem). We tested whether perceived social threat (i.e., peer victimization, sense of unsafety, and peer misconduct) mediates the association between friendlessness and increased internalizing difficulties across middle school. Latent variable structural equation modeling was used to test the model among an ethnically diverse sample of 5,991 (52% female) adolescents. The results demonstrate that friendless sixth‐grade students perceived their school environment as more threatening by seventh grade, which in turn, increased internalizing difficulties from sixth to eighth grade. Perceptions of threat also predicted friendlessness at the end of middle school.     

Fighting words? Joning as conflict talk and identity performance among African American preadolescents

This study examines how preadolescent African American students in Washington, D.C., used a linguistic practice called ‘joning,’ a style of verbal play similar to ritual insults, in peer interactions. Sociolinguists have focused on how children socialize each other into vernacular styles appropriate for peer group use but often assume that they disalign with social and linguistic norms for classroom behavior. Drawing from a nine‐month ethnographic study that the author conducted in an after‐school program, this article analyzes the structure and function of joning as a vernacular style of African American Vernacular English and its uses in constructing classroom identities. Joning often facilitated student learning, but it was perceived as a socially and physically risky linguistic practice because of its uses as conflict talk in the local community. Focusing on preadolescence as a key stage of language socialization, this article shows how minority students modify peer‐learned linguistic practices to pursue academic success on their own terms.     

Friendship Influences During Early Adolescence: The Special Role of Friends' Grade Point Average

This study examines how a wide variety of diverse friendship group attributes affect changes in indicators of school performance, social behavior, and mental health between early seventh and late eighth grade. Nine hundred and one middle school students named their friends. Independent data from these friends were used to construct friendship groups that were then characterized in terms of their mean level on measures of academic performance, social behavior, psychological closeness, and structure. Two novel conclusions emerge from the study. First, nearly all the friendship effects are domain‐specific. That is, peer attributes in the school domain affect individual school performance outcomes, while peer attributes in the social behavior domain affect individual social behavior. Second, friends' grade point average (GPA) is the most powerful single friendship attribute. It has the largest total effect, the most consistent effects within its own school performance domain, and the sole reliable cross‐domain impact—on an index of negative social behavior that taps into acting out and drug use. The within‐domain peer effects mostly replicate past findings, though the methodological controls used here are more extensive than in past studies and so provide a stronger causal warrant.     

Arenas of comfort and conflict: peer relationship events and young people's educational attainment

Previous research suggests that developments in young people's peer relationships may either compound or alleviate the adverse impacts of other major life changes during adolescence. We explored this proposition with respect to young people's educational attainment upon leaving high school, using longitudinal data from a large cohort of Australian secondary school students (n?=?1612) who have taken part in the Our Lives research study between the ages of 12/13 and 19/20 years. Our analysis focused on the role of peer relationship events such bullying, friendship problems, falling in love, and breaking up with someone. Bullying and romantic involvement were associated with lower odds of receiving a competitive tertiary entrance rank at the end of high school. However, close, resilient friendships – in which status and identity conflicts may be more easily tolerated and resolved – may help to offset the role of these other events. As well as reviewing the consequences of our findings for young people's educational and occupational trajectories in the longer-term, we highlight their implications for future research and policy in this area.     

Relationship between peer victimization and school adjustment in sixth-grade students: investigating mediation effects

Peer victimization is a common occurrence in school settings. This study investigated the relationship between peer victimization and school adjustment in a sample of 1,022 sixth-grade students. Measures used in this study include peer victimization, perceived peer non-support, school attachment, inattention problems, and academic achievement. Multivariate path analyses were conducted to test direct and mediation effects in the over-all model and to explore gender differences. The results provided support for the hypothesized model indicating that the relationship between peer victimization and school attachment is mediated by perceived peer non-support, and that school attachment is related to inattentive school behaviors and poor academic achievement. Paths indicated invariance across models for gender. Prevention and intervention implications of these findings are discussed.     

PEER EFFECTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: DOES THE FIELD OF STUDY MATTER?

Does the peer effect vary with the field of study? Using data from a middle‐sized public university located in southern Italy and exploiting the random assignment of first‐year students to college accommodation, we find that roommate peer effects for freshmen enrolled in the hard sciences are positive and significantly larger than for freshmen enrolled in the humanities and social sciences. We present a simple theoretical model which suggests that the uncovered differences between fields in the size of the peer effect could plausibly be generated by between‐field variation in labor market returns, which affect optimal student effort. (JEL I21, Z13, J24)     

Feasibility study for collecting alcohol and other drug use data among secondary school students: a web-based survey approach

This study examined the feasibility of using a Web-based survey to collect alcohol and other drug use data from secondary school students in an urban school district in the Midwest. A Web-based survey was self-administered by a random sample of 6th through 11th grade students in the spring of 2002. The final sample consisted of 1,536 secondary school students (781 women and 755 men). The sample was 57% White, 40% African American, and 3% from other racial and ethnic groups. Several indicators of data quality were examined including response rate, absenteeism, refusals, substantive data, and data processing time. The study achieved a response rate of 89.1%. The results of the present study provide evidence that a Web-based survey can be successfully implemented in an economically and racially diverse urban sample of secondary students. While researchers conducting survey research within secondary schools should consider using Web-based survey approaches, additional research is needed to compare Web-based surveys to more traditional approaches to collecting data.     

Developmental Outcomes of School Attachment Among Students of Mexican Origin

We used a longitudinal community study of 674 grade school children (Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8; 337 males, 337 females) of Mexican origin to examine outcomes of school attachment. Attachment to school is important in this population given the high level of school dropout rates of Mexican‐origin students. Results indicated that, on average, school attachment from fifth to sixth grade remains stable, but declines from sixth to eighth grade. Boys had lower levels of school attachment at fifth grade but followed similar patterns of change as girls did. Attachment to teachers, peer competence, school aspirations and expectations, and substance‐use cognitions emerged as longitudinal outcomes of level or changes in school attachment. Gender moderated associations of school attachment.     

Social Cognitive Factors,Support, and Engagement: Early Adolescents’ Math Interests as Precursors to Choice of Career

The authors examined the central hypothesis that students’ early perceptions of support and sense of engagement in math classes and math activities strongly influence the broadening or narrowing of their math interest. The focus was on the first wave of qualitative data collected from 5th‐, 7th‐, and 9th‐grade students during the 2007–2008 academic year as part of a longitudinal study. Findings indicate the importance of using group work and extrinsic motivation in middle school math classes to broaden interest; peer classroom behavior was often a detractor of math interest.     

Implicit and Explicit Peer Evaluation: Associations With Early Adolescents’ Prosociality,Aggression, and Bullying

Implicit and explicit peer evaluations were assessed among 120 early adolescents (56 boys, 64 girls; M age = 11.1 years). Explicit peer evaluations were round‐robin ratings of likeability; implicit peer evaluations were assessed with an approach‐avoidance task, also using a round‐robin design. Prosocial behavior, aggression, and bullying were assessed with a standard peer nominations procedure. Prosocial behavior predicted explicit positive evaluations given and received. Bullying and physical aggression predicted receiving explicit negative evaluations from peers. Implicit negative biases were found for girls but not boys. Relationally aggressive girls and bullying girls showed a negative implicit bias toward their peers. Possible implications for intervention are discussed.