Patterns of Affiliation with Delinquent Friends During Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Correlates and Consequences

This study examined longitudinal patterns of affiliation with delinquent friends during late childhood and early adolescence, i.e., from ages 10 through 13, in a sample of 376 participants of both genders. Four groups with distinct affiliation profiles were found: an early affiliative group, a late affiliative group, a declining group (i.e., a group that affiliates with delinquent friends early on but much less so thereafter), and a group of children who did not affiliate with delinquent friends throughout the period covered in this study. There was also a fifth group of children who had no mutual friends throughout. The proportion of boys and girls varied in some groups but not in others. Participants’ own delinquency and depression trajectories as well as other behavior‐ , peer‐ , school‐ , and family‐related correlates were examined in association with group membership through the use of growth curves analysis. The results are discussed in light of prevalent theories about the role of delinquent friends with respect to externalizing and internalizing problems.     

Friendship and Gender Differences in Task and Social Interpretations of Peer Collaborative Problem Solving

Investigations of peer collaboration often vary task or social aspects of collaborative contexts and assume that these aspects of the context are experienced similarly by individuals. The present study examined how social aspects (group friendship and gender) of a peer collaborative context related to differences in adolescents' interpretations of task and social problems that occurred while collaborating with peers in a naturalistic classroom setting. Eighth-grade adolescents ( N = 82, 44 females) worked with peers on a six-week Spanish project at school. Adolescents chose to work primarily with same-gender peers and friends. Task and social interpretations of problems were assessed twice. The salience of task problems decreased over time; social problems became somewhat more salient. Social problems were less salient to females than to males. Greater group friendship was associated with the lesser salience of task problems early in the project. The salience of social problems, gender, and friendship were important for understanding performance on the project. The value of considering the context of peer collaborative problem solving from individuals' perspectives is discussed.     

Relations between close friendships and adolescent aggression: Structural and behavioral friendship features

Friendships have the potential to perpetuate or mitigate youth's aggressive behavior. We investigated concurrent and longitudinal effects of friendships on aggression by examining both structural (size and interconnectedness of the local friendship network) and behavioral (friends' aggression) friendship features. Participants were 868 sixth to eighth grade middle‐school students (M = 12.10 years; 49.9% girls; 44% Latina/o) who completed questionnaires at two time points. Participants nominated their friends; reciprocal friendship nominations were used to calculate structural friendship group features (size and interconnectedness). Peer nominations were also used to measure youth's and their friends' aggression. Having more reciprocal friends was associated with more aggression concurrently (particularly for youth whose friends were highly aggressive), and having an interconnected friendship group was associated with decreased aggression over time. Given that findings were different for group size and interconnectedness, we discuss the unique importance of each of these structural friendship features. Practical implications regarding the potential to decrease aggressive behavior based on specific friendship features are also discussed.     

Friendship and Delinquency: Selection and Influence Processes in Early Adolescence

Positive association of relevant characteristics is a widespread pattern among adolescent friends. A positive association may be caused by the selection of similar others as friends and by the deselection of dissimilar ones, but also by influence processes where friends adjust their behavior to each other. Social control theory argues that adolescents select each other as friends based on delinquency. Differential association theory, on the other hand, argues that adolescent friends influence each other's delinquency levels. We employ new statistical methods for assessing the empirical evidence for either process while controlling for the other process. These methods are based on ‘actor‐oriented’ stochastic simulation models. We analyze longitudinal data on friendship networks and delinquent behavior collected in four waves of 544 students in 21 first‐grade classrooms of Dutch secondary schools. Results indicate that adolescents select others as friends who have a similar level of delinquency compared with their own level. Estimates of the social influence parameters are not significant. The results are consistent with social control theory but provide no support for differential association theory.     

Maladaptive Peer Relationships and the Development of Relational and Physical Aggression During Middle Childhood

This study examined the unique roles of peer rejection and affiliation with aggressive peers in the development of relational and physical aggression in a sample of 979 2nd through 4th grade children. Information about target children and their best friends’ aggression and peer rejection was gathered via peer‐nominations when the majority of children were in the 3rd grade, and again approximately one year later. Friendships were identified by having target children nominate their three best friends in their classroom. Path analyses conducted with children who had at least one reciprocated friendship revealed that peer rejection and friends’ aggression predicted changes in target children's aggression; however, the patterns of relations varied by gender and form of aggression. Higher initial levels of rejection and friends’ relational aggression predicted increases in relational aggression among girls only, whereas rejection and friends’ physical aggression predicted increases in physical aggression among boys and girls. The significance of these results for the application of peer influence theories to relational aggression, and to females, is discussed.     

Children's Observed Interactions With Best Friends: Associations With Friendship Jealousy and Satisfaction

This study examined the role of friendship jealousy and satisfaction in nine‐year‐old children's observed interactions with their best friends. One hundred five dyads (51 female, 54 male) participated in a 30‐min closed‐field observational setting and reported their jealousy and satisfaction within the friendship. The Actor–Partner Interdependence Model was used to estimate the effects of friendship jealousy and satisfaction on children's own and their friends' behavior. Friends were highly similar in observed behavior and friendship characteristics. Many observed dyadic behaviors were associated with overall levels of jealousy within the friendship, but differences in friendship satisfaction were only predictive of conflict resolution in boys. Children's reports of their friendship jealousy were strongly related to their own behavior in the dyad and the behavior of their best friends. Gender differences were discussed. The results further illustrate the importance of a dyadic perspective on friendship interaction.     

Young Adolescents' Patterns of Involvement with Siblings and Friends

We identified different patterns in young adolescents' experiences with their siblings and their friends and investigated the connections between these relationship patterns and both young adolescents' psychosocial functioning and the characteristics of their family and neighbourhood contexts. Participants were 141 families, including mothers, fathers, young adolescents (M = 11.4 years), and their younger siblings (M = 8.3 years). Cluster analysis revealed three groups of young adolescents: (1) high intimacy and involvement with sibling, high intimacy with friend but low involvement with friends ('Differentiated'); (2) high intimacy and involvement with friend but not sibling ('Incongruent'); and (3) low involvement and intimacy with both sibling and friend ('Congruent'). The Congruent pattern was associated with young adolescents' personal characteristics and their parent-adolescent relationship experiences. In contrast, the Incongruent and Differentiated profiles were linked to contextual factors (i.e., family and neighbourhood resources). Findings suggest that individual differences exist in the associations between young adolescents' relationships with siblings and friends.     

The role of interactions with teachers and conflict with friends in shaping school adjustment

Fifth grade children (N = 346) identified school friends and reported on levels of conflict in relationships with these friends as well as perceived stress in relationships with teachers. Teachers and children provided ratings of problem behaviors at school, and children reported on their own perceptions of stress at school. Both less conflictual school friendships and less stressful relationships with teachers were linked with fewer feelings of stress and lower levels of problem problems at school. For the problem behaviors outcome, having more positive relationships with one set of others (teachers or friends) buffered children from experiencing negative consequences of poor relationships with the other set of individuals. The interaction effect involving friendship conflicts and stressful teacher interactions in relation to school stress was more complicated, differing for boys versus girls.     

Links between friends’ behaviors and the emergence of leadership in childhood: A genetically informed study of twins

Using a genetically informed design, this study examined whether children's leadership behavior varied as a function of their reciprocal friends’ behavioral characteristics. Specifically, we tested (a) whether friends’ use of a dual strategy (specifically, indirect aggression with prosocial behavior) was associated with children's leadership behavior and (b) whether, in line with a gene‐environment interaction (GxE), the predictive association between friends’ behaviors and children's leadership behavior varied depending on the child's genetic likelihood for leadership. The sample comprised 239 Monozygotic and same‐sex Dizygotic twin pairs (50% boys) assessed in grade 4 (mean age = 10.4 years, SD = 0.26). Reciprocal friendship and children's and their friends’ prosocial, indirectly aggressive, and physically aggressive behaviors were measured via peer nominations. Children's and friends’ leadership was measured through teacher ratings. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that children's genetic likelihood for leadership was positively associated with their leadership behavior. Moreover, the higher their genetic likelihood for leadership, the more children displayed increased leadership behavior when friends showed a combination of indirect aggression and prosocial behavior (GxE). These results underline the role of friends’ behaviors in explaining children's leadership. Socializing with bistrategic friends seems to foster leadership skills especially in children with a genetic likelihood for leadership.     

Concepts of Real and Imaginary Friendships in Early Childhood

This investigation focused on the friendship concepts of pre‐school‐aged children. Eighty‐four 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children responded to questions about social provisions, or benefits of relationships, available from reciprocal friends (both children in a pair nominate each other as friends), unilateral friends (one child nominates the other), non‐friends (neither child of a pair nominates the other), and imaginary friends (for those who had them). Results indicated that reciprocal and imaginary friends were the best sources of social provisions, followed by unilateral friends and non‐friends. Major implications are that children draw distinctions between reciprocal and unilateral friends based on the levels of social provisions available in these relationships, and that relationship schemas underlying relationships with imaginary companions may be akin to those for reciprocal friends. Children's friendship schemata may also differ by gender, as girls discriminated more than boys between reciprocal and unilateral friends for the social provision of companionship.     

Adolescents' Sibling Relationship and Friendship Experiences: Developmental Patterns and Relationship Linkages

The goal of this study was to compare developmental changes in adolescents’ relationship experiences with their siblings versus with their best friends and to determine whether individual differences in adolescents’ sibling experiences were associated with differences in friendship experiences. Participants included 179 firstborn‐secondborn adolescent sibling pairs (N = 358). At the onset of the study, firstborns averaged 15 years of age, and secondborns, 12.5 years of age. Siblings were interviewed individually about their relationship experiences during home interviews each year for three consecutive years. Analyses focused on two relationship dimensions: emotional intimacy and control. Adolescents reported more intimacy with friends than with siblings and more control with siblings than with friends. In the face of these overall patterns, developmental changes in both firstborns’ and secondborns’ reports of intimacy differed across relationships, with sibling intimacy increasing and friendship intimacy decreasing; declines were evident in these two relationships in the case of control. Associations between sibling and friendship experiences were more apparent for control than for intimacy and for secondborns as compared to firstborns. Discussion focuses on the conditions underlying connections between adolescents’ interpersonal relationship experiences.     

Friends in high places: A dyadic perspective on peer status as predictor of friendship quality and the mediating role of empathy and prosocial behavior

Friendships and peer status play important roles in the social landscape of adolescents and are related to developmental outcomes. Yet, how peer status is related to friendship quality and what role social skills play in this association remains unclear. In this study, we use Actor–Partner Interdependence (Mediation) Modeling (Ledermann, Macho, & Kenny, 2011 ) to investigate how two forms of peer status, preference and popularity, are related to positive and negative friendship quality in mid‐adolescence. Results show that adolescents who are friends with more preferred (i.e., likeable) and popular adolescents report higher friendship quality. These partner effects were partially mediated by adolescents’ own prosocial behavior and their friends’ empathy levels. Higher levels of empathy of one's friend and one's own lesser preference for equity explained why adolescents were more satisfied in a friendship with highly preferred (i.e., likeable) adolescents. Interestingly, empathy was not a mediator for the link between friendship quality and popularity. These findings promote a better understanding of the interplay between different levels of social complexity (i.e., individual, dyadic and peer group level) in adolescence.     

Theory of mind as a mechanism linking mother–toddler relationship quality and child–friend interaction during the preschool years

Children's relationships with parents and peers have been examined as predictors and outcomes, respectively, of theory of mind (ToM). Yet, these two lines of inquiry have remained largely distinct. The current study bridges this gap. Mother–child coordinated interaction and attachment security (continuous rating) were assessed at 2.8 years (N = 128 dyads), ToM was assessed at 3.3, 4.8, and 5.4 years, and child–friend interaction was observed at 4.8 and 5.4 years. Controlling for child expressive language ability at 2.8 years, mother–child coordinated interaction predicted more complex child–friend play and less child–friend conflict via more advanced ToM. No indirect effects from attachment security to friendship quality via ToM emerged. Attachment group status (secure vs. insecure), however, moderated ToM‐friendship associations, such that (a) more advanced ToM predicted more socially complex play with friends, and (b) more conflict with friends predicted more advanced ToM, but only for children classified as secure.     

A longitudinal examination of power in sibling and friend conflict

This study examined use of power resources and power effectiveness during the process and outcome of focal children's disputes with their sibling and friend across early and middle childhood. Participants included 35/46 families; focal children (15 males, 20 females) were observed at the age of four (T1) and 3 years later at the age of seven (T2) at home. Sibling and friend conflict sequences were coded for power resources (coercive physical, coercive verbal, simple information, elaborated information, legitimate), immediate power effectiveness (attempt, success), and conflict outcome. Relationship effects indicated focal children employed coercive physical and legitimate power more with siblings whereas they used simple information power more with friends during the conflict process. Focal children were more effective using legitimate power with siblings than friends in the conflict process whereas information power was used more when focal children won conflicts with friends. Regarding developmental effects, focal children employed more coercive physical power at T1 than T2 and elaborated information power at T2 than T1. In contrast, focal children were more effective using information power and coercion when winning conflicts with friends at T2 than T1. Results highlight variability in children's use of power based on relationship partner and development.     

Examining family and school factors as predictors of delinquency: A study of juvenile offenders,at‐risk students,and low‐risk students in Malaysia

This study aims to examine family and school factors as predictors of delinquency among adolescents in Malaysia. A total of 101 juvenile offenders, 86 at‐risk students, and 92 low‐risk students were involved in this study. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of an adolescent being in a group of juvenile offenders or of being an at‐risk or low‐risk student, based on four predictor variables: family structure, family relationships, school relationships, and commitment to learning. The results show that family relations, school relations, and commitment to learning have different predictive effects on the likelihood of different levels of delinquent behavior. However, family structure is not found to be a significant predictor in the logistic regression in this study. The findings of the study suggest that keeping young people in school can serve as a strong protective factor that serves to prevent at‐risk students from moving along the trajectory of serious delinquent behaviors.     

Halo and association effects: Cognitive biases in teacher attunement to peer‐nominated bullies,victims, and prosocial students

This study examined whether teachers’ perceptions of students’ behavior (referring to halo effects) and the behavior of teacher‐perceived friends (referring to association effects) influenced teachers’ ability to recognize students identified as bullies, victims, and prosocial by their peers. Data came from 1,458 children (M_age = 10.5, 47.5% girls) and 56 teachers (M_age = 40.8, 66.1% females). Perceived likeability was associated with decreased odds and teachers’ perceptions of popularity and externalizing behavior were associated with increased odds for teacher attunement to bullying. Perceived likeability and affiliation were associated with decreased odds for teacher attunement to victimized students. Teachers’ perceptions of externalizing behavior were associated with decreased odds, whereas teachers’ perceptions of affiliation and academic competence were associated with increased odds for attunement to prosociality. Finally, a positive association was found between teacher attunement and the average behavior of teacher‐perceived friends for bullying, victimization, and prosociality.     

“The chug is coming through!” “There's two chuggas!”: A longitudinal study of the social function of imitation in children's play with siblings and friends

Imitation is argued to have an important affiliative function in social relationships. However, children's tendency to imitate different play partners during naturalistic play and associations with social understanding have been overlooked. We investigated the frequency and context of imitation in a longitudinal study of 65 focal children (T1: M age = 56.4 months, SD = 5.71) during play with their older or younger sibling and a friend in two separate play sessions. Children were observed again approximately 3 years later (T2: n = 46, M age = 94.6 months; SD = 6.6). We coded focal children's verbal and nonverbal imitation of their play partner, their partner's response to being imitated, the context in which imitation occurred (e.g., pretense), and the focal child's social understanding (i.e., mental state references). Verbal imitation occurred more often than nonverbal imitation and was used most often during the contexts of play negotiations and pretense. Although focal children's imitation of both their siblings and friends increased significantly over time, children imitated friends more than siblings at T1. All play partners responded positively (i.e., smiling, laughing) most often to being imitated. Associations between focal child imitation and mental state talk with friends at T2 approached significance. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of the nature of imitation during children's play interactions and support assertions that imitation is a process whereby children build affiliation, mutuality, and shared meanings in their relationships.     

Gender and friendship: relationships within peer groups of young children

We examined the influences of developing gender segregation on children's friendship maintenance in a longitudinal sample of 40 (17 girls) children who began their peer group experiences as infants. Friendships were behaviorally identified and social interaction was observed and rated six times between average age 16.3 months and average age 49.1 months. The proportion of cross-gender friendships increased with age only when children formed friendships outside of the core group of peers with whom they had begun infant care. Girl-girl and cross-gender friendships were more likely to be maintained than boy-boy friendships. Cross-gender friends tended to be similar in gregariousness in both toddler and preschool periods, similar in hostile aggression as toddlers, and similar in withdrawn behavior as preschoolers. Same-gender friends were not similar in social interaction style. Social skill similarity was generally more important as a basis for friendship in the toddler periods than in the preschool periods. However, cross-gender friends tended to be similar in social skills throughout both the toddler and preschool periods.     

Relational Aggression in Peer and Dating Relationships: Links to Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment

We examined the contribution of relational aggression in adolescents' peer and dating relationships to their psychological and behavioral adjustment. In the Fall and again four months later, 1279 (646 female) grade 9 students reported on relational aggression perpetration and victimization in their romantic and peer relationships, depression/anxiety symptoms (psychological adjustment) and delinquency (behavioral adjustment). Using hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for Time 1 adjustment/behavior, peer relational aggression perpetration predicted depression/anxiety. Dating relational victimization also predicted depression/anxiety, but only for girls. Furthermore, girls who were perpetrators of relational aggression in both peer and dating contexts were most likely to show increases in delinquent behavior. We conclude that dating and peer relationships are not redundant, but make independent and additive contributions to adolescent adjustment. Girls, in particular, may be at greatest risk for poor outcomes when they have relationally aggressive relationships. Results also highlight the need for greater awareness of the complexity and significance of adolescent dating relationships.     

Developmental Trajectories of Social Justice Values in Adolescence: Relations with Sympathy and Friendship Quality

This study examined developmental trajectories of social justice values (SJV) in a representative sample of Swiss adolescents (N = 1258) at 15 (Time 1), 18 (Time 2), and 21 years of age (Time 3). SJV and friendship quality were measured via self‐reports. Sympathy was assessed via self‐ and mother‐reports. Latent class growth analysis revealed three developmental trajectories of SJV: high‐stable (80 percent), moderate‐decreasing (17 percent), and low‐increasing (3 percent). Adolescents with low levels of self‐ and mother‐reported sympathy were more likely to be members of the low‐increasing than the high‐stable or moderate decreasing trajectory groups. Adolescents who reported low levels of sympathy and friendship quality at 15 years of age were more likely to be members of the moderate‐decreasing trajectory group than the high‐stable trajectory group. Results are discussed with respect to the potential significance of sympathy and friendship quality for understanding the development of SJV during adolescence.