Extant literature in developmental psychology has documented the co-occurrence of aggressive and affiliative behaviors with various measures of social dominance. While these findings have been taken ...as evidence for the functional value of aggression, they have not been integrated into a more general theoretical frame accounting for contextual variation. In this paper the literature on aggression, agonism, affiliation, and social dominance is reviewed in light of behavioral ecological theory suggesting that different forms of competition (scramble and contest) determine, respectively, the use of affiliative and aggressive strategies. Results generally support the hypotheses advanced by this theory. In order to further integrate these findings suggestions for the study sequences of behavior, where reconciliations follow aggression, are made.
Noting that school recess periods are one of the few times when children interact with their peers on their own terms--with minimal adult intervention--this book examines recess behavior and its ...social and pedagogical implications. In addition to studying spontaneous peer interaction among school children, the book addresses issues of: (1) the role of recess in schools and the curriculum; (2) educational outcomes of recess; (3) relationships between playground design and behavior; (4) and differences in playground behaviors across age and gender groups. The book concludes by noting that recess allows children to make choices regarding whom to interact with and how to socially negotiate interactions; builds a number of high-level cognitive strategies; and raises levels of motivation. Each of the book's 11 chapters contains references. (SW)
The processes by which children are classified as aggressive have important educational and research implications. For example, aggression in childhood reliably predicts dropping out of school and ...incarceration. The author argues that the sex-role stereotypicality of aggression produces bias in both observers and raters of student behavior. The tendency is to overattribute aggression to boys, relative to girls, resulting in questionable validity of assessments. The author reviews these issues, proffers some explanations (e. g., gender schema theory), and makes policy recommendations (e. g., foregrounding the importance of social competence as an educational outcome).
This study examined the effects of different recess timing regimens on preschoolers' classroom attention. Using cognitive immaturity theory, we predicted that attention to a classroom task would be ...greater after a recess break. We also examined the extent to which different recess timing regimens related to post-recess attention. Participants were 27 European American children (18 girls and nine boys; mean = 55.56 months, standard deviation = 4.01) from a northeastern US preschool. Observations were made in the classroom before and after recess and outdoors on the playground during recess. Findings revealed that post-recess attention was greater following sustained outdoor play periods. Gender differences emerged. Girls were more attentive to classroom tasks than boys were. Our findings support and parallel empirical findings with primary school children on the role of recess in children's cognitive performance. It seems reasonable that outdoor recess breaks rejuvenate young children and help them attend to classroom tasks.
The occurrence of bullying, victimization, and aggressive
victimization was documented in a sample of 5th graders. Bullies
comprised about 14% of the sample, whereas aggressive victims
and victims ...comprised, respectively, 5% and 18%.
Bullying and aggressive victimization was positively related to
youngsters' emotionality and activity and negatively related to peer
popularity. Although proactive and reactive aggression was related
to bullying scores within the group of bullies, only proactive
aggression was related to within-group popularity for bullies.
Having friends and being liked by one's peers were protective
factors against victimization, although the latter was more powerful
than the former. Suggestions for future research, school policy, and
intervention are made.
The ways in which children use objects is central to many theories of development, yet we lack systematic descriptions of the various ways in which objects are used across childhood. In this paper, I ...first describe the different forms of object use (i.e., exploration, construction, play, tool use and tool making) for males and females in childhood, then establish time budgets for each type of object use. Second, I make functional inferences about each form of object use and the social contexts in which each is embedded. I suggest that putative functions of object play, specifically, may be related to children's discovery of novel uses for objects, as well as peer group centrality in abundant niches. These dynamics produce a connected social network in which object play and group structure might interact to spread novel ideas.
The ways in which objects were used by preschool children (
Homo sapiens
) was examined by directly observing them across one school year. In the first objective we documented the relative occurrence ...of different forms of object use and their developmental growth curves. Second, we examined the role of different types of object use, as well as novel and varied uses of objects, in predicting peer group centrality. Results indicated that noninstrumental object play was the most frequently observed category, followed by tool use, exploration, and construction; sex moderated the growth curve of children's exploration. Noninstrumental object play, not other types of object use, was significantly related to novel and varied object uses and only the latter category predicted peer group centrality. Results are discussed in terms of the social transmission of novel object use.
The hypothesis is tested that adolescent boys' (mean age of 12.8 years) intrasexual rough-and-tumble play (R&T) is used for dominance and intersexual R&T is used to establish heterosexual ...relationships. In Study 1, boys' observed R&T was related to both dominance and aggression. In the first half of the school year, R&T occurred primarily between males, possibly to establish dominance. In the second half of the year, both boys and girls engaged in R&T, possibly to establish heterosexual relationships. Counter to the hypothesis, observed aggression increased across the year. In Study 2, youngsters viewed taped R&T bouts in which they were participants or nonparticipants. Participant, more than nonparticipant, males saw R&T as related to dominance whereas participant, more than nonparticipant, females saw it as playful.
The three objectives in this longitudinal study were motivated by sexual selection theory. The theory specifies the role of sexually segregated groups and the effects of dominance in male groups and ...relational/indirect aggression in female groups for heterosexual relationships. Using a multi-method, multi-informant, longitudinal design we studied youngsters (
N=138) across their first two years of middle school. First, we examined the nature of change in segregation and dating popularity across two years during early adolescence. Second, a model derived from sexual selection theory is tested to explain the ways in which boys and girls are nominated for hypothetical dates (dating popularity). Third, we examined the role of “poke and push courtship” behavior in boys’ and girls’ dating popularity. Results indicate that although groups did not become more integrated with time, changes in peer group sexual integration co-varied dynamically with dating popularity. Secondly, dominance-related strategies were more important for boys than girls in dating popularity whereas indirect, or relational, aggression strategies were more important for girls than boys. Third, “poke and push courtship” behaviors did not influence peer group integration or dating.
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