Because diverse school settings provide students with opportunities to form same‐ and cross‐group relationships with youth of various ethnicities and races, an important question arises: How are ...these opportunities taken up, and what are the developmental implications of doing so? Accumulating evidence suggests that these connections are beneficial to youth. Yet, we currently have a limited understanding of the specific peer mechanisms that produce these benefits. Addressing this gap requires adopting a relational perspective and using social network analysis (SNA) tools to characterize the theorized developmental mechanisms through which intergroup connections promote adolescent psychological and academic adjustment. To do so, we present an integrative account in which intergroup connections are viewed as developing and influencing adolescent outcomes in the context of broader peer networks. We then discuss the need to disentangle peer network selection from peer influence dynamics to provide an accurate account of multiple processes through which intergroup connections shape development and briefly explore how these goals are achieved by using statistical approaches to modeling of social networks. This review seeks to guide the next generation of research to more thoroughly test and refine the developmental theory and advance knowledge that will inform interventions to promote intergroup connections and their academic and socio‐emotional benefits.
Learning is socially constructed, influenced by the norms of the learning environment as well as the relationships within it. As higher education students continue to access their learning through ...online platforms during the pandemic, some find the experience stressful and intimidating. Higher education students develop four key relationships during their studies: to self, to teachers, to peers and to subject. Might the shift to online learning have impacted the development of these key relationships? And if so, could adjustments to the design of online learning help? Thematic analysis of student feedback about online learning provision (n=496) indicates peer relationships are disrupted by limited interactional opportunity during some online learning formats, and that the peer relationship plays a mediating role in the development of other key relationships. Problematic synchronous teaching formats are identified and mitigations suggested. These findings are of interest to all seeking to optimise the design and delivery of online learning.
Young adolescents with abusive mothers act abusively are at high risk of developing problematic smartphone use as a means of avoiding an unsatisfying reality and making connections with others via a ...smartphone (Kwak, Kim, & Yoon, 2018). This study is based on the following hypotheses: Mothers' abusive parenting predicts young adolescents' problematic smartphone use; and the relationship between mothers' abusive parenting and young adolescents' problematic smartphone use is moderated by trusting peer relationships and/or the amount of time spent hanging out with peers.
Participants consisted of 506 middle school students aged between 13 and 15 years in South Korea.
Using multiple hierarchical regression, the results reveal the effect of mothers' abusive parenting on adolescents' problematic smartphone use, and the moderating effect of the amount of time spent hanging out with peers on the relationship between abusive parenting and problematic smartphone use. Adolescents' perceived trusting peer relationships did not moderate the relationship between the two variables. These results indicate that forming at least a minimum quantity of peer relationship contributes to fulfilling the need to belong, thereby buffering the impact of mothers' abusive parenting on adolescents' problematic smartphone use.
•Mothers' abusive parenting predicts young adolescents' smartphone addiction.•Time spent hanging out with peers buffers the effect of mothers' abusive parenting.•Trusting peer relationships do not moderate the relation between study variables.•The frequency of positive affect through peer play works as a buffer.
This study sought to identify the various configurations, or profiles, of internalizing and externalizing behaviors found among a sample of youth with intellectual disabilities (ID). These behaviors ...were assessed twice over one year, using self, parental, and teacher reports. Six variables were hypothesized to predict profile membership: Parent-child relationship (i.e., warmth and conflict), student-teacher relationship (i.e., warmth and conflict), peer acceptance, and peer victimization. To this end, we conducted Latent Profile Analysis among a sample of 393 youth with ID (aged 11-22 years old) recruited in Canada (French-speaking; n = 142; 49.30% boys) and Australia (English-speaking; n = 251; 67.30% boys). Our results revealed five profiles: (1) Adjusted (13.48%), (2) Mild School-related Difficulties (34.38%), (3) Underestimation of Mild Difficulties (12.40%), (4) High Difficulties (19.45%), and (5) Internalizing Difficulties Unobserved at School (20.19%). These profiles, as well as profile membership, remained stable over time. Lower levels of student-teacher warmth, lower levels of peer acceptance, and higher levels of peer victimization were associated with a higher likelihood of membership into profiles characterized by above-average levels of psychosocial difficulties, especially self-reported. Based on these findings, future interventions addressing internalizing and externalizing behaviors could benefit from focusing on the school environment, notably peer acceptance and student-teacher warmth.
This study was designed to examine the prospective relations of perceived racial discrimination with allostatic load (AL), along with a possible buffer of the association. A sample of 331 African ...Americans in the rural South provided assessments of perceived discrimination from ages 16 to 18 years. When youth were 18 years, caregivers reported parental emotional support and youth assessed peer emotional support. AL and potential confounder variables were assessed when youth were 20. Latent growth mixture modeling identified two perceived discrimination classes: high and stable, and low and increasing. Adolescents in the high and stable class evinced heightened AL even with confounder variables controlled. The racial discrimination to AL link was not significant for young adults who received high emotional support.
We estimate the extent of ability peer effects and explore the mechanisms through which they operate. Using within-school variation in the proportion of low-ability students in Israeli schools, we ...find that the proportion of low-ability peers has a negative effect on the performance of regular students. An exploration of the underlying mechanisms show that, relative to regular students, lowability students report higher levels of satisfaction with their teachers. However, a higher proportion of low-ability students has detrimental effects on teachers' pedagogical practices and on the quality of inter-student and student-teacher relationships, and increases the level of violence and classroom disruptions.
Study aims were to: (1) evaluate the association between bully/victim profiles, derived via latent profile analysis (LPA), and changes in peer acceptance from the fall to spring of 7th grade, and (2) ...investigate the likelihood of friendlessness, and the protective function of mutual friendship, among identified profiles. Participants were 2587 7th graders; peer nomination and rating-scale data were collected in the fall and spring. Four profiles, including bullies, victims, bully-victims, and uninvolved adolescents, were identified at each time point. Findings showed that for victims, more so than for bullies and uninvolved profiles, acceptance scores worsened over time. Results further revealed that bully-victim and victim profiles included a greater proportion of friendless youth relative to the bully profile, which, in turn, contained a greater proportion of friendless adolescents than the uninvolved profile. Findings also provided evidence for the buffering role of friendship among all bully/victim profiles and among bully-victims especially.
•Latent profile analysis yielded bully, victim, bully-victim, and uninvolved profiles.•Victims’ and bully-victims’ peer acceptance scores worsened from fall to spring.•Bully-victim and victim profiles were most likely to be friendless.•Friendship appears to provide a buffering role for bully-victims especially.
The complex interplay between bullying/victimization and defending was examined using a longitudinal social network approach (stochastic actor-based models). The (co)evolution of these relations ...within three elementary schools (Grades 2-5 at Time 1, ages 8-11, N = 354 children) was investigated across three time points within a year. Most bullies and defenders were in the same grade as the victims, although a substantial number of bullies and defenders were in other grades (most often one grade higher). Defenders were usually of the same gender as the victims, whereas most bullies were boys, with boys bullying both boys and girls. In line with goal-framing theory, multiplex network analyses provided evidence for the social support hypothesis (victims with the same bullies defended each other over time) as well as the retaliation hypothesis (defenders run the risk of becoming victimized by the bullies of the victims they defend). In addition, the analysis revealed that bullies with the same victims defended each other over time and that defenders of bullies initiated harassment of those bullies' victims. This study can be seen as a starting point in unraveling the relationship dynamics among bullying, victimization, and defending networks in schools.
Due to the ongoing debate regarding the definitions and measurement of cyberbullying, the present article critically appraises the existing literature and offers direction regarding the question of ...how best to conceptualise peer-to-peer abuse in a cyber context. Variations across definitions are problematic as it has been argued that inconsistencies with regard to definitions result in researchers examining different phenomena, whilst the absence of an agreed conceptualisation of the behaviour(s) involved hinders the development of reliable and valid measures. Existing definitions of cyberbullying often incorporate the criteria of traditional bullying such as intent to harm, repetition, and imbalance of power. However, due to the unique nature of cyber-based communication, it can be difficult to identify such criteria in relation to cyber-based abuse. Thus, for these reasons cyberbullying may not be the most appropriate term. Rather than attempting to “shoe-horn” this abusive behaviour into the preconceived conceptual framework that provides an understanding of traditional bullying, it is timely to take an alternative approach. We argue that it is now time to turn our attention to the broader issue of cyber aggression, rather than persist with the narrow focus that is cyberbullying.
Early individual differences in prosocial behaviors are pivotal for children's peer relationships. To investigate the interplay among verbal ability, emotion understanding, and mother–child mutuality ...as predictors of prosocial behaviors, we observed 102 children at the ages of two, three, and four. All time points included verbal ability and emotion understanding tests and both video‐based and maternal ratings of prosocial behavior. The first two time points also included video‐based ratings of mother–child mutuality. The third time point included teacher ratings of prosocial behavior and an experimental task. Regression analysis demonstrated robust associations between emotion understanding at the age of three and prosocial behavior at the age of four. Path analysis showed that emotion understanding at the age of three mediated associations between verbal ability/mother–child mutuality at the age of two and prosocial behavior at the age of four.
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