Anna-Beth Doyle

Developmental Patterns in Security of Attachment to Mother and Father in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Associations with Peer Relations

This study examined developmental differences in two dimensions of attachment security (parental availability and child dependency on parents) in late childhood (N = 274) and early adolescence (N = 267) and their association with peer relations. Childrens perceptions of mothers availability and boys perceptions of fathers availability did not differ as a function of age. Dependency on parents, however, decreased with age. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between parental availability and reliance on parental help when measuring attachment developmentally. Childrens reports of positive friendship qualities and lack of conflict in their best friendships were related to attachment to both mother and father, whereas the presence of a reciprocated friendship and popularity were not. Father availability was a particularly important predictor of lower conflict with best friends. Findings indicate that the quality of parent-child attachment generalizes primarily to the quality of childrens close peer relations.

Gender, Ethnic, and Body Type Biases: The Generality of Prejudice in Childhood

From a very young age, children show signs of prejudice. However, it is not clear whether those who are the most biased in one domain (e.g., gender) are also the most biased in other domains (e.g., ethnicity). This study addressed the issue using multiple measures of prejudice (negative bias) in 3 domains: gender (male, female), ethnicity-language (French Canadian, English Canadian), and body type (overweight, normal weight). The flexibility of attitudes (i.e., the belief that people from different categories can possess similar traits) was also assessed. A total of 254 children (127 boys, 127 girls) in kindergarten to Grade 6 participated. Children demonstrated clear biases against groups to which they did not belong, although attitudes became more flexible and prejudice declined somewhat with age. There was little predictive power across domains; that is, there was no evidence that prejudice represents a general characteristic that differentiates children.

Relation of Social Fantasy Play to Social Competence in Preschoolers

The relation of social fantasy play to several indices of social competence was examined in a sample of 91 preschoolers, aged 35 months to 69 months. Naturalistic observations of the frequency and complexity of social fantasy play during freeplay periods were collected. Competence measures included teacher ratings of social competence, popularity, social role-taking skills, and observations of social behavior. Multiple regression procedures were used to analyze the prediction of social competence from the fantasy measures, independent of age, sex, IQ, and frequency of social activity. The results indicated that the amount and complexity of fantasy play significantly predicted four of the competence measures: teacher rating of peer social skill, popularity, affective role taking, and a behavioral summary score reflecting positive social activity. Fantasy play was also found to be more positive, sustained, and group oriented than was nonfantasy play. Implications of these findings on the role of fantasy play and peer-peer activity in social-skill acquisition are discussed. Fantasy play during the preschool years has been hypothesized to exercise a leading role in the young childs growth and development (Bruner, 1972; Singer, 1973; Vygotsky, 1966). It has also been suggested that fantasy play in the context of a social interaction may lead to the development of socially relevant cognitive skills and a repertoire of competent social behaviors (Garvey, 1977; Smilansky, 1968). According to this view, participation in fantasy play with another child requires a high level of complex cognitive and social abilities. Sharing and cooperation, self-regulation of affect, and an appreciation of cognitive and behavioral role reciprocity are all important underlying skills. Social fantasy play is a unique

Parental and peer influences on children's racial attitudes☆

Abstract Two studies examined the hypothesis that children acquire racial attitudes from parents and friends. In the first study, the attitudes of third-grade White children, mean age 9 years, were measured with the Preschool Racial Attitude Measure and with the Multi-response Racial Attitude Measure; the children also predicted the attitudes of their parents on the latter. The perceptual differentiation within-race was assessed. Mothers completed the Katz-Hass attitude scale and the Linville differentiation measure. The results showed that, although children predicted parental attitudes to be similar to their own, the actual parent-child correlation was nonsignificant. However, the mothers differentiation was inversely related to her childs bias score on the PRAM. In the second study, children once again predicted friends attitudes to be similar to their own. However, only one of several indices of attitude yielded a significant subject-friend correlation; also one subject-non-friend correlation was significantly positive. In each case, the correlations were moderate (between .35 and .40). Thus, there is little support for the widespread assumption that children acquire their racial attitudes from parents and friends. However, parents might indirectly influence their childs attitudes through their view of outgroup members as homogeneous or heterogeneous. Explanations for the childrens expectations of similarity to parents and friends are offered.

Developmental Patterns in the Flexibility of Children's Ethnic Attitudes

Developmental patterns in ethnic attitudes were assessed in 232 children aged 5 to 12 years in relation to cognitive development and social desirability responding. English-speaking children assigned 10 positive attributes, 10 negative attributes, and 4 neutral attributes to either an English-speaking child, a French-speaking child, or both an English- and a French-speaking child, depicted by line drawings. Positive attributions to their own ethnic group and negative attributions to the other ethnic group were less frequent in older children. Flexibility of ethnic attitudes, that is, attributions to both groups, increased with age and were inversely related to positive own-group attributions and negative other-group attributions. High flexibility followed the attainment of concrete operational thinking, as measured by conservation but not by ethnic constancy. Flexibility was inversely related to Crandall social desirability responding and unrelated to childrens conformity to the experimenters attitude. These results indicate the importance of cognitive rather than social desirability factors in the development of childrens ethnic attitudes.

Assessment of social competence in preschoolers: Teachers versus peers.

The predictive validity and the reliability of a teacher-based ranking method of assessing popularity were compared with those of the traditional picture sociometric approach. In each of two studies, both popularity measures were administered in several day-care classrooms. Behavioral observations of social interaction and teacher ratings of social competence were also collected. Very hi^h reliability estimates were obtained for the teacher popularity measure, with lower estimates obtained for the picture sociometric measure^ In both studies, when validated relative to the social competence ratings and behavioral observations, the teacher popularity measure was a more effective predictor. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were computed in which social competence measures were regressed on the popularity measures, with age treated as a covariate. With age effects partialed out, teacher popularity entered the equation prior to sociometric popularity and was a significant predictor of social competence. The sociometric popularity measure did not significantly improve this prediction. These findings support the use of teacher rankings of popularity as a measure of social competence in the preschool. Peer group social competence in preschoolers is currently a topic of considerable developmental and clinical importance. The methodology by which to adequately assess this construct is not yet clearly established. A common approach is to use indices of peer group popularity based on the sociometric technique (Oden & Asher, 1977). Until recently, the most frequently used technique for obtaining such popularity data with preschoolers was the picture sociometric method developed by McCandless and Marshall (1957). Children are shown photographs of their classmates and are asked in a variety of ways to indicate the pictures of their preferred playmates. In addition, rejection scores may be derived by asking the child to indicate those children with whom they do not like to play. Two factors are regularly cited in support of the sociometric approach to the assess

The Socialization of Sex-Differentiated Skills and Academic Performance: A Mediational Model.

Using a multifactorial model, sex differences in academic performance were examined in a sample of 347 elementary school children. As expected, girls academic performance averaged higher than boys. Path analysis confirmed initial hypotheses that girls advantage is partially due to their characteristic of greater responsiveness to social cues and compliance with adult direction. This advantage was partially offset in this model by boys greater visual-spatial skill, which also was a predictor of academic success. Access to stereotypic masculine toys and activities at home was, for both sexes, a predictor of childrens visual-spatial ability. As expected, socioeconomic variables, including mothers occupation and fathers level of education, also influenced the environmental, social, and cognitive factors predicting academic success. These results indicate that boys and girls differential development of specific cognitive and social skills may play an important role in establishing sex differences in academic performance.

Negotiation and Enactment in Social Pretend Play: Relations to Social Acceptance and Social Cognition.

Pretend play with peers has been hypothesized to augment the social and social-cognitive skills of preschool children. Two alternative mechanisms for these effects are proposed: first, out-of-play negotiations with play partners about roles, object properties, and actions; and second, the actual enactment of pretend episodes. The frequency of negotiation and enactment of pretend was observed in 62 boys and girls during free play in three day care centers. The relation of these pretend components to each other and to indices of social acceptance by peers and affective role-taking were evaluated. Negotiation and enactment were positively correlated, and both predicted peer social acceptance. Enactment predicted peer acceptance independent of negotiation, but the reverse was not true. These findings indicate that pretend enactment was an essential feature of the observed relation between social pretend play and social competence and that negotiation skills were invariably practiced during such enactment. Thus, the value of providing preschool environments that encourage children to engage spontaneously in the enactment of pretend scripts is supported.

Perceived Similarity among Adolescent Friends: The Role of Reciprocity, Friendship Quality, and Gender.

Perceived similarity of personality in same-sex friends was examined in a sample of 124 adolescents (63 girls). Adolescents rated themselves and a nominated friend (n = 42 reciprocated, 82 non-reciprocated dyads) on developmentally relevant personality items assessing autonomy, prosociality, and responsive caregiving. Results from hierarchical linear modeling and multiple regression analyses generally supported predictions: Greater perceived similarity was marginally positively associated with more favorable ratings of friendship quality and significantly negatively associated with conflict ratings in the friendship. Adolescents in reciprocated friendships rated themselves as more similar in personality and more positive in friendship quality than did non-reciprocated dyads. A mediational analysis revealed that the association between reciprocity and perceived similarity was mediated by positive friendship quality. These findings suggest that reciprocated friends’ perceptions of being more similar in personality may in part be accounted for by their more favorable judgments of their friendship quality.

Friendship in Normal and Socially Deviant Children

The present study assessed whether groups of normal and socially deviant children differed in numbers of friends and popularity. Subjects were 844 children in grades 4 through 7. They were classified as aggressive, withdrawn, aggressive-withdrawn or nondeviant on the basis of a peer nomination sociometric, the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI). Friendship was defined as a reciprocated friendship nomination between two children. Popularity was measured by the likeability factor of the PEI. Correlations between numbers of friends and likeability scores were low, in particular in the older grades. With respect to PEI classification, aggressive-withdrawn children had fewer friends than aggresive and nondeviant children. Aggressive-withdrawn children also received lower likeability scores than children in other deviant and nondeviant groups. Subjects in grade 6-7 had more friends than subjects in grade 4-5, although the two age-groups did not differ on likeability. There were no sex differences in numbers of friends or likeability, although all children had more same-sex than opposite-sex friends. The distinction between friendship and popularity, and the classification and age differences in numbers of friends are discussed.