Barry H. Schneider

Child-parent attachment and children's peer relations: a quantitative review.

The central premise of attachment theory is that the security of the early child-parent bond is reflected in the childs interpersonal relationships across the life span. This meta-analysis was based on 63 studies that reported correlations between child-parent attachment and childrens peer relations. The overall effect size (ES) for child-mother attachment was in the small-to-moderate range and was quite homogeneous. ESs were similar in studies that featured the Strange Situation and Q-sort methods. The effects were larger for peer relations in middle childhood and adolescence than for peer relations in early childhood. ESs were also higher for studies that focused on childrens close friendships rather than on relations with other peers. Gender and cultural differences in ESs were minimal. The results for the few studies on father-child attachment were inconclusive.

Social competence in developmental perspective

Section I Social Competence in Developmental Perspective: Conceptual Issues.- to Section I.- 1. Significance of Peer Relationship Problems in Childhood.- 2. The Role of Competence in the Study of Children and Adolescents Under Stress.- 3. The Nature of Social Action: Social Competence Versus Social Conformism.- 4. Individual, Differential, and Aggregate Stability of Social Competence.- What to Do while the Kids are Growing Up: Changing Instrumentation in Longitudinal Research (Conversation Summary).- 5. Socially Competent Communication and Relationship Development.- 6. Measuring Peer Status in Boys and Girls: A Problem of Apples and Oranges?.- Section II The Emergence of Social Competence in Early Childhood.- to Section II.- Friendships in Very Young Children: Definition and Functions (Conversation Summary).- 7. Communicating by Imitation: A Developmental and Comparative Approach to Transitory Social Competence.- 8. Co-adaptation within the Early Peer Group: A Psychobiological Study of Social Competence.- 9. Development of Communicative Competencies in Early Childhood: A Model and Results.- Section III Ongoing Social Development In Middle Childhood And Adolescence.- to Section III.- Examining the Impact of Social Behavior on Peer Status (Conversation Summary).- 10. Self-Perpetuating Processes in Childrens Peer Relationships.- 11. Types of Aggressive Relationships, Peer Rejection, and Developmental Conse quences.- 12. The Role of Rough-and-Tumble Play in the Development of Social Competence: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Evidence.- Section IV Setting Factors in Childrens Social Development: The Influences of Families and Schools.- to Section IV.- 13. Young Childrens Social Competence and Their Use of Space in Day-Care Centers.- 14. Childrens Social Competence and Social Supports: Precursors of Early School Adjustment?.- 15. Social Competence Versus Emotional Security: The Link between Home Relationships and Behavior Problems in Preschool.- 16. Maternal Beliefs and Childrens Competence.- Section V Translating Theory into Practice: Social Competence Promotion Programs.- to Section V Challenges Inherent in Translating Theory and Basic Research into Effective Social Competence Promotion Programs.- 17. Between Developmental Wisdom and Childrens Social-Skills Training.- 18. Enhancing Peer Relations in School Systems.- 19. Promoting Social Competence in Early Adolescence: Developmental Considerations.- 20. Appendix: Research Abstracts.

Relational Aggression, Gender, and Peer Acceptance: Invariance across Culture, Stability over Time, and Concordance among Informants.

It has been proposed that overt physical and verbal aggression are more prevalent among boys and that covert aggression in the context of interpersonal relationships is more typical of girls. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend American research on this topic to Italy. Italian elementary school pupils (n = 314) and their teachers provided nominations for aggression and prosocial behavior on 2 occasions within a single school year. Both peer and teacher nominations were highly stable, though there was very poor concordance between them. Peer nominations for both overt and relational aggression were linked to peer rejection. Contrary to expectations, boys scored higher than girls in both overt and relational aggression. Nevertheless, on the basis of the gender composition of extreme groups, the authors conclude that the distinction between overt and relational aggression is as useful in facilitating research on aggressiveness among girls in Italy as it is in the United States.

Didactic methods for enhancing children's peer relations: A quantitative review☆

Abstract A meta-analytic review was conducted of 79 controlled studies of childrens social skills training. The overall short-term effectiveness of social skills training was seen as moderate. Multiple regression analysis was used to partition the variance in effect size. Diagnostic description of the subjects contributed heavily to the prediction; withdrawn subjects respond better than aggressive youngsters and children not diagnosed as behaviorally atypical. Modeling and coaching techniques are associated with higher effect sizes than social-cognitive procedures or multitreatment packages, but training technique did not emerge as a significant predictor of outcome in the multiple regression analysis. Outcome varied considerably as a function of variable. Effect sizes were higher for indices of social competence (observed social interaction, peer- and self-report, social-cognitive skill) than for more peripheral variables (e.g., global self-concept, academic achievement). Effectiveness at follow-up, though still substantial, was lower than posttreatment indicators. There were few studies with follow-up measurement at posttreatment intervals longer than 3 months.

Bullying and the Big Five: A Study of Childhood Personality and Participant Roles in Bullying Incidents.

Research on the social context of bullying includes children who help the victim, assist the bully or remain outsiders. 96 children from two public schools in Central Italy were classified according to an Italian version of the Participant Role Scale (Sutton and Smith, 1999) as Defenders of the Victim, Outsiders, Victims or Pro-bullies. Teacher reports indicated Friendliness and Emotional Instability as the strongest distinguishing personality factors among the participant roles, followed by Conscientiousness and Energy. Higher levels of Emotional Instability and lower levels of Friendliness typified both Pro-bullies and Victims, relative to their peers. Victims were also low in Conscientiousness. Defenders exhibited high levels of Friendliness, whereas Introversion and Independence characterized Outsiders. These results suggest that personality traits might contribute to childrens typical behaviour in bullying situations.

A Multisource Exploration of the Friendship Patterns of Children with and Without Learning Disabilities

Friendship patterns of 117 children with learning disabilities (LD) and 115 children without LD in Grades 4–8 were examined. In comparison with children without LD, boys with LD had fewer mutual friends, children with LD had more friends with learning problems and more younger friends, and children with LD in Grades 4–6 had less stable relationships. With regard to friendship quality, children with LD reported higher levels of conflict, lower levels of validation, and more problems with relationship repair than did children without LD. The findings were discussed in terms of factors that have been found to enhance friendship such as proximity and similarity, and the social skills difficulties that have been associated with learning disabilities.

Revisiting the whole-school approach to bullying: Really looking at the whole school

The whole-school approach to bullying prevention is predicated on the assumption that bullying is a systemic problem, and, by implication, that intervention must be directed at the entire school context rather than just at individual bullies and victims. Unfortunately, recent meta-analyses that have looked at various bullying programs from many countries have revealed that whole-school interventions designed to combat bullying have had limited success in reducing bullying. The purpose of the present study was to establish more clearly the precise aspects of school climate that are linked specifically to the problem of bullying. We used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to analyse school-level effects in a data set consisting of 18,222 students from across France. For physical and verbal/relational bullying, the final models respectively explain 6% and 16% of the within-school variance, and 48% and 9% of the between-school variance, significant between-school effects, with the climate variables of school security and the quality of student-teacher relationships emerging as the strongest predictors.

A Multimethod Exploration of the Friendships of Children Considered Socially Withdrawn by Their School Peers

Friendships of children considered socially withdrawn by their school peers were investigated within a population of elementary school children. Reciprocal friends were identified by a friendship nomination procedure; social withdrawal was assessed by peer nominations. Trained graduate students rated videotapes of dyads of friends (n = 58 dyads, of which 29 contained at least one withdrawn child) for selected features of friendship quality. In addition, each friend within a dyad provided ratings of the quality of the relationship. The videotaped data showed the withdrawn children to be somewhat restricted in their verbal communication with their friends, and less competitive with their friends, than were friends in a comparison group. In dyads consisting of one withdrawn and one nonwithdrawn child, the withdrawn child perceived the relationship as characterized by greater closeness and helpfulness than did the nonwithdrawn friend. Despite some signs of inhibited behavior within the friendship context, withdrawn children seem to have access to close friendships of high quality.

Loneliness and Social Adaptation in Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese and Italian Children: A Multi-National Comparative Study.

BACKGROUND Research on childrens loneliness has been conducted mostly in Western, especially North American, cultures. The purpose of the study was to examine relations between loneliness and social adaptation among children and adolescents in four different societies. METHODS A total of 2263 children from grade 3 to grade 6, aged 9 to 12 years, in Brazil, Canada, P. R. China, and Southern Italy participated in the study. The participants completed a self-report measure of loneliness. Information about social behaviors and peer relationships was obtained from peer assessments. RESULTS Multi-group analyses revealed that the overall patterns of relations among social behaviors, peer relationships and loneliness differed across the samples. Specifically, sociability was positively associated with peer relationships and made negative indirect contributions to loneliness through peer relationships in all four samples. Aggression made significant indirect contributions to the prediction of loneliness in Chinese children, but not in other samples. Shyness-sensitivity was associated with loneliness directly in Brazilian and Italian children and indirectly through peer relationships in Canadian children, but not associated with loneliness in Chinese children. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that the nature of childrens loneliness may be affected by the broad socio-cultural context.

Children’s Social Skills Training: A Meta-Analysis

Social skills training (SST) programs for children have been inspired by convincing evidence that childhood social competence is related to psychological adjustment in later years. It has not been clearly established, however, that interventions aimed at increasing childhood competence can improve the outcome for the children involved. Nevertheless, the number and variety of social skills training programs emerging in both the professional literature and commercial market attest to the appeal of this form of therapy. As is the case for most other forms of therapy, little data are available with regard to the relative effectiveness of the various training approaches or the child characteristics that may be associated with successful intervention. Several review articles on social skills training have focused on a given intervention modality (e.g., Combs & Slaby, 1977; Urbain & Kendall, 1980) or target population (e.g., Conger & Keane, 1981; Gresham, 1981). All have concluded that despite conflicting results and methodological problems, there is empirical evidence that provides some support for the positive impact of social skills training.