Beverley D. Cairns

Promoting Interpersonal Competence and Educational Success Through Extracurricular Activity Participation

This longitudinal study investigated consistent participation in extracurricular activities as a contributor to long-term educational success. Participants were 695 boys and girls who were interviewed annually to the end of high school and again at age 20. Family economic status, interpersonal competence, and educational aspirations during adolescence were used to assess educational status at young adulthood. Consistent extracurricular activity participation across adolescence on the educational attainment process was examined. Consistent extracurricular activity participation was associated with high educational status at young adulthood including college attendance. Educational status was, in turn, linked to reciprocal positive changes between extracurricular activity participation and interpersonal competence, and to educational aspirations across adolescence. Findings were most apparent for students with below-average interpersonal competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Aggressive Behaviors in Social Interaction and Developmental Adaptation: A Narrative Analysis of Interpersonal Conflicts During Early Adolescence

Using conflict narratives reported by adolescents in grade 7 (mean age = 13.4 years), this study investigated the interactional properties and developmental functions of four types of aggressive behaviors: social aggression, direct relational aggression, physical aggression, and verbal aggression. A total of 475 participants from the Carolina Longitudinal Study (Cairns & Cairns, 1994) were included. Results showed that the majority of conflict interactions involved more than a dyad. The use of social aggression (e.g., concealed social attack) was associated with more individuals involved in the conflict. Social aggression was primarily reported as an initiating behavior for interpersonal conflicts, while direct relational aggression was a responding behavior. Medium to high levels of reciprocity were found for physical, verbal, and direct relational aggression, whereas a low level of reciprocity was reported for social aggression. School authorities were most likely to intervene in physical aggression. The use of social aggression was associated with higher network centrality among adolescents. Developmental maladjustment in late adolescence and early adulthood was primarily predicted by physical aggression.

Social Structure and Social Cognition in Early Adolescence: Affiliative Patterns

To investigate the relations between perceptions of the social structure and affiliative patterns in early adolescence, subjects in three grades of a junior high school were studied in a multi-method, longitudinal research design. Interview, observational, and rating procedures were employed to obtain information about the effective social clusters within each class. After one year, the social structure of the 7th grade (now 8th) was reassessed. The results indicate high levels of consensus (in terms of accuracy, lack of intrusion) among adolescents in their conceptions of the social systems of which they are a part. This outcome was obtained across three grades and across gender groups within each grade. The perceived social clusters were closely related to the occurrence of behavioral interchanges of a non-negative sort. Episodes of interpersonal conflict were as likely to occur with persons outside the individuals social cluster as with persons who were co-members. Implications of these findings for sociometric assessment and the veridicality of self-attributions are discussed.

Rejected bullies or popular leaders? The social relations of aggressive subtypes of rural African American early adolescents

Teacher assessments of interpersonal characteristics were used to identify subtypes of rural African American early adolescents (161 boys and 258 girls). Teacher ratings of interpersonal characteristics were used to identify popular and unpopular aggressive subtypes for both boys and girls. Unpopular aggressive youths did not have elevated levels of rejected sociometric status but were more likely to have lower levels of peer-perceived social prominence and social skills. Conversely, popular aggressive youths were more likely to be disliked by peers even though they were perceived by peers as socially prominent and socially skilled and were identified by teachers as highly involved in extracurricular activities. Both popular and unpopular aggressive youths tended to associate with others who had similar levels of peer-perceived popularity.

A brief method for assessing social development: Structure, reliability, stability, and developmental validity of the Interpersonal Competence Scale

The Interpersonal Competence Scale (ICS-T) is a set of brief rating scales for teachers and parents. It consists of 18 items that assess social and behavioural characteristics of children and youths. The ICS-T yields three primary factors: AGG (argues, trouble at school, fights), POP (popular with boys, popular with girls, lots of friends), and ACA (spelling, math). Subsidiary factors include AFF (smile, friendly), OLY (appearance, sports, wins), and INT (shyness, sad, worry). The psychometric properties of the scale (internal structure, reliability, long-term stability) are presented and evaluated over successive ages. The scale factors have been linked to contemporaneous observations of behavior and social network membership. Developmental validity of the ICS-T includes the significant prediction of later school dropout and teenage parenthood. The ICS-T scale is described, along with instructions for use and scoring.

Identifying Children's Peer Social Networks in School Classrooms: Links Between Peer Reports and Observed Interactions

Links between peer reports of social cluster membership and observed classroom interactions were examined in a sample of 72 children in 4th grade and 7th grade. All participating children in each classroom identified as many social clusters in the classroom as they could recall. Using the social-cognitive map (SCM) procedure, these individual reports were aggregated to summarize the number of times a given child was nominated as being in the same social cluster as each of his or her classmates (i.e., a co-nomination profile) and to identify the classmates in each childs social cluster. Extensive classroom observations allowed for a parallel summary of the number of times a given child was observed to interact with each of his or her classmates (i.e., an interaction profile). Results indicated that correlations between conomination profiles and interaction profiles were positive and statistically reliable. Children were observed to interact with members of their SCM-identified social cluster at a rate four times higher than with other same-sex classmates. These effects did not vary reliably by grade, sex or aggressive risk status.

Different forms of aggression among inner-city African–American children: Gender, configurations, and school social networks

Using narrative reports of peer conflicts among a sample of African–American children and adolescents from inner-city schools, this study investigated the development and social functions of four types of aggressive behaviors: social, direct relational, physical, and verbal aggression. A total of 489 participants in grades 1, 4, and 7 were interviewed (220 boys and 269 girls). Results showed that low levels of social aggression and high levels of physical aggression were reported in peer conflicts. Gender differences on social, direct relational, and physical aggression were primarily observed in the comparisons of same-gender conflicts at grade 7. Distinct configurations were identified across different forms of aggression. Boys with configurations of physical and/or verbal aggression had higher levels of school social network centrality than non-aggressive boys. Girls with configurations of social and/or direct relational aggression showed relatively higher levels of network centrality than non-aggressive girls.

Individual characteristics, early adolescent peer affiliations, and school dropout: an examination of aggressive and popular group types

Abstract Individual characteristics (i.e., teacher-rated aggression and popularity) and peer group membership type in 7th grade was examined in relation to school dropout. Peer group type was characterized according to the proportion of group members who were high on teacher-rated aggression and popularity. Both aggressive and popular group types were linked to dropping out. Being a member of an aggressive group was associated with increased rates of dropout for aggressive, but not nonaggressive, youth. Membership in popular (i.e., majority of members were popular) and zero-popular (i.e., no popular members) groups was linked to dropping out, while membership in a nonpopular group (i.e., a few popular members) appeared to be protective for aggressive youth. Both popular and nonpopular youth who affiliated with aggressive peers had elevated rates of school dropout. All aggressive participants who were socially isolated dropped out, while nonaggressive youth who were socially isolated tended to complete school.

Aggression in Inner-City Early Elementary Classrooms: Individual and Peer-Group Configurations.

While recent investigations suggest that subtypes of aggressive youth differentially experience social support for problem behavior, little work has examined if this holds for younger children. This study examined the classroom social structure and social functioning of inner-city African American early elementary school children. Ninety-two (53 boys, 39 girls) 1st graders from two inner-city schools were followed for two years. Configural analysis uncovered considerable heterogeneity in the relationships among overt aggression, popularity, and social network centrality. Two subsets of aggressive students were identified, one marked by high social prominence, the other by low levels of popularity. Peer groups marked by the behavioral similarity of constituent members were identified, and changes in affiliation patterns over time indicated selection criteria.

Paths across Generations: Academic Competence and Aggressive Behaviors in Young Mothers and Their Children.

This research compared the social and cognitive development of young mothers when they were children with the social and cognitive development of their offspring. Intergenerational development was investigated over a 17-year period for 57 women who had been studied longitudinally from childhood to adulthood and who became young mothers (R. B. Cairns & B. D. Cairns, 1994). The children of these women, in turn, were followed prospectively from 1 to 2 years old through the early school years. The academic competence of mothers when they were children was significantly linked to the academic competence of their children at school age. In contrast, the across-generation correlations between measures of aggressive behavior of the mothers when they were children and measures of aggressive behavior of their children in early school grades were modest and unreliable. Certain within-generation continuities were observed in both cognitive and aggressive development.