Cynthia A. Erdley

Popularity, Friendship Quantity, and Friendship Quality: Interactive Influences on Children's Loneliness and Depression

A mediational model positing that the effects of popularity on childrens loneliness and depression are passed through indexes of friendship experiences was tested using structural equation modeling. Children (193 3rd through 6th graders) completed a battery of sociometric and self-report questionnaires from which measures of popularity, multiple friendship dimensions (i.e., quantity and quality of best and good friendships), and loneliness and depression were derived. Confirmation of a slightly modified model supported the mediational hypothesis. Although popularity exerted no direct impact on the adjustment indexes, it strongly influenced friendship, which, in turn, affected depression through its strong association with loneliness. It appears that popularity is important for setting the stage for relationship development, but that it is dyadic friendship experiences that most directly influence feelings of loneliness and depression.

Emotional Dysregulation and Interpersonal Difficulties as Risk Factors for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Adolescent Girls

The purpose of this study was to examine a model of factors that place psychiatrically hospitalized girls at risk for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The role of familial and peer interpersonal difficulties, as well as emotional dysregulation, were examined in relationship to NSSI behaviors. Participants were 99 adolescent girls (83.2% Caucasian; M age = 16.08) admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Structural equation modeling indicated the primacy of emotional dysregulation as an underlying process placing adolescents at risk for NSSI and mediating the influence of interpersonal problems through the family and peer domains. When family and peer relationships were characterized by conflict and lack of support for managing emotions, adolescents reported more dysregulated emotion processes. Family relational problems were directly and indirectly related to NSSI through emotional dysregulation. The indirect processes of peer relational problems, through emotional dysregulation, were significantly associated with NSSI frequency and severity. The findings suggest that the process by which interpersonal difficulties contribute to NSSI is complex, and is at least partially dependent on the nature of the interpersonal problems and emotion processes.

Peer experiences of anxious and socially withdrawn youth: An integrative review of the developmental and clinical literature.

Prior research indicates that both anxious youth and socially withdrawn youth tend to experience challenges and difficulties in various aspects of their peer relationships and social functioning. While clinical psychology researchers have examined how anxiety relates to peer experiences using normative and clinically anxious samples, developmental psychologists have focused primarily on the peer experiences of shy and withdrawn children. Research from these two fields has progressed on related yet separate paths, producing similar results despite using different terminology and assessment techniques. The purpose of this review is to bring together the developmental and clinical bodies of literature on the peer experiences of anxious and socially withdrawn youth by identifying common themes and unique contributions of each discipline. Studies reviewed focus specifically on the peer constructs of acceptance, friendship, peer victimization, social skills, and social-cognitive processes. Limitations including methodological inconsistencies and insufficient examination of age-, gender-, and ethnicity-related issues are identified. Recommendations for future collaborations between developmental and clinical researchers as well as implications for interventions targeting the peer relations of anxious and withdrawn youth are discussed.

Social skills training as a treatment for aggressive children and adolescents: a developmental-clinical integration

Social skills training (SST) has emerged as a frontline treatment approach for aggressive children and adolescents. The present review evaluates this sizable literature from a developmental-clinical perspective. More specifically, the review summarizes key developmental findings, assesses the status of existing efforts to integrate these developmental findings into clinical research, and discusses intervention implications. Summaries of developmental findings are divided into six major areas: age, gender, race, identification of intervention samples, social cognition, and peer group influences. The review indicates that efforts to incorporate developmental findings and principles into clinical research have fallen woefully short. Even the most fundamental developmental considerations were frequently overlooked. Despite these general limitations, the review highlights a number of noteworthy developmental-clinical integration attempts and concludes with a discussion of directions for future research.

Linkages between Children’s Beliefs about the Legitimacy of Aggression and Their Behavior

The purposes of this study were to learn whether children’s beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression can be reliably assessed and whether these beliefs relate to children’s everyday social behavior with peers, as well as their responses to hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations. Fourth- and fifth-grade students (n = 781) responded to a 16-item questionnaire designed to measure children’s beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression. Children’s behavioral orientation was assessed using two methods: (1) children’s responses to ten hypothetical situations involving ambiguous provocation, and (2) peer evaluations of children’s aggressive, withdrawn, and prosocial behavior. Results indicated that children’s beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression were reliably measured. Furthermore, results from both measures of behavioral style showed that children who believed strongly in the legitimacy of aggression were more aggressive, less withdrawn, and less prosocial. The findings suggest that one focus of efforts to decrease children’s aggression should be the modification of their beliefs about the legitimacy of aggressive actions.

A Social Goals Perspective on Children's Social Competence

Developing a more comprehensive understanding of social competence and the reasons for social relationship difficulties requires attention to the kinds of goals children are pursuing in specific social situations. In this article, the authors describe several theoretical models of social information processing, each of which includes goals as a crucial component in motivating childrens behavior. The authors also review evidence from studies of children who are aggressive, withdrawn/submissive, or prosocial that points to an association between childrens goals, their strategies for coping with problematic social tasks, and their ultimate success or failure in social relationships. Attention is also given to various social-cognitive processes that may be linked to childrens tendencies to formulate adaptive versus maladaptive goals. Finally, the implications of a social goals perspective for interventions with children with emotional and behavioral problems is discussed.

Peer Experiences as Predictors of Adjustment across the Middle School Transition.

The role of peer acceptance, number of mutual friends, and friendship quality in predicting adjustment across the transition from elementary to middle school was examined. Participants were 146 students (68 boys, 78 girls) who participated in the Time 1 (spring of fifth grade) and Time 2 (fall of sixth grade) assessments. Peer acceptance and number of friends were assessed using sociometric rating scale and limited nomination procedures. Participants also completed measures that assessed feelings of loneliness, extent of involvement in school, and the quality of a specific mutual friendship. Results of repeated measures MANOVAs revealed a significant decrease in the average number of mutual friendships across time. Regression analyses indicated that peer acceptance and friendship quality and quantity play significant yet somewhat different roles in predicting loneliness and school involvement across the middle school transition. Implications for including a peer component in programs that prepare students for the middle school transition are discussed.

Opposites Do Not Attract: Social Status and Behavioral-Style Concordances and Discordances Among Children and the Peers Who Like or Dislike Them

Homophily, a term used to describe the tendency to associate with similar others, serves as a basis for attraction among children. The converse may also be true. Dissimilarity appears to contribute to dislike. In one of the only published studies to examine homophily and its converse, D. W. Nangle, C. A. Erdley, and J. A. Gold (1996) found that children were liked by peers who were similar to them in social status and behavioral style and disliked by peers who were dissimilar to them in social status and behavioral style. Examining gender influences, we were only able to partially replicate their findings in the present study. That is, evidence of homophily was found only for girls. In contrast, dissimilarity contributed to dislike for both genders, but was especially evident for boys. With respect to age, prosocial behavior appeared to have a more positive valence among younger girls, whereas aggressive behavior appeared to have a more negative valence among older boys. Attempts to reconcile these findings with those of the Nangle et al. (1996) investigation and the implications for understanding peer processes, gender influences, and behavior problems are discussed.

A reflection on the popularity construct: The importance of who likes or dislikes a child

This study examined the relations between childrens peer status and the status of the groups of children who reported liking or disliking them. Ninety children completed a battery of sociometric measures at three time periods. Results showed that children tended to be liked by peers who were similar, and disliked by peers who were dissimilar, in social status and behavioral style. Compared to “dislikers,” the groups of children who liked a particular child were more homogeneous, and their relative social status was more stable across time. The importance of these results for understanding the group processes that cause and maintain peer rejection is discussed with a focus on intervention implications.

Operationalizing the Construct of Friendship among Children: A Psychometric Comparison of Sociometric‐Based Definitional Methodologies

Peer relations researchers generally agree that friendship involves a close, mutual, dyadic relationship. However, the lack of consensus on how to operationalize this construct has limited our understanding of the role of friendship in social adjustment. The present study directly compared the psychometric properties (i.e., number of friendships identified, concordances, and stability) of the five major different definitions of friendship used in the literature. Fourth- and fifth-grade students (N = 90) completed a battery of sociometric measures at two different times separated by eight weeks. Friendship dyads were then identified using the following definitional criteria: (1) mutual positive nominations; (2) mutal high ratings (i.e., 4 or 5 on a five-point Likert-type scale); (3) one positive nomination reciprocated by a rating of 5; (4) one positive nomination and mutual high ratings; and (5) one positive nomination and mutual ratings averaging at least 4. Frequency and concordance analyses indicated differences across the five definitions. In addition, the friendships identified by each of the five definitions were similarly moderate in their stability. Explanations for, and the possible implications of, these differences are discussed.