Giovanna Tomada

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.

Stability and Change in Patterns of Peer Rejection: Implications for Children's Academic Performance over Time.

Poor school adjustment is a known correlate of peer rejection in childhood. However, the impact of change in sociometric status on childrens academic performance over time is unclear. The aim of this study was to determine whether improvement or decline in childrens sociometric status would predict corresponding changes in their academic performance trajectories. Two hundred and seventy-two boys and 252 girls in Florence, Italy (mean age at Time 1: 7.42 years) and their teachers participated in this 18-month investigation. Hierarchical linear models indicated that children who were rejected by their peers across the four measurement points of the study demonstrated consistently worse academic performance than did children who were not rejected throughout, whereas children who were regularly accepted by their peers performed better in school than did their peers who were rejected one or more times. A number of children who became rejected exhibited an academic decline, but others who became accepted showed improvement. The implications of these results for children, parents, teachers and school administrators are discussed.

Social support as a predictor of school bonding and academic motivation following the transition to Italian middle school

After five years in elementary schools with small classes and stimulation of basic thinking skills, Italian children move to very traditional scuola media. Data obtained from 434 Italian pupils revealed that school bonding and academic motivation declined sharply after this transition. Social support by parents, but not friends, was a predictor of school bonding and academic motivation. There was little consistent evidence of compensatory processes: Support by a friend did not generally compensate for negative relationships with parents. However, there were some indications that a positive relationship with one parent might compensate for negative interactions with the other parent. Our findings suggest that parental social support has a unique function in bolstering school bonding and academic motivation after the transition to scuola media.

A Cross-National Comparison of Children’s Behavior with their Friends in Situations of Potential Conflict

Dyads of 8- and 9-year-old friends and nonfriends in Central Italy and English Canada were observed while participating in two structured tasks designed to simulate everyday situations of potential conflict. In discussing how they might share a single chocolate egg with a toy inside, Italian youngsters made fewer proposals in all, but nonetheless were able to achieve a greater discrepancy between initial and final negotiating positions. Friends spent almost twice as much time as nonfriends in these discussions; friends also displayed greater novelty and compromise in their counterproposals. Italian girls made significantly fewer proposals and counterproposals than other participants in the study. When participating in a fast-paced car race, Canadian children committed significantly more infractions of the rules. Italian friends were more involved in the race and maintained respect for the rules better than Italian nonfriends, but there were no significant differences between friends and nonfriends in Canada. These results are interpreted in light of known differences between the cultures.

Verbal and Nonverbal Interactions of Four- and Five-Year-Old Friends in Potential Conflict Situations

Abstract Dyads of 4- and 5-year-old friends and nonfriends attending preschools in central Italy were identified by friendship nominations. The 217 dyads of friends and non-friends participated in 2 closed-field tasks designed to simulate real-life situations of potential conflict. In the 4-year-old cohort, there were no significant differences in the behavior of the partners in either of the situations. However, at age 5 years, friends respected the rules of a fast-paced competitive game significantly more than did nonfriends. In discussing how to share a single object (a chocolate egg with a toy inside), 5-year-old friends were more likely to reach agreement than were nonfriends. The results suggest important developmental changes in the processes of negotiation and sharing within the preschool years.