Kristina L. McDonald

Girl Talk: Gossip, Friendship, and Sociometric Status

This study examined the characteristics of gossip among fourth-grade girls and their close friends. Sixty friendship dyads were videotaped as they engaged in conversation, and their gossip was coded. Analyses revealed gossip to be a dominant feature of their interaction and that it was primarily neutral in valence. Sociometrically popular girls and their friends were observed to gossip more about peers, and their gossip was more evaluative than that between rejected girls and their friends. Gossip frequency and valence related to observed friendship closeness and friendship quality. Race differences in the characteristics of gossip were also explored. The study results are important in our efforts to develop a fuller understanding of the important interpersonal process of gossip and the functions that it serves in the context of close friendships.

Peer rejection as a social antecedent to rejection sensitivity in youth: The role of relational valuation

Although much is known about the consequences of rejection sensitivity (RS), less is known about its social antecedents, particularly during development. Despite research demonstrating the role of peer rejection in the development and maintenance of problematic social schema like RS, little is known about why some youth are more susceptible to these negative consequences than others. We examined how relational valuation might moderate the effects of peer rejection on RS in a sample of 294 youth (138 boys) who made the transition from middle to high school. Results from path analysis revealed that 8th grade peer rejection was most highly associated with 9th grade RS for youth who held high regard for social relationships. Findings demonstrate the importance of examining cognitive moderators in the links between negative social experiences and problematic social schema, and highlight the need to move beyond simple main effects models for understanding the heterogeneity of rejection.

Prosocial behavior moderates the effects of aggression on young adolescents' friendships

The current study explored how prosocial behavior may moderate how aggression is related to the features of adolescents’ friendships. Young adolescents (N= 910) completed friendship nominations in the fall and spring of their first year of middle school. Behavioral nominations of aggression and prosocial behavior were also collected in the fall. A subsample (N= 374) of adolescents and their reciprocated friends reported on friendship quality. Prosocial behavior moderated how aggression was related to the likelihood of having a mutual best friendship in the fall. Dyadic data analyses also revealed that when prosocial behavior was low, aggression was negatively related to friendship quality. Examination of temporal patterns in best friendships indicated that when prosocial behavior was low, aggression was marginally predictive of having different best friends in the fall and spring relative to having a stable best friendship across the school year.

Predictors and Outcomes Associated with Trajectories of Revenge Goals from Fourth Grade through Seventh Grade

The present study identified longitudinal trajectories of revenge goals in a sample of at-risk youth (N = 240; 63.3% male) followed from fourth grade through seventh grade. Three revenge goal trajectory groups were identified: a low-stable group, an increasing group, and a decreasing group. The increasing and decreasing groups were initially more behaviorally and affectively dysregulated and believed that aggression would gain them more rewards relative to the low-stable group. The increasing group was also more fearfully reactive compared to the decreasing group. Revenge goal trajectory groups also predicted trajectories of reactive and proactive aggression from 4th through 7th grade. The increasing group was more reactively aggressive and depressed and had poorer social skills in 8th grade compared to the other groups. Together, results highlight the importance of considering revenge motivations as an indicator of risk and a potential focus for intervention.

Children’s Friendship

Friendships are close relationships characterized by companionship, a shared history, mutual affection, and the recognition by both participants that the relationship has a special status. Having friends is associated with increased self-esteem, decreased likelihood of depression, decreased feelings of loneliness, protection from victimization, and better school adjustment. However, the provisions and benefits of friendship are moderated by the quality of a child’s friendships and by the characteristics of a child’s friends. Furthermore, children’s success in their friendships will depend, in part, on their competence in meeting various challenges involved in making and keeping friends.

Contributions of racial and sociobehavioral homophily to friendship stability and quality among same-race and cross-race friends

The current study examined how racial and sociobehavioral similarities were associated with friendship stability and friendship quality. Cross-race friends were not significantly similar to each other in peer-nominated shyness/withdrawal, victimization, exclusion, and popularity/sociability. Relative to same-race friends, cross-race friends were significantly less similar in peer-nominated popularity/sociability, exclusion, and victimization. Although same-race friendships were more prevalent than cross-race friendships, only similarity in friends’ aggressive behavior (but not racial homophily) was related to friendship stability. Neither racial nor sociobehavioral similarity predicted friendship quality beyond adolescents’ individual sociobehavioral characteristics. Taken together, findings suggest that although racial similarity may affect initial friendship formation, racial similarity may not impact friendship stability or friendship quality when also accounting for friends’ similarity in sociobehavioral characteristics.

Parenting Influences on the Social Goals of Aggressive Children.

Although research has examined how parenting may influence childrens social information processing, little research has examined how these factors may influence childrens social goals. The current study examined how both parent- and child-reports of parenting behaviors were associated with regressed change in childrens reported social goals over a one-year time period. Participants were 116 children (58.8% male), identified as being highly aggressive by their teachers in 4th grade, and their caregivers. Childrens reports of positive parenting in 4th grade were positively associated with affiliation goals and negatively related to dominance and revenge goals in 5th grade, even after controlling for the corresponding goals in 4th grade. Additionally, parent-reported corporal punishment in 4th grade was positively related to dominance goals in 5th grade for boys, but not for girls. Results are discussed in terms of the possible ways that parenting may influence social goals.

Racially Diverse Classrooms: Effects of Classroom Racial Composition on Interracial Peer Relationships

The purpose of this study was to examine the interactive effects that a childs race and the racial composition of a classroom have on a variety of sociometric measures. Sociometric nominations were collected from 872 fifth-grade students (48% male, 48% Black) who were in classrooms that ranged from nearly all Black to nearly all White students. Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses indicated that the race of the child, the race of the rater, and the classroom race composition each impacted sociometric nominations. Results suggest that schools that are more balanced in the distribution of Black and White students might promote more positive interracial peer relationships. However, opportunities to be highly liked and to be perceived as a leader might be greatest in a school in which the child is in the clear racial majority.

Observed Gossip Moderates the Link between Anxious Withdrawal and Friendship Quality in Early Adolescence

Abstract We evaluated whether gossip between best friends moderated the relation between anxious withdrawal and friendship quality in early adolescence,using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model ( APIM , Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) approach. Participants ( n =256) were 5th and 6th gradeyoung adolescents (actors) and their best friends (partners). Observed gossip between best friends moderated the association between anxiouswithdrawal and young adolescent’ perceptions of friendship quality. When gossip between best friends was infrequent, the greater the anxiouswithdrawal the lower the perceived positive friendship quality, but this relation disappeared when gossip between best friends was of moderate orhigh frequency. Further, when gossip between best friends was infrequent, the greater the anxious withdrawal the lower the perceived friendshipconflict; but when gossip was frequent, the greater the anxious withdrawal the greater the friendship conflict. Results suggest that gossip mayhave both positive and negative consequences for the friendships, when taking into consideration the level of anxious withdrawal of the youngadolescents involved in the friendship.

Pre–Post Tornado Effects on Aggressive Children’s Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment Through One-Year Postdisaster

Using a risk-resilience framework, this study examined how varying levels of exposure to a natural disaster (EF-4 tornado) and children’s characteristics (sex; anxiety) influenced the behavioral and psychological adjustment of children who shared a common risk factor predisaster (elevated aggression) prior to exposure through 1-year postdisaster. Participants included 360 children in Grades 4–6 (65% male; 78% African American) and their parents from predominantly low-income households who were already participating in a longitudinal study of indicated prevention effects for externalizing outcomes when the tornado occurred in 2011. Fourth-grade children who were screened for overt aggressive behavior were recruited in 3 annual cohorts (120 per year, beginning in 2009). Parent-rated aggression and internalizing problems were assessed prior to the tornado (Wave 1), within a half-year after the tornado (Wave 2), and at a 1-year follow-up (Wave 3). Children and parents rated their exposure to aspects of tornado-related traumatic experiences at Wave 3. Children displayed less reduction on aggression and internalizing problems if the children had experienced distress after the tornado or fears for their life, in combination with their pre-tornado level of anxiety. Higher levels of children’s and parents’ exposure to the tornado interacted with children’s lower baseline child anxiety to predict less reduction in aggression and internalizing problems 1 year after the tornado. Higher levels of disaster exposure negatively affected at-risk children’s level of improvement in aggression and internalizing problems, when life threat (parent- and child-reported) and child-reported distress after the tornado were moderated by baseline anxiety.