Robert B. Cairns

Do Extracurricular Activities Protect Against Early School Dropout

This study examined the relation between involvement in school-based extracurricular activities and early school dropout. Longitudinal assessments were completed for 392 adolescents (206 girls, 186 boys) who were initially interviewed during 7th grade and followed up annually to 12th grade. A person-oriented cluster analysis based on Interpersonal Competence Scale ratings from teachers in middle schools (i.e., 7th-8th grades) identified configurations of boys and girls who differed in social-academic competence. Early school dropout was defined as failure to complete the 11th grade. Findings indicate that the school dropout rate among at-risk students was markedly lower for students who had earlier participated in extracurricular activities compared with those who did not participate (p < .001). However, extracurricular involvement was only modestly related to early school dropout among students who had been judged to be competent or highly competent during middle school.

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.

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.

A developmental-genetic analysis of aggressive behavior in mice: I. Behavioral outcomes.

In order to investigate the proposal that modifications in developmental rate may mediate differences in aggressive behavior, two series of selective breeding studies were completed. Stable lines of mice that differed in the frequency and latency of attacks were rapidly established in two series (by S1 in the first series and S3 or S4 in the second series). For evaluation of the developmental-genetic proposal, an analysis was made of the ontogeny of aggressive expression in male mice of the two series, with a detailed report provided of the S1 and S4 generations of the second breeding series. Comparisons between the results of a longitudinal design and the results of a new type of cross-sectional design (involving only siblings, or co-sibial) indicated (a) a reliable developmental course of attack expression, with a sharp rise in early maturity and a slow decline thereafter; (b) a convergence in later maturity of the behavior of lines selectively bred for high or low aggressive behavior, if the animals had been assigned to the longitudinal design; (c) a strong effect of repeated testing on attack latency and frequency, even though the dyadic tests were brief in duration and separated by long intervals. In addition, cross-generational comparisons suggested that the selective breeding differences came about primarily by changes in the behavior of the low aggressive lines, in that these animals failed to show in early maturity the sharp increases in attack occurrence that were observed in earlier generations. Certain implications of these findings for developmental and evolutionary concepts (e.g., neoteny, acceleration, heterochrony) are discussed.

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.

On fighting in mice: is there a sensitive period for isolation effects?

Abstract To investigate the differential age-duration effects of isolation in promoting attacks and fighting in male laboratory mice (Mus musculus), a factorial study of five different isolation intervals (0, 40, 41, 42, 43 days) initiated at five different ages (21, 28, 35, 56, 84 days since birth) was completed. Five hundred ICR mice (250 experimental isolates; 250 control partners) were studed in a procedure that yielded detailed information on the interactional processes that led up to attacks and fighting. In addition, measures of non-social reactivity and weight were taken for all animals. The results provide strong support for the time of isolation, the duration of isolation, and the developmental status of the partner. Beyond the notion of a sensitive period, the results indicate that the effects of isolation are superimposed upon species-typical developmental changes in both the subject and the partner.

Development, Microevolution, and Social Behavior

The central questions of social development--from the roots of mother-infant attachment to the plasticity of aggressive behavior--pivot on the relations between genetic and ontogenetic sources of variance. It is proposed that (a) developmental, experiential, and microevolutionary processes typically collaborate, rather than compete, in achieving social adaptation; (b) social behavior patterns are mostly closed to modification in the course of development and across generations, but avenues of vulnerability exist in ontogeny and microevolution for dynamic, rapid, and reversible changes in key features; (c) a general avenue for change is delay or acceleration in the developmental onset of one or more features of the behavior pattern, which in turn modifies the functions and properties of the adaptive configuration; and (d) the features of social behavior that are open to rapid change in ontogeny should be open as well to rapid changes in microevolution, although different underlying processes may be involved. Empirical findings from the investigation of aggressive interactions are used to illustrate this proposal on the dual genesis and coincident adaptation of social behaviors.

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.

Predicting Teen Motherhood and Teen Fatherhood: Individual Characteristics and Peer Affiliations.

In a longitudinal investigation of the antecedents and pathways of teen parenthood 475 participants (248 females and 227 males) were followed from Grade 7 through early adulthood. In the first year of the investigation homogeneous subgroups were identified by clustering participants on five characteristics (i.e. aggression popularity academic competence age and socioeconomic status). At the same time peer social networks were identified by the Social Cognitive Map procedure. For each participant the configuration of peer characteristics was also identified. A high correspondence was found between the individual characteristics and the characteristics of closely affiliated peers. Both teen fatherhood and teen motherhood were predicted by individual configurations and peer configurations (e.g. a combination of high aggression low academic competence low popularity and low family SES). Peer characteristics race and family socioeconomic status assumed unique roles in predicting teen motherhood. Growth curve analyses showed that teen-mothers differed from non-mothers in their starting points and developmental trajectories. This study demonstrated that a simultaneous examination of both the individual and his/her peer context yielded important information on teen parenthood. (authors)