Sri Pidada

United States and Indonesian Children’s and Adolescents’ Reports of Relational Aggression by Disliked Peers

Descriptions of disliked peers provided by U.S. (N = 104) and Indonesian (N = 120) 11- and 14-year-old children were coded for references to physical, verbaL and three types of relational aggression (i.e., relationship manipulation, social ostracism, and malicious rumors). Physical aggression was mentioned more frequently by boys, adolescents, and Indonesians, whereas no significant differences emerged for verbal aggression. Girls in both countries described peers as engaging in the three types of relational aggression more frequently than did boys. Findings that relational aggression was spontaneously mentioned suggests that this is a salient feature of childrens lives and its emergence is not attributable to the use of questionnaires and imposed category systems. The widespread existence of this gender difference is suggested by its prominence in two cultures that differ in individualism and collectivism, gender roles, and attitudes toward aggression.

The Relations of Regulation and Negative Emotionality to Indonesian Children's Social Functioning.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of individual differences in regulation and negative emotionality to 127 third-grade Indonesian childrens social skills/low externalizing problem behavior, sociometric status, and shyness. Parents and multiple teachers provided information on childrens regulation, negative emotionality, and social functioning; peer sociometric information on liking and social behavior was obtained; and children reported on their self-regulation. In general, childrens low socially appropriate behavior/ high problem behavior and rejected peer status were related to low dispositional regulation and high negative emotionality (intense emotions and anger), and regulation and negative emotionality (especially teacher rated) sometimes accounted for unique (additive) variance in childrens social functioning. Adult-reported shyness was related to low peer nominations of disliked/fights (although shy children were not especially liked), low adult-reported regulation, and (to a lesser degree) low teacher-rated negative emotionality. Findings are compared with work on regulation, negative emotionality, social competence, and shyness in other countries.

The Relations of Parental Emotional Expressivity With Quality of Indonesian Children's Social Functioning

In Western societies, parental expression of positive emotion has been positively related to the quality of childrens social functioning, whereas their expression of negative emotion has been negatively or inconsistently related. The relations of parental expressivity to 3rd-grade Indonesian childrens dispositional regulation, socially appropriate behavior, popularity, and sympathy were examined. Parents, teachers, and peers reported on childrens social functioning and regulation, and parents (mostly mothers) reported on their own expression of emotion in the family. Generally, parental expression of negative emotion was negatively related to the quality of childrens social functioning, and regression analyses indicated that the relations of parental negative expressivity to childrens popularity and externalizing behaviors might be indirect through their effects on childrens regulation. Unexpectedly, parental expression of positive emotion was unrelated to childrens social functioning.

Friendships of Indonesian and United States youth

Issues in the study of friendship across cultures were explored by reviewing a set of studies focusing on the friendships of Indonesian and United States youth. Four topics are considered: similarity of friendships across cultures, dimensions of friendships that vary across cultures, the utility of the individualism/collectivism dimension for explaining cultural differences in friendship, and methodological issues in the study of culture and friendship. Two studies are presented that address some of these issues. Although friendships of US and Indonesian youth are similar across many dimensions, the friendships of Indonesian youth appear somewhat less close, more centred on instrumental aid, less focused on enhancement of worth, and more extensive and less exclusive than those of US youth. These patterns are opposite to those that have emerged in the comparison of those in the US and other collectivist cultures, suggesting the need to modify models of collectivism and friendship. Finally, the authors advocate the use of multimethod and multiagent assessments, addressing issues of social class in cross-cultural comparison, and using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to study culture and friendship.

Social Support of Indonesian and U.S. Children and Adolescents by Family Members and Friends

Multiple features of social support provided by mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends to Indonesian (N = 240) and U.S. (N = 203) elementary and junior high school students were assessed using the Networks of Relationships Inventory. Cultural differences in the relative salience of friends and family members as providers of social support emerged. Indonesian youth ranked family members higher and friends lower on companionship and satisfaction than did U.S. youth. Friends were seen as the primary sources of intimacy in both countries. These results are consistent with suggestions that patterns of social support vary as a function of cultural differences in familism, individualism, and collectivism.