Chapter 13

Peer Relationships

• Perspectives on peers:PiagetVygotsky

Others :(“chumship”-Harry Stack Sullivan)

Peers

• Friends spend time together, feel affection for each other, and exhibit give-and-take (reciprocities)

• The Development of FriendshipBetween 12-18 months

Around 20 monthsAround age 2Between toddlerhood and preschool

Friendship

During the school yearsIn adolescence

•Support and Validation

•Social and Cognitive Skills

Functions of Friendships

The Psychological Costs and Benefits of Friendship

•Benefit (Note: this research is correlational)

•Cost

• Proximity (important in the early years)

• Age-mates (in industrialized countries)

• Sex (same-sex friendships appear early)

• Race (seems to be the least important)

• Similarity and interest (becomes important around age 7)

Choosing Friends

Play

• Social Play Onlooker Solitary Play Parallel Play Associative Play Cooperative play

• Cognitive Play Functional Play Constructive Play Pretend Play Games with rules

• Groups begin to emerge early in toddlerhood with some members showing more dominance than others in the group

• In middle childhood, cliques form (friendship groups of 3-9 children)

Groups

•Between ages 11–18:Negative peer group influences (gangs)

The relation of children’s sociometric status to academic and behavioral problems

Children’s sociometric status is related to their future problem behaviors. Rejected children are far more likely to be held back in, or suspended from, school, to be truants, to drop out, and to have problems with the police. The occurrence of any of these problems is labeled as “nonspecific” in this figure. (Adapted from Kupersmidt & Coie, 1990)

Rates of parent-reported externalizing symptoms in adolescent males as a function of third-grade rejection and aggression

Boys who were assessed as rejected in third grade were reported by parents years later to be higher than their peers in externalizing symptoms. Aggressive boys (both rejected and nonrejected) increased in parent-reported externalizing symptoms between grades 6 and 10, whereas other boys did not; by tenth grade, aggressive-rejected boys were especially high in externalizing symptoms. (Adapted from Coie et al., 1995)

Rates of boys’ self-reported externalizing symptoms as a function of thirdgrade rejection and aggression

Although aggressive-rejected boys did not differ from other boys in reported externalizing symptoms in sixth grade, by tenth grade, aggressive-rejected boys reported an average of over twice the number of symptoms as did all other boys. (Adapted from Coie et al., 1995)

Aggressive-rejected boys’ reports of internalizing problems increased from sixth to tenth grade, whereas such reports decreased over the same period of time for all other boys. (Adapted from Coie et al., 1995)

Rates of boys’ self-reported internalizing symptoms as a function of third-grade rejection and aggression

(Hard to prove causal relationships)

•AttachmentSecure attachment with parent

•Quality of Ongoing Parent-Child Interactions

Parents and Peer Relationships

•Parental Beliefs and Behaviors

•Models, Coaches, and GatekeepersGatekeepers CoachesModels

•Family Stress

Percentages of children rejected by peers as a function of gender and family income

As can be seen in these data from a longitudinal study, elementary school children from families with low incomes are considerably more likely to be rejected than are children from middleclass families. (Adapted from Patterson, Griesler, Vaden, & Kupersmidt, 1992)