Measuring cognitive and psychological engagement: Validation of the Student Engagement Instrument

A review of relevant literatures led to the construction of a self-report instrument designed to measure two subtypes of student engagement with school: cognitive and psychological engagement. The psychometric properties of this measure, the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), were assessed based on responses of an ethnically and economically diverse urban sample of 1931 ninth grade students. Factor structures were obtained using exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) on half of the dataset, with model fit examined using confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) on the other half of the dataset. The model displaying the best empirical fit consisted of six factors, and these factors correlated with expected educational outcomes. Further research is suggested in the iterative process of developing the SEI, and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

Social status and friendship in peer victimization trajectories

Background/Objective: Most studies have evaluated victimization at a single time point, making it difficult to determine the impact of the time during which an individual is victimized. This longitudinal study aims to examine the differences in the levels of social status (social preference and perceived popularity) and friendship in peer victimization trajectories, and to analyse if there were changes over time in the levels of social status and friendship in each trajectory. Method: The final sample was composed of 1,239 students (49% girls) with ages between 9 and 18 (M = 12.23, SD = 1.73), from 22 schools in southern Spain. Peer nominations were collected. Results: The General Linear Model results associated the highest levels of social preference, perceived popularity and friendship with the sporadic victimization profile and the lowest levels of these dimensions with the stable profile. Conclusions:The results are discussed based on important personal aspects of stable victimization that confirms social rejection, unpopularity, and the low social support that victimization causes. This contribution is discussed in terms of health and social welfare in adolescence.     

Patterns of friendship among girls with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Examined patterns of friendship participation, stability, and quality among previously unfamiliar, ethnically diverse girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 140) and comparison (n = 88) girls, aged 6–12 years, who attended 5-week naturalistic summer camps. Each girl completed sociometric nominations during Weeks 1, 3, and 5 of the camps; friendships were indexed by examining patterns of reciprocal nominations. At each assessment point, girls with ADHD had fewer mutual friends and were more likely to have no friends. Girls with Combined-type ADHD exhibited difficulties maintaining friendships from the beginning to middle of camp, whereas girls with Inattentive-type ADHD demonstrated poor friendship stability from the middle to end of camp. In general, girls with ADHD had higher levels of negative relationship features—including conflict and relational aggression—than did comparison girls, but levels of positive relationship features did not differ across subgroups. Friendship status predicted positive and negative peer regard, controlling for Verbal IQ and diagnostic status. Overall, although girls with ADHD were able to make friends to some extent, they differed from comparison girls in terms of the likelihood of doing so, the ability to maintain the friendships that they did form, and the levels of negative features found in their friendships.     

When your friends matter: The effect of White students' racial friendship networks on meta-perceptions and perceived identity contingencies

Prior research suggests that people expect to be perceived negatively in interracial interactions but positively in intraracial interactions. The present research demonstrates that an interaction partner's racial network of friends can moderate these expectations in interracial interactions but not intraracial interactions. Across two experiments, we led Black and White college students to believe they would have conversation with a White student on campus. The results revealed that Black students expected to be perceived more positively and anticipated a less challenging conversation, when their interaction partner had a racially diverse network of friends compared to a racially homogeneous network of friends. In contrast, White students expected to be perceived positively and anticipated few challenges in the conversation, regardless of their interaction partner's racial network of friends. The implications of racial friendship diversity are discussed.     

Reliability of measures of work engagement and psychological well-being among South African state security forces

This study reports on the psychometric properties of measures of work engagement and psychological well-being in the South African state security forces. The research sample consisted of a combined sample of 178 soldiers and 57 police officers (34% females). They completed a battery of measures of work engagement and psychological well-being. Results following exploratory and reliability analysis suggest the scores from the measures to be reliable for research use with the South African security services.     

Peer rejection, negative peer treatment, and school adjustment: Self-concept and classroom engagement as mediating processes

Data gathered from a short term longitudinal study within fifth grade classrooms (n = 378) were used to evaluate two process-oriented models linking peer rejection and negative peer treatment to children's self-concept, school engagement and adjustment. Both structural models linked peer rejection, victimization, and exclusion to children's self-concept, classroom engagement, and change in achievement (fall of fifth grade to the spring). The model evaluations indicated that peer rejection predicted both exclusion and victimization and that these forms of peer treatment, in turn, predicted academic self-competence. Academic self-competence, however, only partially mediated linkages to achievement change. Parallel (i.e. direct) linkages from exclusion and victimization to both academic self-competence and engagement were required for adequate model fit, as were direct links from academic self-concept and engagement to achievement change. An alternative model representing the hypothesis that academic self-concept fully mediated the relationships between the forms of negative peer treatment and children's engagement and achievement did not fit the data well.     

Habitual reappraisal in context: peer victimisation moderates its association with physiological reactivity to social stress

Although the emotion regulation strategy of reappraisal has been associated with adaptive outcomes, there is a growing evidence that it may not be adaptive in all contexts. In the present study, adolescents reported their use of habitual reappraisal and their experiences with peer victimisation, a chronic stressor that is associated with reduced well-being in this population. We examined how these variables predicted physiological reactivity (vagal withdrawal and changes in pre-ejection period) during a social stressor (i.e., Trier Social Stress Task). In line with previous research, at high levels of victimisation, habitual reappraisal predicted adaptive physiological reactivity (i.e., greater vagal withdrawal). Conversely, at low levels of victimisation, habitual reappraisal predicted maladaptive physiological reactivity (i.e., blunted vagal withdrawal). These findings were specific to parasympathetic reactivity. They suggest that habitual reappraisal may exert different effects on parasympathetic reactivity depending on the presence of stressors, and highlight the importance of examining the role of contextual factors in determining the adaptiveness of emotion regulation strategies.     

Validation of a component model of social skill with outpatient adults

Little social skills research has been generated from applied outpatient settings. The present study examined the relationship of behavioral social skill components to independent judges' social skill judgments. A secondary question was whether nonverbal components would demonstrate a curvilinear relationship to social skill ratings. Forty-two outpatient adults at a community mental health center were videotaped role-playing eight scenes (four commendatory and four refusal). Videotapes were viewed in random order by community members who rated the subject's social skill in the situation. Trained raters scored the videotapes on standard behavioral components. While both nonverbal and verbal components accounted for significant portions of unique variance, the percentage of eye contact was an overwhelmingly large contributor to skill judgments. No curvilinear trend was evidenced for the nonverbal components. The study extended prior findings with psychiatric inpatients into applied outpatient settings and indicated that a component social skills model is equally applicable with outpatient adults. The findings replicated with a second sample of outpatient adults.     

Depression,self-focus,and social interaction

The accuracy of depressed and nondepressed subjects' perceptions of their own and a social interactional partner's performance was investigated. Twenty depressed and twenty nondepressed college students participated in dyadic interactions and then rated their own and their partner's social behavior. The interactions were also rated by objective coders. Depressed subjects were differentiated from nondepressed subjects on several measures by both the coders and the subjects. Depressed subjects' self-ratings were correlated with the coders' ratings more often than were the nondepressives' ratings, suggesting depressives provided more accurate self-observations. Contrary to prediction, depressives were also more accurate in judging their partner's behavior. Depressives experienced heightened levels of self-focused attention, but this attentional focus did not mediate the relationship between depression level and self-accuracy. Finally, an analysis of the verbal statements suggests that performance differences between depressives and nondepressives may be a function of the quantity, rather than the quality, of the verbal production.     

The social phobia and social interaction anxiety scales: An exploration of the dimensions of social anxiety and sex differences in structure and relations with pathology

This study sought to provide information on the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) of Mattick and Clarke (1989) with respect to factor structure, relations with psychopathology, and sex differences. A sample of 200 university students completed the SPS and SIAS and various measures of anxiety symptoms and depression. The results from the factor analyses for the sample as a whole suggest the presence of three factors corresponding to scrutiny fears, social interaction anxiety, and a general level of discomfort in social interactions. The results for men replicated this structure. For women, the three-factor solution demonstrated a blurring between the types of anxiety-provoking situations, and a general discomfort in situations involving differences in social power. In general, the discomfort factor was not correlated with measures of pathology, raising the possibility that uneasiness in these situations represents a process that is not part of social anxiety. The distinction between scrutiny fears and social interaction anxiety was also supported by the pattern of partial correlations that suggests that the presence of scrutiny fears is a stronger predictor of psychopathology than is social interaction anxiety, especially for men.     

Hyperactive children and peer interaction: Knowledge and performance of social skills

This study investigated hyperactive children's peer relations using the framework of social skills theory. Subjects' (15 hyperactive and 15 control boys aged 7 through 11) knowledge of socially appropriate behavior was assessed using the Social Knowledge Interview (Geraci & Asher, 1980). Additionally, performance of social skills with peers was rated by independent judges during free play, a cooperative puzzle task, and a persuasion task. Peers also rated subjects'desirability as partners for work, play, and friendship. Analyses showed that hyperactive subjects had deficits in knowledge of how to maintain relationships and handle interpersonal conflict, and demonstrated more negative behavior in the cooperative puzzle task than did controls. Hyperactive subjects also were rated by judges as less likely to achieve academic success than controls and were rated by peers as less desirable potential work partners in school. Significant correlations between social knowledge and performance with peers were found. It was concluded that hyperactive boys exhibit deficits both in their social knowledge and in their performance of socially skilled behavior.This research was conducted as part of doctoral research by the first author, under the supervision of the second and third authors. We are grateful for the assistance of Diane Arnkoff, who served on the committee, for her helpful comments and suggestions. Thanks also go to Al Farrell for his statistical consultation. We gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of the Georgetown University Child Development Center, where the data were collected.     

Paternal/maternal attachment, peer support, social expectations of peer interaction, and depressive symptoms

The aim of this study was to investigate how paternal and maternal attachment might relate to adolescents' peer support, social expectations of peer interaction, and depressive symptoms; 1,144 8th graders in Taiwan participated in the study. The relationships were examined through a structural equating modeling. Consistent with theoretical formulations, adolescents with secure attachments to parents reported higher peer support, fewer negative expectations, and fewer depressive symptoms. Paternal and maternal attachment contribute almost equally to adolescents' social expectations of peer interaction and depressive symptoms. Attachment to the same-sex parent was related to adolescents' perceived peer support.     

Decoding deficits and social competency: A continuous rating approach

Males who self-reported heterosocial difficulties and whose performance in a role-played interaction was judged to be of low social competence were compared to high-competent males on a continuous rating task. The rating task required that subjects make continual, ongoing social competency ratings of their own and six other males' performance in a role-play situation. The continuous measurement of performance provided a profile of ratings that was compared on frequency, latency-to-first ratings, profile elevation or level, scatter, and patterning. Low-competent males had longer latencies-to-first ratings than high-competent males and less scatter in their continuous ratings than did the high-competent group. The reduced scatter effect for continuous ratings replicates previous work done with global ratings and suggests that the low-competent group may not be able to discriminate among social stimuli as well as the high-competent group. The research also suggests that the continuous rating methodology may hold promise as a tool to investigate social perception processes.     

Work engagement during life-span: The role of interaction outside the organization and task significance

Growing proportion of older employees in the workforce has pushed scholars and managers to examine the changes of individual work-related attitudes and behavior during the life-span and accordingly reconsider work design to sustain the engagement of aging workforces. This study contributes to ambiguous previous findings by investigating age–work engagement linkage and moderating effects of such job characteristics as employees' perceived task significance and interaction outside organization. Survey of bank employees revealed an overall positive linear effect of age on work engagement; task significance was further positively related to work engagement. Although the direct impact of interaction outside the organization to work engagement was not found, the interaction outside the organization moderated the relationship between age and work engagement: older employees with more external interactions reported higher engagement levels than older employees with fewer interactions. Work engagement was highest for older employees who experienced more interaction outside the organization, or perceived their work as significant or both. There was no positive effect of age on work engagement for employees with both lower levels of interaction outside organization and lower task significance.     

Expecting the best: The relation between peer optimism and social competence

The present research evaluated the construct of optimism and its relation to children's social competence. An optimism questionnaire was developed that specifically assessed children's expectations with regard to their peer interactions and peer relationships. This measure demonstrated acceptable levels of internal and test–retest reliability and was consistent with a three-factor hierarchical factor structure. After removing effects attributable to grade and perceived self-competence, girls’ peer optimism was specifically and negatively associated with feelings of isolation and boys’ peer optimism was associated with a much broader range of social outcomes including higher sociometric status, more friendships, and lower levels of rejection, victimization, and loneliness. These findings highlight the importance of peer optimism for understanding children's peer relations.     

Specificity of peer difficulties to social anxiety in early adolescence: categorical and dimensional analyses with clinical and community samples

Background and Objectives: We investigated the specificity of social difficulties to social anxiety by testing associations of social anxiety and other anxiety presentations with peer acceptance and victimization in community and treatment-seeking samples of adolescents aged 12–14 years.

Design: Cross-sectional, quantitative survey.

Methods: Adolescents from the community (n?=?116) and a clinical setting (n?=?154) completed ratings of anxiety symptoms, perceived social acceptance, and peer victimization. Their parents also completed ratings of the adolescents’ anxiety and social acceptance.

Results: Social acceptance was lowest among adolescents with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and lower among adolescents with other anxiety disorders than in the community sample. Anxiety symptoms were negatively correlated with social acceptance, but these associations were not unique to social anxiety symptoms. Girls in the community sample reported more overt victimization than girls with SAD and with other anxiety diagnoses. Relational victimization was associated with social and nonsocial anxiety symptoms only in the community sample.

Conclusions: Our findings supplement recent laboratory-based observational studies on social functioning among adolescents with SAD and other anxiety disorders. Although social anxiety may be associated with unique social skill deficits and impairment, concerns about peer relations should also be considered among adolescents with other anxiety symptoms.     

Effects of peer social initiations on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children

Social approach to peers was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschoolers. During baseline, confederate peers made few social approaches to the target subjects. Confederates greatly increased their rate of social approaches during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate social initiations immediately increased the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior. Additionally, five of six subjects showed an increase in their own positive social initiations during intervention periods. The results suggest that: (a) peers may be programmed to increase the positive social behaviors of their isolate classmates, and (b) remediating social deficits requires assessment and intervention specifically tailored to the individual child.     

Classroom engagement mediates the effect of teacher–student support on elementary students' peer acceptance: A prospective analysis

Participants were 360 (52.2% male) ethnically diverse and academically at-risk first-grade children attending one of three school districts in southeast and central Texas. Using latent variable structural equation modeling, we tested a theoretical model positing that the quality of the teacher–student relationship in first grade predicts children's peer acceptance the following year, controlling for children's previous externalizing problems and peer acceptance. We also expected that children's classroom engagement would mediate the effect of teacher–student relationship quality on peer acceptance. The hypothesized model provided a good fit to the data. Engagement fully mediated the effect of teacher support on subsequent peer acceptance. Neither ethnicity nor gender moderated the mediation findings.     

Videotape modeling for preschool children with low levels of social interaction and low peer involvement in play

This research evaluated a videotape modeling intervention for six preschool children who showed low levels of social involvement with peers in natural free-play settings. Observations across 14 weeks gave frequency and topographic data on social interactions and assessment of social involvement in play using the Parten Scale. Simultaneous observation of three children gave data on two comparison children for each target child. A multiple-baseline across-subjects design was used with two data analysis strategies. Averaged group data showed statistically significant increases in both interactions and social involvement in play. Visual analysis of the single-subject data, however, indicated no clear treatment outcome for two children, while four subjects showed a variable increase in social responding after viewing the modeling videotape. Session-by-session variability was a feature of the interaction rate measure for comparison children and for posttreatment phase data for target subjects.This research was supported by Grant No. 62-262-98 from the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand and by University of Otago Research Committee Grant No. 37-877. Grateful acknowledgment is extended to Dan McKerracher and Ted Glynn for valued comments at various stages of the research. Appreciation is extended to the teachers and children of the Dunedin Free Kindergartens who participated in the study.