Friendship as Protection from Peer Victimization for Girls with and without ADHD

The goal of this study was to examine the ability of friendship to moderate the association between behavioral risk and peer victimization for girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 140) and comparison girls (n = 88) in a 5-week naturalistic summer camp setting. Participants were an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse group of girls ages 6–12. Parents and teachers reported on pre-summer internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, and social competence. Participants reported on friendships and peer victimization through a peer report measure at the summer camps; friendship was scored via mutual nominations. Pre-summer externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior, and low social competence predicted peer victimization at the summer camps. Friendship moderated the association between behavioral risk and victimization for the entire sample, such that the presence of at least one friend reduced the risk of victimization. Additional analyses suggested that girls with ADHD were no more or less protected by the presence of a friendship than were comparison girls. Finally, preliminary analyses suggested that girls having only friends with ADHD were not significantly less protected than girls with at least one comparison friend. Future directions and implications for intervention are discussed.     

Presence and quality of kindergarten children's friendships: concurrent and longitudinal associations with child adjustment in the early school years

The presence and quality of friendships are posited to have developmental significance, yet little is known about the extent to which children without friends versus low‐quality friendships compare on socioemotional adjustment. The current study utilized data from a subsample of 567 children (289 boys) participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Based on maternal reports at kindergarten, four friendship groups were formed: no friends, low quality, average quality, and high quality, and these groups were used to predict teacher‐reported behaviour problems and social skills concurrently (in kindergarten) and longitudinally (in first and third grade). Concurrently, low‐quality friendships were associated with greater externalizing behaviour, whereas high‐quality friendships were associated with greater social skills. Longitudinally, having no friends in kindergarten was associated with higher levels of externalizing behaviour for boys, but lower levels for girls. Children without friends also showed more internalizing problems at first grade. Lastly, having a high‐quality friendship in kindergarten was associated with greater social skills in first and third grades, but only for boys. Results underscore high‐quality friendship as a context for the development of social skills and indicate different trajectories of problem behaviour for kindergarten children with no friends versus low‐quality friendships. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐consciousness,friendship quality,and adolescent internalizing problems

The correlates between public and private self‐consciousness and internalizing difficulties were examined during early adolescence. Friendship quality was assessed as a possible moderator of the relation between self‐consciousness and maladjustment. One hundred and thirty‐seven young adolescents (N=87 girls; M age=13.98 years) reported on their self‐consciousness, internalizing problems, and the quality of their best friendship. Results indicated stronger associations between private self‐consciousness and internalizing correlates than between public self‐consciousness and internalizing problems, suggesting that private self‐consciousness may be a stronger risk factor during adolescence. Contrary to expectations, evidence revealed that positive friendship quality may exacerbate some difficulties associated with self‐consciousness. Results pertaining to friendship quality add to the growing literature on the ways in which friendships can contribute to adjustment difficulties.     

Interracial Friendships, Multicultural Sensitivity, and Social Competence: How Are They Related?

The present study used sociometric questionnaires to examine the relationship between interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competence in fifth-grade children. Participants completed four questionnaires that provided information about who their friends were, friendship quality, racial and ethnic attitudes, and social competence. Results indicated that fifth-grade girls with high-quality interracial friendships indicated less minority rejection, more diverse social networks, and more sociability and leadership characteristics than their peers with no or low-quality interracial friendships. Similar results were not found for boys in the study. These findings have important educational and clinical implications.     

Relational peer victimization and psychosocial adjustment: The mediating role of best friendship qualities

With a sample of 414 tenth‐grade students (53% girls) from the Northeastern United States, the unique mediating roles that different dimensions of best friendship quality play in linking relational victimization and psychosocial maladjustment were examined. For both boys and girls, relational victimization was found to predict higher levels of internalizing behaviors directly and through partial mediation by greater conflict and weaker feelings of help within adolescents' best friendships. Increased conflict also partially mediated the association between relational victimization and higher levels of externalizing behaviors. Together, the results provide support for the significance of broader peer group functioning on both dyadic relationships and individual functioning.     

Stable same‐sex friendships with higher achieving partners promote mathematical reasoning in lower achieving primary school children

This study was designed to investigate friend influence over mathematical reasoning in a sample of 374 children in 187 same‐sex friend dyads (184 girls in 92 friendships; 190 boys in 95 friendships). Participants completed surveys that measured mathematical reasoning in the 3rd grade (approximately 9 years old) and 1 year later in the 4th grade (approximately 10 years old). Analyses designed for dyadic data (i.e., longitudinal actor‐partner interdependence model) indicated that higher achieving friends influenced the mathematical reasoning of lower achieving friends, but not the reverse. Specifically, greater initial levels of mathematical reasoning among higher achieving partners in the 3rd grade predicted greater increases in mathematical reasoning from 3rd grade to 4th grade among lower achieving partners. These effects held after controlling for peer acceptance and rejection, task avoidance, interest in mathematics, maternal support for homework, parental education, length of the friendship, and friendship group norms on mathematical reasoning.     

社会退缩青少年的友谊特点

用社会测量法和问卷法调查了初一到初三120对社会退缩儿童友伴的友谊状况。结果显示:(1)退缩男孩组的友谊质量低于女孩组和混合性别组;(2)与非退缩对照组儿童的友谊相比,退缩儿童在班级内的地位较为不利,但其友谊能够发挥正常的功能;(3)多元回归表明受欺侮和亲密交流对退缩行为的正向预测作用较强。建议从群体角度、友谊特性及适应后果等不同层面来综合判断儿童的社会退缩行为。     

Relations among early adolescents' parent-adolescent attachment, perceived social competence, and friendship quality

To assess whether the relation between attachment and friendship quality may be explained by social competence, 113 students in Grades 7 and 8 from the Baltimore metropolitan area completed self-report questionnaires on the variables of interest. In hierarchical regression analyses, both maternal Affective Quality of Attachment and the interaction of School with paternal Affective Quality of Attachment predicted social competence. Also, the interaction of School with paternal Affective Quality of Attachment predicted negative friendship features, whereas social competence predicted positive friendship features. These findings provide support for a pathway between adolescents' attachment to both parents and adolescents' perceived social competence and, in turn, their friendship quality.     

Prospective associations of co-rumination with friendship and emotional adjustment: considering the socioemotional trade-offs of co-rumination

Co-ruminating, or excessively discussing problems, with friends is proposed to have adjustment tradeoffs. Co-rumination is hypothesized to contribute both to positive friendship adjustment and to problematic emotional adjustment. Previous single-assessment research was consistent with this hypothesis, but whether co-rumination is an antecedent of adjustment changes was unknown. A 6-month longitudinal study with middle childhood to midadolescent youths examined whether co-rumination is simultaneously a risk factor (for depression and anxiety) and a protective factor (for friendship problems). For girls, a reciprocal relationship was found in which co-rumination predicted increased depressive and anxiety symptoms and increased positive friendship quality over time, which, in turn, contributed to greater co-rumination. For boys, having depressive and anxiety symptoms and high-quality friendships also predicted increased co-rumination. However, for boys, co-rumination predicted only increasing positive friendship quality and not increasing depression and anxiety. An implication of this research is that some girls at risk for developing internalizing problems may go undetected because they have seemingly supportive friendships.     

儿童的同伴交往与孤独感:一项2年纵向研究

用提名法和问卷法对小学的3、4年级274名儿童进行两年追踪调查,采用交叉滞后设计,考察了同伴交往4个特征水平上的变量与孤独感的相互预测关系。结果发现：（1）自我报告的同伴交往变量——友谊质量和社交自我知觉与孤独感之间的交叉滞后效应显著;而同伴评定的同伴交往变量——积极提名、消极提名、受同伴欺负、消极退缩与孤独感之间的交叉滞后效应不显著;另外,前测的互选朋友数能显著负向预测后测的孤独感,前测的孤独感不能显著预测后测的互选朋友数。（2）在排除了早期其它变量的效应之后,积极提名分、消极提名分、受同伴欺负得分、消极退缩得分、互选朋友数在两年之间仍然呈现出高度的稳定性;友谊质量和社交自我知觉以及孤独感则表现出中等程度的稳定性     

Friendship as a moderating factor in the pathway between early harsh home environment and later victimization in the peer group. The Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group

Two prospective investigations of the moderating role of dyadic friendship in the developmental pathway to peer victimization are reported. In Study 1, the preschool home environments (i.e., harsh discipline, marital conflict, stress, abuse, and maternal hostility) of 389 children were assessed by trained interviewers. These children were then followed into the middle years of elementary school, with peer victimization, group social acceptance, and friendship assessed annually with a peer nomination inventory. In Study 2, the home environments of 243 children were assessed in the summer before 1st grade, and victimization, group acceptance, and friendship were assessed annually over the next 3 years. In both studies, early harsh, punitive, and hostile family environments predicted later victimization by peers for children who had a low number of friendships. However, the predictive associations did not hold for children who had numerous friendships. These findings provide support for conceptualizations of friendship as a moderating factor in the pathways to peer group victimization.     

Effects of shyness and friendship on socioemotional adjustment during the college transition

This study identified (a) friendship changes during the first year of college, and how this change is affected by shyness, and (b) how shyness and friendship individually and in combination affect socioemotional well‐being. In Fall and Spring, first‐year college students reported on shyness, friendship quality and stability, internalizing symptoms, loneliness, and life satisfaction. There was substantial stability in friendships, particularly among shy students. A Person × Interpersonal Environment Interaction predicted socioemotional well‐being. Shy students with high‐quality versus low‐quality friendships reported lower internalizing symptoms. Although shyness was associated with increased loneliness and decreased life satisfaction, high‐quality friendships showed modest evidence of moderating these relationships. Many students maintained precollege friendships, but high‐quality friendships were particularly beneficial for shy students.     

The "cost of caring" in youths' friendships: considering associations among social perspective taking, co-rumination, and empathetic distress

The current research considered the costs of caring in youths' friendships. The development of a new construct, empathetic distress, allowed for a direct test of the commonly held belief that females suffer greater vicarious distress in response to close others' stressors and problems than do males. Empathetic distress refers to one's strongly sharing a relationship partner's distress over problems to the point of taking on the partner's distress and experiencing it as one's own. This new construct was examined in an ethnically diverse sample of early adolescents who responded to a series of questionnaires in their classrooms. Results indicated that girls did experience greater empathetic distress in friendships than did boys. In addition, the current research revealed that social perspective taking in friendships (i.e., the social-cognitive ability to infer and understand the friend's perspective) had adjustment trade-offs in that it predicted greater positive friendship quality but also greater empathetic distress in the friendship. Interestingly, the associations of social perspective taking with both positive friendship quality and empathetic distress were partially mediated by co-rumination or excessive discussion of problems. Applied implications of the findings that girls' greater social perspective taking and associated co-rumination contributed both to their greater positive friendship quality but also to greater costs of caring in the form of empathetic distress are discussed.     

The Best Friendships of Shy/Withdrawn Children: Prevalence, Stability, and Relationship Quality

The mutual best friendships of shy/withdrawn and control children were examined for prevalence, stability, best friend's characteristics, and friendship quality. Using peer nominations of shy/socially withdrawn and aggressive behaviors, two groups of children were identified from a normative sample of fifth-grade children: shy/withdrawn (n = 169) and control (nonaggressive/nonwithdrawn; n = 163). Friendship nominations, teacher reports, and friendship quality data were gathered. Results revealed that shy/withdrawn children were as likely as control children to have mutual stable best friendships. Withdrawn children's friends were more withdrawn and victimized than were the control children's best friends; further, similarities in social withdrawal and peer victimization were revealed for withdrawn children and their friends. Withdrawn children and their friends reported lower friendship quality than did control children. Results highlight the importance of both quantitative and qualitative measures of friendship when considering relationships as risk and/or protective factors.     

Personal and interpersonal antecedents and consequences of victimization by peers

This study was designed to determine whether the personal and interpersonal difficulties that characterize victimized children are antecedents of victimization, consequences of victimization, or both. Boys and girls in the 3rd through 7th grades (N = 173, mean age = 11.3 years) were assessed on victimization, personal variables (internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and physical strength), and interpersonal variables (number of friends and peer rejection). One year later children were assessed again on all variables. Internalizing problems, physical weakness, and peer rejection contributed uniquely to gains in victimization over time. Moreover, initial victimization predicted increases in later internalizing symptoms and peer rejection. These reciprocal influences suggest the existence of a vicious cycle that supports the strong temporal stability of peer victimization.     

Relations of Gender, Gender-Related Personality Characteristics, and Dating Status to Adolescents�� Cross-Sex Friendship Quality

This study examined how gender, instrumentality, expressivity and dating status were associated with adolescents?? perceived cross-sex friendship quality. Two hundred sixty-two Hong Kong Chinese heterosexual teenagers (117 males, 145 females) aged 14 to 18 rated the levels of companionship, closeness, help, security and conflict in their best cross-sex friendships. Results showed that girls perceived more help but also more conflicts. Instrumentality and expressivity were consistent correlates of closeness and security, but they predicted other features differently in the two genders. Daters reported higher levels of companionship, closeness and help. Dating girls, in particular, perceived these friendships as involving the highest levels of security. These results provide some support for social role theory and interdependency across adolescents?? social relationships.     

Adolescents' conceptions of the influence of romantic relationships on friendships

Although researchers have investigated how adolescents' friendships affect their romantic relationships, the influence of romantic relationships on friendships is unexamined. As a first step, 9th- (n = 198) and 11th grade students (n = 152) reported on their conceptions of friendship when one friend had a romantic relationship and when neither friend had a romantic relationship. As predicted, adolescents believed friendships in which a friend was dating would be characterized by less positive features and more negative features than friendships in which neither friend was dating. Additionally, older adolescents thought romantic relationships were more damaging to companionship and corumination than did younger adolescents. The closer nature of older adolescents' romantic relationships may result in lower quality friendships or older adolescents may be more aware of the potential negative consequences of romantic relationships for friendships. Girls viewed friendships as higher in conflict-rivalry and lower in corumination when one friend was dating while boys did not. And although girls and boys viewed friendships as lower in intimacy and companionship when a friend has a romantic partner, the difference was greater for girls than boys. Girls may be more sensitive to the effects of a friend's romantic relationship on their friendship than are boys. Findings necessitate theories of close relationships that incorporate age and gender as important variables.     

童年中期同伴关系的变化对孤独感的影响

在一年期间追踪调查了412名3、4、5年级儿童,探讨了同伴关系变化对孤独感的影响。结果表明:对于男孩而言,友谊质量上升,1年后测得的孤独感显著降低;友谊质量下降,1年后测得的孤独感显著增强。对于女孩而言,社交自我知觉下降,其1年后的孤独感显著增强;社交自我知觉稳定组的孤独感显著降低,社交自我知觉上升组的孤独感最低。同伴关系的变化对孤独感的影响因性别而异。     

Peer Rejection and Internalizing Behavior: The Mediating Role of Peer Victimization in Preschool

The author examined the relationship among peer rejection, peer victimization, and internalizing behaviors. The author hypothesized that physical and relational victimization would have a different indirect effect on the relationship between peer rejection and internalizing behaviors. Participants were 94 preschool children (37 girls; average age 49.97 months) from two university preschools located in the northern part of the United States. The results indicated that internalizing behaviors predicted the mediating variables only regarding relational victimization. Relational victimization indirectly affected the association between peer rejection and internalizing behaviors. The study provides evidence of the mediating effect of victimization behaviors on the relationship among peer rejection, victimization, and internalizing behaviors.     

Continued Bullying Victimization from Childhood to Young Adulthood: a Longitudinal Study of Mediating and Protective Factors

Bullying in schools has severe consequences for victims’ adjustment. It is unclear, however, whether victims of school bullying continue to be victimized in other contexts during adulthood. Mediating processes through which peer victimization in school increases the risk of revictimization in adulthood, as well as protective factors, also need to be explored. This study examined 1) the longitudinal association between peer victimization in school and victimization at work during young adulthood, 2) the predictive link of reactive and proactive aggression and anxious-withdrawn behavior in childhood with victimization in school and at the workplace, 3) the potential mediating role of depression symptoms, and 4) the potential protective effect of friendship support. The study included 251 participants (61% females) followed from age 12 to age 22. Participants reported about their victimization in school from ages 12 to 17 and their workplace victimization at age 22. They also reported about their depression-related thoughts and feelings and about friendship support. Teachers rated reactive and proactive aggression and anxiety-withdrawal at age 12. Structural equation modeling revealed that anxiety-withdrawal at age 12 predicted peer victimization in school, which in turn predicted later victimization at work. The latter association was partially mediated by increased depression symptoms. However, friendship support counteracted (via a main effect) the link between school victimization and subsequent depression symptoms. Bullying victims may benefit from interventions aimed at reducing depression symptoms and fostering social skills to establish supportive friendships to help avoid the generation of new interpersonal stress such as workplace victimization in adulthood.