青少年早期社交淡漠对同伴关系的预测：学习成绩的调节作用

摘要：对787名小学4年级至初中二年级学生进行一学年的追踪研究,考察社交淡漠对其后同伴接纳、同伴欺侮的预测,以及学习成绩对上述预测关系的调节效应。结果表明：（1）前测社交淡漠可以负向预测后测的同伴接纳,正向预测后测的同伴欺侮;（2）前测学习成绩可以正向预测后测的同伴接纳,负向预测后测的同伴欺侮;（3）社交淡漠对同伴接纳、同伴欺侮的预测受学习成绩的调节,较高的学习成绩会弱化社交淡漠对同伴关系不良的预测效应。这一结果表明,学习成绩可能是一种重要的缓冲因素,可以在一定程度上保护社交淡漠的青少年免受同伴的消极对待。     

Characteristics of academically-influential children: achievement motivation and social status

The contributions of academic achievement motivation and social status to peer-reported academic influence were explored in a sample of 322 children in grades three through five. Latent moderated structural equation modeling indicated that children who value academics are more likely to be rated by peers as academically influential. Social status also explained variability in academic influence, with well-liked and/or perceived popular children receiving more influence nominations than children low in social status. Additionally, social status moderated the relationship between motivation and influence such that children who were high in both academic value and social status were more likely to be nominated as academically influential than children low in those constructs. Contrary to expectations, academic self-efficacy was unrelated to peer-reported academic influence.     

Mere belonging: the power of social connections

Four experiments examined the effect on achievement motivation of mere belonging, a minimal social connection to another person or group in a performance domain. Mere belonging was expected to increase motivation by creating socially shared goals around a performance task. Participants were led to believe that an endeavor provided opportunities for positive social interactions (Experiment 1), that they shared a birthday with a student majoring in an academic field (Experiment 2), that they belonged to a minimal group arbitrarily identified with a performance domain (Experiment 3), or that they had task-irrelevant preferences similar to a peer who pursued a series of goals (Experiment 4). Relative to control conditions that held constant other sources of motivation, each social-link manipulation raised motivation, including persistence on domain-relevant tasks (Experiments 1-3) and the accessibility of relevant goals (Experiment 4). The results suggest that even minimal cues of social connectedness affect important aspects of self.     

A Field Experiment Demonstrates Near Peer Mentorship as an Effective Support for Student Persistence

The attitudes and behaviors of peers can predict an individual’s own behaviors, particularly during adolescence. However experimental studies have not demonstrated how slightly older near peers can exert a positive influence on important aspects of school motivation that predict student academic achievement over time. We designed and evaluated the effects of a randomized controlled field experiment where 8th-grade participants were randomly assigned to either a mentoring treatment group or a tutoring control group, both led by randomly selected and trained high school students. As predicted, participants in the treatment group increased in their tendency to value and persist through academic difficulty compared to those in the control group, with important potential implications for academic achievement and peer mentoring programs.     

儿童社交淡漠与学业成绩的发展轨迹：基于潜变量增长模型

采用同伴提名和教师评价对535名小学3~4年级儿童社交淡漠与学业成绩的发展进行了三次追踪研究,通过平行潜变量增长模型考察社交淡漠与学业成绩的发展轨迹及其相互作用模式。结果发现：（1）儿童社交淡漠和学业成绩在三年中较为稳定,三年中社交淡漠与学业成绩均呈负相关;（2）儿童学业成绩的初始水平可以负向预测社交淡漠的发展速度。该结果揭示学业成绩可能是儿童社交淡漠发展过程的重要保护因素,为儿童社会行为的健康发展提供了新的实证依据。     

Effects of a Teacher Professional Development Intervention on Peer Relationships in Secondary Classrooms

We investigated the effects of My Teaching Partner-Secondary (MTP-S), a teacher professional development intervention, on students' peer relationships in middle and high school classrooms. MTP-S targets increasing teachers' positive interactions with students and sensitive instructional practices and has demonstrated improvements in students' academic achievement and motivation. The current study tested the prediction from systems theory that effects of MTP-S on students would extend beyond the academic domain-that is, the ecology of teachers' behaviors towards students should also influence the ecology of students' behaviors towards one another. Participants were 88 teachers (43 randomly assigned to MTP-S and 45 assigned to a control group that received the regular professional development offerings in their school) and 1423 students in their classrooms. Observations and student self-report of classroom peer interactions were collected at the start and at the end of the course. Results indicated that in MTP-S classrooms, students were observed to show improvement in positive peer interactions, although this pattern was not found in self-report data. However, moderation analyses suggested that for students with high disruptive behavior at the start of the course, teacher participation in MTP-S mitigated a typical decline towards poorer self-reported peer relationships. The relevance of findings for the social ecology of classrooms is discussed.     

A question of belonging: race, social fit, and achievement

Stigmatization can give rise to belonging uncertainty. In this state, people are sensitive to information diagnostic of the quality of their social connections. Two experiments tested how belonging uncertainty undermines the motivation and achievement of people whose group is negatively characterized in academic settings. In Experiment 1, students were led to believe that they might have few friends in an intellectual domain. Whereas White students were unaffected, Black students (stigmatized in academics) displayed a drop in their sense of belonging and potential. In Experiment 2, an intervention that mitigated doubts about social belonging in college raised the academic achievement (e.g., college grades) of Black students but not of White students. Implications for theories of achievement motivation and intervention are discussed.     

小学儿童社会创造性与其同伴关系、学业成绩的关系

采用整群取样法, 选取387名小学儿童, 采用问卷法、同伴提名法和成绩评定, 考察了其社会创造性与其同伴关系、学业成绩的关系。结果表明:(1)小学儿童的社会创造性与学业成绩、社会喜好、社会影响, 学业成绩与社会喜好均呈显著正相关;(2)社会喜好在社会创造性与学业成绩之间、学业成绩在社会创造性与社会喜好之间、社会创造性在社会喜好与学业成绩之间均具有显著的中介效应, 社会影响在社会创造性对学业成绩的影响中具有显著的调节作用。     

同伴团体对儿童青少年学业成就和社会功能关系的影响

运用同伴评价、教师评估和学校记录等多种渠道收集关于同伴团体、社会功能、同伴接纳以及学业成就的资料,旨在考察同伴团体与儿童青少年学业成就和社会功能的关系。研究发现：绝大多数儿童青少年都有自己的同伴团体。这些同伴团体在学业成就上有很高的同质性。学业成就与社会适应无论在团体内的个体水平还是在团体水平上都密切相关。而且,团体的学业表现是个体学业成就和社会适应间的重要调节因素,表明团体学业规范对个体水平上学业成就与社会功能的关系有增强或是减弱的作用。这项研究再一次证明同伴团体在儿童个体发展中的重要意义。     

Swedish primary school pupils' inter-ethnic relationships

The aim of the Swedish educational policy is educional participation and academic achievement for all children, irrespective of ethnic backgroud. Majority lauguage instruction is an imortant tool used to achieve this goal. We argue that taking lessons in Swedish-as-a-second-lanuage (S2) sets children apart in their class and limits their possibilities to interact with Swedish children and the immigrant children, who do not receive S2-lessons. In accordance with the contact hypothesis, we assumed that this limitation would have a negative impact on peer evaluation of these pupils' social competence. 394 children in ethnically mixed classes (grades 4–6) participated in the study reported in this article. As hypothesized, S2-children's sociability was evaluated significantly lower than that of Swedish children. Immigrant children, who do not have S-2 lessons, do not have significantly lower scores. These findings were confirmed, using teachers' evaluations of children's social competence. It is suggested that more research is needed to investigate whether communicative skills, academic competence, or, perhaps, the organizational consequences of extra language lessons play a role in children's assessments of peer social competence.     

Group identity and peer relations: A longitudinal study of group identity,perceived peer acceptance,and friendships amongst ethnic minority English children

This research examined whether peer relationships amongst ethnic minority status children reflect the social groups to which children belong and the degree to which they identify with these groups. A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the influence of group identities (i.e., ethnic and national) on children's perceived peer acceptance and preference for same‐ethnic friendships. Measures of ethnic and English identification, perceived peer acceptance, and friendship choice were administered to 207 south‐Asian English children, aged between 5 and 11, at two time points 6 months apart. In line with predictions, longitudinal analysis showed that bicultural identification (i.e., higher ethnic and English identity) was related to higher perceived peer acceptance and less preference for same‐ethnic friendships. Importantly, as hypothesized, this finding was limited to the older children with more advanced social‐cognitive abilities. The results suggest that older children who adopted a bicultural identity were able to strategically ‘flag’ their multiple group identities, within their multicultural peer groups, to obtain acceptance amongst the maximum number of peers and show less preference for same‐ethnic friendships. This study extends previous peer relations research, which has typically focused on individual social deficits or classroom norms, by showing that group identities influence peer relationships amongst ethnic minority status children.     

The social adjustment, academic performance, and creativity of Taiwanese children with Tourette's syndrome

The purpose was to describe the social adjustment, academic achievement, and creativity of 127 Taiwanese children with Tourette's Syndrome and a control group of 138 Taiwanese children with typical development and reports of the parents of both groups. The Tourette's Syndrome group had significantly more disruptive behaviors than the controls; most parents reported their children with Tourette's Syndrome had high academic achievement although the children scored significantly lower than controls on the Elaboration subtest of Creative Thinking.     

小学四、五年级儿童同伴团体的特征及其对学业成就的调节作用

运用社交认知绘图（SCM）、班级戏剧量表与同伴提名等方法调查了处于同伴团体形成关键期的小学四、五年级学生294人,以考察同伴团体诸变量对个体学业成就与社会行为、同伴接纳／拒绝之间关系的影响。结果表明：（1）同伴团体在小学四、五年级尚处于初步形成期,其密度和中心势均随年级升高而提高;（2）性别、学业成就和社会行为是影响同伴团体形成的主要因素;（3）个体学业成就对同伴接纳与亲社会行为具有正向预测作用,对同伴拒绝与退缩行为具有负向预测作用;（4）团体密度和团体学业成就在同伴接纳与个体学业成就之间关系中起正向调节作用,团体中心势具有负向的调节作用;团体学业成就对亲社会行为与个体学业成就之间的关系具有正向调节作用。     

Learning how to help others: Two-year-olds’ social learning of a prosocial act

Engaging in prosocial behaviors (acts that benefit others) is associated with many positive outcomes in children, including the development of positive peer relationships, academic achievement, and good psychological functioning. This study examined the social learning mechanisms toddlers use to acquire prosocial behaviors. This brief report presents a new experimental procedure in which 2-year-olds (28–32 months, N = 30) saw a video of an adult performing a novel prosocial behavior in response to another person’s distress. Children then had the opportunity to imitate and implement the behavior in response to their own parent’s physical distress. Children who saw the video were more likely to perform the novel action and to display non-demonstrated prosocial behaviors relative to (a) children who did not view the video but saw a parent in distress and (b) children who saw the video but witnessed their mother engage in a neutral activity. These results suggest that toddlers imitate and emulate prosocial behaviors for social interaction and that children can apply such behaviors in appropriate situations.     

Perceived norms and social values to capture school culture in elementary and middle school

The current study was designed to gain insights into shifting school culture by examining perceived peer group norms and social values across elementary and middle school grades. Perceived norms were assessed by asking participants (N = 605) to estimate how many grade mates were academically engaged, disengaged, and antisocial. To capture social values, peer nominations were used to assess “coolness” associated with these behaviors. Perceived norms became gradually more negative from fall to spring and across grades four to eight. Whereas academic engagement was socially valued in elementary school, negative social and academic behaviors were valued in middle school. Additionally, improved social status was associated with increased academic engagement in fifth grade, disengagement in seventh and eighth grades, and antisocial behavior in sixth grade. The findings suggest that differences between elementary and middle school cultural norms and values may shed light on negative behavior changes associated with the transition to middle school.     

Racial‐ethnic Identity in Context: Examining Mediation of Neighborhood Factors on Children's Academic Adjustment

Research consistently shows that neighborhood socio‐demographic characteristics and residents’ neighborhood perceptions matter for youth well‐being, including a positive sense of racial‐ethnic identity. Although elementary‐school children are likely in the earlier phases of identity formation, the authors examined whether objective and subjective neighborhood characteristics are related to their racial‐ethnic identity and, in turn, their academic adjustment. A diverse sample (30.4% African American, 35.2% White, 12.3% Latino, & 22.0% Other) of 227 children in Grades 2 through 5 were surveyed in afterschool programs. Bivariate correlations showed that youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods reported more barriers due to their race‐ethnicity, but these barriers were not related to their sense of academic efficacy. Residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood was unrelated to youth's academic self‐efficacy. However, path analyses showed that positive neighborhood perceptions were associated with a stronger sense of race‐ethnicity (i.e., affirmation and belonging), which was in turn related to greater academic efficacy. These results suggest that neighborhood connection provides a source of affirmation and value for young children, helping them to understand who they are as part of a racial‐ethnic group and helping to foster a sense of future achievement opportunities. This study provides additional evidence that along with other important proximal contexts (e.g., family, school), young children's neighborhood context is important for development. Results are discussed to highlight environmental influences on young children's awareness of race‐ethnicity and the implications of the combined impact of neighborhood and racial‐ethnic identity on psychosocial adjustment.     

Challenging gender stereotypes: Theory of mind and peer group dynamics

To investigate the social cognitive skills related to challenging gender stereotypes, children (N = 61, 3–6 years) evaluated a peer who challenged gender stereotypic norms held by the peer's group. Participants with false belief theory of mind (FB ToM) competence were more likely than participants who did not have FB ToM to expect a peer to challenge the group's stereotypes and propose that the group engage in a non‐stereotypic activity. Further, participants with FB ToM rated challenging the peer group more positively. Participants without FB ToM did not differentiate between their own and the group's evaluation of challenges to the group's stereotypic norms, but those with ToM competence asserted that they would be more supportive of challenging the group norm than would the peer group. Results reveal the importance of social‐cognitive competencies for recognizing the legitimacy of challenging stereotypes, and for understanding one's own and other group perspectives.     

School socio-economic status and student socio-academic achievement goals in upper secondary contexts

In recent years motivational researchers have spent considerable time examining race/ethnicity and gender differences in academic and social achievement goals, but little time examining the influence of socioeconomic status (SES). This lack of attention is surprising given that both student motivation and SES have been shown to predict academic attainment. This study surveyed the academic and social achievement goal orientations of 16–17 year old students (n = 130) attending two schools with markedly different socioeconomic profiles. Analyses showed significant differences between the schools on the academic achievement goal scales, with students at the low SES school less likely to endorse adaptive combinations of mastery and performance goals than their high SES counterparts. Students who did not expect to finish senior high school also endorsed social goals that may manifest as disruptive behaviours in the classroom. The findings suggest that SES may influence the adoption of academic achievement goals but not necessarily social achievement goals. Implications for theory and research are discussed.     

Observations of aggressive children during peer provocation and with a best friend

Observational methods were used to examine aggressive children's peer relations in 2 contexts: when being teased by a peer and when interacting with a best friend. Because aggressive children may have more difficulty than nonaggressive children in both peer contexts, the authors also examined whether relations between behaviors across contexts varied as a function of aggression. Results indicated that aggression was related to children's behavior when provoked. Children's behavior when provoked was associated with fewer positive and more negative interactions with their best friend, particularly for aggressive children. Results are discussed with respect to social norms in middle childhood and informing interventions for aggressive children.