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.     

Personality and Metaphor Use: How Extraverted and Introverted Young Adults Experience Becoming Friends

Competing theories have viewed relationship formation as a gradual process or as an instant development, with little attention to differences in individual perceptions of the same relationship. In the present study, conceptual metaphors concerning relationship formation were identified and coded from interviews with each friend in 59 same‐sex, white, college‐age, US dyads (57% female). Friends were extreme and either very similar or different from one other with regard to extraversion–introversion. An actor–partner analysis found that friends paired with an extravert used more Force–Impact metaphors that conveyed an explosive ‘friends‐at‐first‐sight’ experience, whereas friends paired with an introvert used more Journey–Organism metaphors that reflected a gradual transition into friendship. Regardless of their partner's personality, extraverts and female friends used more Joint–Proximity metaphors that emphasised the development of intimacy. Results are interpreted using the Social Relations Model and the PERSOC approach to show how personality can serve both as an environment (partner) and as a cognitive schema (actor) to distinctly shape impressions of how a friendship develops. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

同伴关系与攻击行为稳定性的关系研究

研究采用同伴提名法、友谊质量问卷和班级戏剧量表,对430名小学3至5年级的儿童进行了为期一年的追踪调查,在此基础上考察了攻击行为的不同发展轨迹与同伴关系之间的联系.结果表明,不同的攻击行为发展轨迹在社会喜好上的主效应显著,但是在友谊质量上的差异不显著,具体来说:(1)不同外部攻击亚组之间在社会喜好变化趋势上存在显著差异,相对于先低后高组、持续高组和持续低组,先高后低组的社会喜好存在显著的上升趋势;相对于持续低组和持续高组,先低后高组存在显著的下降趋势.(2)不同关系攻击亚组之间在社会喜好变化趋势上存在显著差异,相对于先高后低组、持续低组和持续高组,先低后高组的社会喜好得分存在显著的下降趋势.     

Hans-Georg Gadamer “The Incapacity for Conversation” (1972)

In his 1972 essay “The Incapacity for Conversation” (“Die Unfähigkeit zum Gespräch”) Gadamer takes up the question of whether changes in society have made it such that we are losing our ability to participate in dialogue. By the end of the essay he argues that this is not the case and that the claim that someone is incapable of dialogue is merely an excuse for not listening to the other person. Over the course of the essay Gadamer provides a clarification of what exactly counts as a conversation and of how conversation is connected to friendship.     

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。     

初中生友谊认知的类型特点

本研究在已有理论及开放式问卷基础上首先确定友谊认知的初步结构,采用探索性因素分析调整结构并筛选题目,最终确定友谊认知问卷的4个维度。验证性因素分析表明,自编的友谊认知问卷具有较好的结构效度,其他各项信效度指标也均达到心理测量学的要求。另外,聚类分析表明可以把初中生的友谊认知划分为重情感-重兴趣、重情感-轻兴趣和情感淡漠-轻兴趣3种类型。     

Best linear prediction of composite universe scores

The problem of predicting universe scores for samples of examinees based on their responses to samples of items is treated. A general measurement procedure is described in which multiple test forms are developed from a table of specifications and each form is administered to a different sample of examinees. The measurement model categorizes items according to the cells of such a table, and the linear function derived for minimizing error variance in prediction uses responses to these categories. In addition, some distinctions are drawn between aspects of the approach taken here and the familiar regressed score estimates.The author thanks Robert L. Brennan, Michael J. Kolen, and Richard Sawyer for helpful comments and corrections, and anonymous reviewers for suggested improvements.     

Social support processes in early childhood friendship: A comparative study of ecological congruences in enacted support

Examined congruences between children's friendships and classroom social ecologies in three distinct settings, and poses that such congruences or social adaptations are aptly characterized as a process of enacted social support; i.e., an interpersonal transaction involving the reduction or evasion of stress. Data were derived from Corsaro's recent ethnographics of children's friendship and peer culture in a University Preschool (Corsaro, 1985) and Head Start center (Corsaro, 1994), and from Rizzo's (1989) ethnography of friendship development among first-grade children. Despite vast differences across settings, the nature and activities of children's friendships appeared consistently linked with specific organizational features in their life-worlds and in this way may constitute significant interpersonal and individual adaptations to that world. In this view, friendship is best seen not as a static entity, which children appropriate in a consistent fashion, but as a general and malleable concept, which they modify and use in a collaborative fashion to address shared psychosocial concerns. Findings are related to research on the link between perceived and enacted support, and on the interplay between relational and social support processes.     

短期目标和长期目标设置对投篮成绩,努力程度和状态焦虑的影响

这篇论文调查了短期目标和长期目标对投篮成绩、努力程度和状态焦虑的影响．８７名被试被随机分配到以下一个组中：（１）短期目标组,（２）长期目标组,（３）短期和长期目标结合组,（４）“尽力做好”组。实验时间为７周。研究结果显示：（１）结合目标组、短期目标组和长期目标组的投篮成绩显著优于“尽力做好”组;（２）结合目标组的投篮成绩提高幅度最大,其次是短期目标组和长期目标组,最后是“尽力做好”组,（３）结合目标组、短期目标组和长期目标组的投篮成绩随练习次数的增加而显著提高,（４）努力程度是结合目标组和短期目标组投篮成绩提高的调节变量。     

A PEER-MEDIATED SOCIAL NETWORK INTERVENTION TO ENHANCE THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH MODERATE AND SEVERE DISABILITIES

Increasingly, parents, teachers, and students with disabilities are advocating for interventions that go beyond skill training to provide support for participation in integrated environments and support for friendships. The present research demonstrated a social network intervention for youths with moderate and severe disabilities. Two groups of nondisabled peers were recruited to participate in weekly discussions with an adult integration facilitator to increase opportunities for social interaction for 2 students (1 with autism and 1 who was moderately mentally retarded). The groups met to discuss social interactions that had occurred with the students with disabilities and to talk about strategies to promote greater inclusion of the students into ongoing social interaction. The nondisabled students participated in the design and implementation of social skills interventions during transition times and lunch. The nondisabled students used self-monitoring data sheets to record the quantity and quality of interactions. The frequency of interaction, number of opportunities for interaction, and appropriateness of social interactions were analyzed with a multiple baseline design. Results indicated that the social network intervention was successful in increasing the quantity and quality of interactions and that the network strategy promoted the development of friendships. The results are discussed in terms of the need for additional research showing the relationships between increases in social competence, peer-mediated intervention, and the development and support of friendship.