Friendship quality and sociometric status: between-group differences and links to loneliness in severely abused and nonabused children.

OBJECTIVE: There were two main aims: first, to illuminate the difference between abused children's general popularity with classmates and success in close friendships; second, to examine the specific interactional qualities of abused children's friendships and their links to loneliness. METHOD: Thirty-five severely abused children and 43 matched, nonabused children were compared on peer-rated sociometric status, self-reported loneliness, and observed and self-reported friendship quality. RESULTS: Abused children were not rated significantly lower sociometrically, nor did they differ significantly from control children on several measures of friendship quality, such as resolving conflicts and helping each other. However, abused children were observed to be more negative and less proactive in their interactions. They also reported their friendships as being more conflictual, and as higher on betrayal and lower on caring. Only observational friendship variables predicted loneliness. CONCLUSIONS: The results challenge the assumption that abused children's peer relationships are uniformly more maladaptive than nonabused children's, and point to the possible benefits of structured interventions for "normalizing" their friendship interactions. The pattern of difficulties exhibited by abused children (e.g., conflict) provides foci for more specific interventions. Multi-method assessments are necessary and the multi-dimensional nature of children's social adjustment is important to understand.

The relations between parental friendships and children's friendships: self-report and observational analysis.

The relations between the quality of mothers' and fathers' friendships and that of their children's friendships was examined. One hundred twenty-five fourth-grade children (9 year olds) completed the Friendship Quality Questionnaire. Observational measures of the target children playing with their self-selected friend were also collected. Mothers and fathers separately completed the Friendship Quality Questionnaire about their best friend. Results indicated that children's self-reports and observational measures of friendship quality were not highly correlated for girls, but were moderately associated for boys. The quality of mothers' and fathers' friendships was related to the quality of children's friendships, but the nature of the relations with children's friendships differed for girls and boys. The implications of these findings for the socialization of friendship patterns and the assessment of children's friendships were noted.

Introduction to the special section on families and religion: a call for a recommitment by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Although religion is an important aspect of human experience, the topic is rarely evident in psychology journals. To correct this omission was the goal of this special section on families and religion. In the introduction to the section several reasons for the neglect of this topic are noted as well as the relevance of religion for family research and practice. The contributions of the articles in this section are highlighted. Finally, recommendations for a future research agenda are offered and the clinical implications of this topic are examined.

Beyond white and middle class: cultural variations in families--assessments, processes, and policies.

The goal of this special issue on cultural variations in families--assessments, processes, and policies--is to increase our understanding of families of different ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds. Articles in this issue represent a range of cultural groups, illustrate a pattern of both similarities and differences across groups, and reflect the recent emphasis on processes that account for variation in families of different ethnic backgrounds. The articles focus on strengths of families of different ethnic backgrounds in contrast to earlier deficit models. Finally, theoretical models that recognize within-group variability of different ethnic, racial, and cultural groups are illustrated in these articles.

Parent and child expressed affect and children's social competence: modeling direct and indirect pathways.

This study examined links between parents' and children's expressed affect during parent-child play and children's social functioning with peers. A total of 116 kindergarten-age children and their parents (114 mothers, 102 fathers) were observed during physical play interactions and were coded on global measures of expressed positive and negative affect. Kindergarten and 1st-grade teachers and peers provided measures of social competence. Latent variable path analysis with partial least squares was used to examine models that included "direct" and "indirect" pathways. Relations between parental positive affect and children's social competence were mediated by children's expressed positive affect. Parental negative affect was associated with negative social outcomes in children; however, these relations were not mediated by children's negative expressions. The strongest support for the hypothesized models was found in same-sex dyads.

Neighborhoods of southern California children and families.

Middle childhood is a time when children move beyond the boundaries of family to explore the neighborhood, forge their own relationships with friends and neighbors, and have experiences independent of their parents. Depending on the character of the surrounding community, parents are more or less comfortable allowing unfettered exploration by their children. This article reports a study of families with 9- and 10-year-olds in an array of southern California neighborhoods, showing close links between parent perceptions of their neighborhoods, the rules they impose on their children, and the children's experiences and social skills.

A longitudinal assessment of the academic correlates of early peer acceptance and rejection.

Examines the extent to which academic achievement and work habits of first and second graders are predicted by classroom social status over the kindergarten, first-, and second-grade period. Three hundred and forty five children (163 boys and 182 girls) from a southern California community comprised the sample. The ethnic distribution of the sample was approximately 45% Caucasian, 42% Latino, 9% African American, and 5% Asian or other ethnicity. Findings suggest that peer rejection assessed as early as kindergarten and social rejection that is stable across 2 years (kindergarten-first grade or first-second grade) are associated with deficits in first-grade work habits and second-grade academic achievement and work habits. In contrast, stable social acceptance appears to buffer children from early academic difficulty. The pattern of findings remain significant after controlling for initial kindergarten academic competence. The implications for clinical and educational intervention programs are discussed.

Reciprocal negative affect in parent-child interactions and children's peer competency.

The relationship between preschool children's peer competency and the exchange of reciprocal negative affect displays during physical play with parents was examined. Teacher ratings of children's peer competency were obtained from children's preschools. Parents and children (41 families) were observed during a physical play paradigm called "the hand game" which permitted physically stimulating play, yet which also permitted clear recording of participants' facial expressions. Interactions were coded second by second for 8 min using a system of 12 mutually exclusive and exhaustive codes to categorize the affect displayed by participants. Fathers who typically responded to their children's negative affect displays with negative affect of their own had children who shared less, were more aggressive, and avoided others. Implications of the findings for theories of family-peer relationships are discussed.

Family-peer connections: the roles of emotional expressiveness within the family and children's understanding of emotions.

The purpose of this study was to explore patterns of parent and child emotional expressiveness within the family context, to examine links between these patterns and children's peer relations, and to examine whether these links might be mediated by children's understanding of emotions. Subjects were 61 kindergarten and first-grade white, middle-class children and their parents. Parent and child expressiveness were assessed in a laboratory ring-toss game designed to elicit a range of emotional responses. Parent expressiveness in the home was also assessed with Halberstadt's Family Expressiveness Questionnaire. The questionnaire, completed by both mother and father, assesses a range of emotions in a variety of settings typical of many families, and consists of items tapping both positive and negative expressiveness. Children were interviewed about their understanding of emotions across a broad range of areas. Results indicated that maternal expressiveness (home) and paternal expressiveness (home and laboratory) but not children's expressiveness with parents were associated with children's peer relations. Although children's understanding of emotions was generally not associated with family expressiveness, understanding predicted children's peer relations. In addition, children's understanding influenced the links between maternal expressiveness in the home and peer relations and between paternal expressiveness in the laboratory and peer relations. This pattern of results underscores the importance of the emotional climate of the family for the development of children's social relations with peers.

Social referencing in infancy: a glance at fathers and marriage.

Social referencing refers to the tendency of a person to look to a significant other in an ambiguous situation in order to obtain clarifying information. The aims of the study were to assess the extent to which infants use fathers as referencing targets, and to assess the familial context that might mediate referencing to both parents. 40 11-month-old infants were observed once with their mothers and once with their fathers in a 15-min social referencing situation that involved entrance of a female stranger as the ambiguous stimulus. Infants used their fathers and mothers as referencing targets to an equal extent. Additionally, marital satisfaction was found to be a significant modifier of referencing. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that paternal marital satisfaction predicted social referencing to fathers as well as to mothers; no effect was found for maternal marital satisfaction alone. This suggests that in order to better understand early socioemotional development, it is necessary to consider the interdependence among various relationships within the family.

Grandparents as interactive and social support agents for families with young infants.

The role of grandparents in infancy was examined in a comparative analysis of grandparent-infant grandchild and parent-infant interaction patterns. A second focus of the study was an exploration of the extent to which grandparents function as social support agents for their adult children and infant grandchildren. Grandparents (30 grandmothers and 21 grandfathers) and parents (30 mothers and 30 fathers) of seven-month-old infants were observed in individual five-minute dyadic play sessions with the infant in the parents' homes, yielding twenty minutes of agent-infant interaction. The observations were scored using both time-sampling and global coding schemes. Information on grandparental support to the young parents and infants, relative to other social support sources, were also obtained from grandparents and parents. Results indicated that both grandmothers and grandfathers are active interactive and support agents, with a pattern of similarities and differences in interactive style across generation and gender. Although there was a high degree of overlap in parent and grandparent interaction styles, parents were rated as more competent. Gender consistencies were found between female agents (mothers and grandmothers) and male agents (fathers and grandfathers). High levels of intergenerational contact were reported, with both parents and grandparents highly satisfied with the contact. The results of this study support an expanded view of the effects of various agents in young children's social environment.

Bridging the gap: parent-child play interaction and peer interactive competence.

A multimeasure, multicontext study of the relationship between father-child and mother-child play and children's competence with preschool peers was conducted. 13 boys and 14 girls, ages 3-4 years, and their parents participated. Children were videotaped while playing with each parent separately for 20 min in their homes. Children's social competence with their peers was independently evaluated by 3 measures: (1) rankings of preschool teachers of popularity with peers, (2) Q-sort ratings of children's competence by their teachers, and (3) assessments of social interaction with 3 different preschool peers on separate occasions. Differential patterns of maternal and paternal behavior were associated with the social competence of boys and girls. Paternal physical play, engagement, and maternal verbal behavior were positively related to children's peer relations, especially for boys. Paternal directiveness was negatively related to popularity for boys and girls, while maternal directiveness was positively linked with popularity for girls. Opportunities for learning to regulate affect are hypothesized to contribute to these relationships. The study illustrates the linkages between family and peer social systems.

Imitation of live and televised models by children one to three years of age.

The results of these studies indicated that children younger than 1 year possess the cognitive capability of translating a perception of a novel action into their own behavior. However, the likelihood of imitation varied as a function of the nature of the target behavior. For example, actions requiring direct social commerce with the examiner were imitated less frequently than simple motor behaviors with objects, and reproducing gestures was more common than vocalizations. Moreover, imitation seemed to depend upon the child's level of mental development--the imitation of coordinated sequences, which requires the child to associate two external events, lagged behind the imitation of single-unit behaviors. There was no evidence for individual traits of general imitativeness, at least not until symbolic relations were involved. Live models were imitated more than TV models but only prior to age 3. While children under 2 years of age were not facile at imitating sequences of behaviors or delaying performance at short time after modeling, older toddlers readily and accurately imitated televised sequences even after a 24-hour delay. Whereas socially extroverted and fearless children imitated live models more than shy children, TV imitation was not related to temperament, home TV viewing habits, or parental education. Finally, the experience of being imitated may facilitate the social cognition of influencing another person.