ABSTRACT
In this study, the authors investigated the characteristics that predict best friend status in young children. One hundred and twenty-four preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade children identified their "best friend" and up to four "other friends" in their class. Teachers completed a questionnaire about each friendship to determine positive and negative features of the relationships. First, the authors used individual characteristics to predict if a child had a best friend. The variables age, gender, and peer acceptance predicted that a child would have a best friend. Second, positive friendship features positively predicted best friendships in analyses of all friendship pairs. Best friendships are meaningful relationships to children even at this young age and offer children more positive experiences than do other friendships.
Subject(s)
Friends , Interpersonal Relations , Peer Group , Social Behavior , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Prospective Studies , Social Perception , Sociometric TechniquesABSTRACT
In this study, we examined a model that describes both direct and indirect pathways between children's temperament and activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis when children are in peer-group settings. We hypothesize that in peer-group settings both shy, inhibited and exuberant, undercontrolled children would exhibit higher cortisol levels, but these associations would operate through different pathways. Sociometric measures of peer rejection, salivary cortisol, and teacher reports of temperament were collected on 82 preschoolers. Children who were rejected by classmates had higher cortisol levels than the other children. The combination of Surgency and Poor Effortful Control (Effortful Control, reverse scored) was associated with elevated cortisol through a pathway mediated by aggressive interactions with peers and peer rejection. With the indirect path explained, the combination of Surgency and Poor Effortful Control also was directly and negatively associated with classroom cortisol levels. These results help explain why temperament associations with HPA activity have been variable and difficult to discern when children are assessed in peer-group contexts. In these contexts, both direct and indirect pathways between temperament and cortisol need to be examined.
Subject(s)
Arousal/physiology , Hydrocortisone/blood , Peer Group , Rejection, Psychology , Temperament/physiology , Aggression/physiology , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System/physiology , Individuality , Internal-External Control , Male , Pituitary-Adrenal System/physiology , Social Environment , Sociometric TechniquesABSTRACT
An unexpected rise in cortisol across the day in full-day, center-based childcare has been recently observed. Most of the children in these studies exhibited the rise across the day at childcare, but the expected drop at home. Possible explanations include more or less napping at childcare than at home. This study measured cortisol during childcare at 10:30 a.m., pre-rest, post-rest, and 3:30 p.m. for 35 children, and at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. at home for 8 children. Duration and quality of rest were coded during nap periods. For 91% of children, cortisol rose at childcare and for 75% dropped at home. None of the napping variables were related to the rise at childcare nor were differences found between home and childcare rest. Factors other than daytime rest periods seem likely to account for the rise in cortisol across the childcare day, possibly factors involving the interactional demands of group settings during this developmental period.
