Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience frequent and persisting peer rejection, yet current social skills training is ineffective. The current study focused on emotion dysregulation as a possible mediator between ADHD symptoms and poor peer outcomes with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms as a moderator. Participants included 145 elementary-age children ranging from 8-10 years old. Parents and teachers rated children’s ADHD and ODD symptoms as well as their social skills. Parents also rated children on their emotion regulation abilities. Children then participated in a three-hour playgroup with unfamiliar peers in six structured and unstructured tasks. Research assistants provided global ratings of emotion regulation and peer rejection during each of the six tasks. At the end of the playgroup, children and staff completed sociometric questions about each child. Using multiple raters and methods, observed emotion regulation was found to mediate between increased symptoms of ADHD and worse peer relations as rated by the playgroup staff members. There were limited findings of significant moderation by ODD. Emotion dysregulation may be a valuable target for intervention in order to improve peer relations for children with ADHD.

abstract: Despite some prevailing attitudes that bullying is normal, relatively innocuous behavior, it has recently been recognized as a serious problem in schools worldwide. Victimized students are more likely to evidence poor academic and semi-academic outcomes, experience social difficulties, and drop out of school in comparison to their non-victimized peers. Although anti-bullying programs have proliferated during the last decade, those aimed at helping children cope with bullying often suffer from a lack of basic research on the effectiveness of children's responses to bullying. The focus of this study was to delineate the ways in which elementary school-aged children typically cope with peer victimization, then to examine which strategies reduce future risk for harassment and associated adjustment problems to inform prevention and intervention program development. A cohort-sequential design was used to examine the effectiveness of children's strategies for coping with peer victimization. The sample included 317 children (157 boys; 49.5% Caucasian, 50.5% Hispanic; M age =10 years 5 months at T1) who were surveyed in the Fall and Spring of two academic years. Confirmatory factory analysis was used to validate the factor structure of the coping measure used and internal reliability was verified. Comparison of means indicated differences in children's coping based upon sex and age. For example, girls tend to cope more emotionally and cognitively, while boys are more behavioral in their coping. Regression results indicated that a number of specific relationships were present between coping, victimization, loneliness, and anxiety. For example, support seeking behavior was effective at decreasing victimization for younger children (fourth graders) who experienced high initial victimization. In contrast, revenge seeking behavior was predictive of increased victimization for both girls and highly victimized students. Problem solving was effective at reducing adjustment problems over time for younger students and, although results for older students were non-significant, it appears to be a promising strategy due to a lack of association with negative future outcomes. Results highlight the importance of identifying influential characteristics of individual children in order for prevention and intervention programs to successfully decrease the incidence and adverse impact of bullying behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Psychology 2010

abstract: This study examined the influence of childhood aggression, peer exclusion and associating with deviant peers on the development of antisocial behavior in early adolescence. To gain a stronger understanding of how these factors are associated with antisocial behavior and delinquency, multiple alternative pathways were examined based on additive, mediation and incidental models. A parallel process growth model was specified to assess whether early childhood aggression and peer exclusion (in 1st grade) and intra-individual increases in aggressive behaviors and exclusion through childhood (grades 1 to 6) are predictive of associating with deviant peers (in 7th grade) and antisocial behavior (in 8th grade). Based on a sample of 383 children (193 girls and 190 boys), results showed the strongest support for an additive effects model in which early childhood aggression, increases in aggression, increases in peer exclusion and associating with more deviant peers all predicted antisocial behavior. These findings have implications for how children's psychological adjustment is impacted by their behavioral propensities and peer relational context and the importance of examining developmental processes within and between children over time. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Family and Human Development 2011

abstract: The moderating effects of five characteristics of peers--their effortful control, anger, sadness, aggression, and positive peer behavior--were investigated in two separate series of analyses of preschooler's social behavior: (a) the relation between children's own effortful control and social behavior, and (b) the relation between children's shyness and reticent behavior. Latent variable interactions were conducted in a structural equation framework. Peer context anger and effortful control, albeit with unexpected results, interacted with children's own characteristics to predict their behavior in both the EC and shy model series; these were the only significant interactions obtained for the EC model series. The relation between shyness and reticent behavior, however, showed the greatest impact of peer context and, conversely, the greatest susceptibility to environmental variations; significant interactions were obtained in all five models, despite the limited range of peer context sadness and aggression observed in this study. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2012

No description available.

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo analizar la relación entre la calidad de las relaciones con pares y la insatisfacción con la imagen corporal en una muestra de adolescentes mujeres de una institución educativa privada de Lima Metropolitana. Las participantes fueron 191 adolescentes mujeres entre 13 y 17 años (M = 14.95, DE = 1.16). Se utilizó el Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI) para medir la calidad de las relaciones entre pares y dos instrumentos para medir la insatisfacción con la imagen corporal: el Contour Drawing Rating Scale (CDRS) y una medida de ítem único de imagen corporal. El análisis de los resultados determinó que existe correlación negativa y de magnitud baja entre la dimensión de soporte y la insatisfacción con la imagen corporal (r = -.16, p < .05). Asimismo, se halló una correlación positiva, significativa y de magnitud moderada entre la insatisfacción con la imagen corporal y el índice de masa corporal (IMC) de las participantes (r = .36, p < .01). / The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between the quality of relationships with peers and body dissatisfaction in adolescent women from a private school in Lima (Peru). The participants were 191 female adolescents between 13 and 17 years old (M = 14.95, SD = 1.16). The Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI) was used to measure the quality of peer relationships and two instruments were used to measure body dissatisfaction: Contour Drawing Rating Scale (CDRS) and a single item measure of body image. The results showed a negative but low correlation between the support dimension and body dissatisfaction (r = -.16, p <.05). Likewise, a positive, significant, and moderate correlation was found between body dissatisfaction and the body mass index (BMI) of participants (r = .36, p <.01). / Tesis

This diploma thesis focuses on classroom environment and the possibilities of psychological intervention. The theoretical part deals with three main topics: classroom as a small social group, classroom environment and the possibilities of psychological intervention in such an environment. It describes the functioning of a classroom as a small social group, the principles of its development and relevant diagnostic methods. Classroom environment is defined by the components it is made of and aspects it is influenced by. Further on, the topic of positive classroom environment and its impact on the effectiveness of the instruction and the development of the personality of the pupils are discussed. The last topic outlines the possibilities of psychological intervention from the teacher's and school psychologist's points of view. The empirical part presents the outcomes of a research carried out in nine grammar school classrooms in order to analyse their environment - first-year students in comparison with fifth-year students. A set of three methods, two questionnaires and one graphic method, were used in the research. The results have shown corresponding tendencies in the environment of groups functioning on a long-term basis and newly-formed ones. Psychological intervention in the environment of selected...

<p>Pre-school as a Meeting Place – Children’s Access-strategies and Exclusions in Play and Conversation</p><p>Abstract</p><p>The research reported in this thesis attempts to understand what happens when children interact with each other in the context of activities in a pre-school setting (here called Daggkåpan) when adults are not involved. By using ethnographically inspired methodology, in combination with conversation-analysis, this project has been analysing everyday interaction between children who are three to five years old. The aim of the project was to understand how children at Daggkåpan create relationships and how they defend and protect their interactional spaces. I have studied how children shape, maintain and interrupt relationships and interactions with one another. I have studied and analysed what kinds of access-strategies the children utilize and create and also how these children exclude one another in play activities and everyday conversations. Sociocultural and interactionistic perspectives have been used. Findings suggest that it is very important for these children to maintain interactions with peers and gain access to play groups. The children of Daggkåpan create and use several different strategies for gaining access. The results also indicate that gaining access to play groups is particularly difficult in preschool settings since young children tend to protect shared spaces and ongoing play activities from children outside the realms of these spaces and activities. Children also co-construct a number of strategies for excluding peers from their interactional spaces. Steering clear from the dominating perspective that categorizes children and focuses on the individual child, I have in contrast focused children during their interaction with one another in peer group activities. In other words I have discussed peer-relations, peer-socialization and peer-perspectives from an interactional view. Studying peer-interactions through microanalysis allows for understanding what is meaningful for children in their peer-culture in preschool.</p><p>Britt Tellgren</p>

In this study we analyse children's play and what access rules children use when they enter an ongoing play. The study also shows, through observations, how children can exclude each other from being part of the play. We have analysed how educators work with and how they relate to children's play and exclusion, also what their previous experience in the subject is. The study has its theoretical basis in Honneths moral theory and the development of educational perspective that Pramling Samuelsson &amp; Asplund Carlsson describes. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Our analysis is based on observations where children are not allowed to enter the ongoing play due to different factors. The play is seen as a central and important part of the children's every day activity at preschool and contains several furtherance dimensions in their development. The educators approach and thoughts are presented and analysed with the interview that has been done. The study results show that children master many access strategies, and use them frequently. Children's exclusions are often related to the ongoing play and its content where children protect their interaction space in the fear that their play will be ruined. In our interview responses, it appears that educators have the tools to promote and work with children's relationship creation, but that it is complex and often contextual. It appears that the work on the friendship culture at preschool contains many challenges and that it is something that has to be constantly worked with.

Pre-school as a Meeting Place – Children’s Access-strategies and Exclusions in Play and Conversation The research reported in this thesis attempts to understand what happens when children interact with each other in the context of activities in a pre-school setting (here called Daggkåpan) when adults are not involved. By using ethnographically inspired methodology, in combination with conversation-analysis, this project has been analysing everyday interaction between children who are three to five years old. The aim of the project was to understand how children at Daggkåpan create relationships and how they defend and protect their interactional spaces. I have studied how children shape, maintain and interrupt relationships and interactions with one another. I have studied and analysed what kinds of access-strategies the children utilize and create and also how these children exclude one another in play activities and everyday conversations. Sociocultural and interactionistic perspectives have been used. Findings suggest that it is very important for these children to maintain interactions with peers and gain access to play groups. The children of Daggkåpan create and use several different strategies for gaining access. The results also indicate that gaining access to play groups is particularly difficult in preschool settings since young children tend to protect shared spaces and ongoing play activities from children outside the realms of these spaces and activities. Children also co-construct a number of strategies for excluding peers from their interactional spaces. Steering clear from the dominating perspective that categorizes children and focuses on the individual child, I have in contrast focused children during their interaction with one another in peer group activities. In other words I have discussed peer-relations, peer-socialization and peer-perspectives from an interactional view. Studying peer-interactions through microanalysis allows for understanding what is meaningful for children in their peer-culture in preschool.