20 research outputs found
Representation of Friendship and Aggressive Behavior in Primary School Children
This study examines the representation of friendship during middle childhood and its
impact on aggressive behavior. The literature shows that friendship is almost a “gym
of social skills,” which, in turn, are protective factors against aggressive behavior; in
this regard, the quality of friendship is especially important, but this quality becomes
less and less accessible to direct observation as children grow older and spend most
of their time in the externally regulated environment of primary school. To assess
friendship quality requires allowing children to present their own perspective on the
relationship, a goal that we have tackled through drawing. Children aged 6–11 years
were individually asked to draw themselves and a close friend in two situations (i.e.,
relational wellbeing and relational distress) and to complete a 20-item scale of physical
and verbal aggression. Data were analyzed with three main aims, namely, (1) to show
if and how the representation of two core features of relationships (i.e., relatedness
and individuality) changes according to the situation and/or according to the children’s
gender; (2) to focus on the representation of distressing situations to verify if they
coincide with forms of conflict and if they differ according to the children’s gender; and
(3) to verify if the strength of indices of relatedness and individuality, both in situations of
wellbeing and distress, predicts children’s tendency to enact aggressive behaviors. The
results confirm that relatedness is the dominant feature of friendship, especially in the
situation of wellbeing and when the situation becomes distressing. Conflict is not always
present when children do not feel fine with their friends; boys and girls do not differ
significantly in this regard, but they do differ in terms of the management of relatedness
and individuality when problematic situations arise. In line with previous studies, sex is
the main predictor of aggressive behavior with peers, with boys more at risk than girls;
however, the capacity to relate with one’s own friend even in difficult times (in which boys
are not inferior to girls) predicts lesser aggression with peers in general
Maternal acceptance–rejection and psychological adjustment in childhood: comparison between mother and child perspective
Hostile attributional bias and aggressive behavior in global context.
We tested a model that children's tendency to attribute hostile intent to others in response to provocation is a key psychological process that statistically accounts for individual differences in reactive aggressive behavior and that this mechanism contributes to global group differences in children's chronic aggressive behavior problems. Participants were 1,299 children (mean age at year 1 = 8.3 y; 51% girls) from 12 diverse ecological-context groups in nine countries worldwide, followed across 4 y. In year 3, each child was presented with each of 10 hypothetical vignettes depicting an ambiguous provocation toward the child and was asked to attribute the likely intent of the provocateur (coded as benign or hostile) and to predict his or her own behavioral response (coded as nonaggression or reactive aggression). Mothers and children independently rated the child's chronic aggressive behavior problems in years 2, 3, and 4. In every ecological group, in those situations in which a child attributed hostile intent to a peer, that child was more likely to report that he or she would respond with reactive aggression than in situations when that same child attributed benign intent. Across children, hostile attributional bias scores predicted higher mother- and child-rated chronic aggressive behavior problems, even controlling for prior aggression. Ecological group differences in the tendency for children to attribute hostile intent statistically accounted for a significant portion of group differences in chronic aggressive behavior problems. The findings suggest a psychological mechanism for group differences in aggressive behavior and point to potential interventions to reduce aggressive behavior
Drawing instead of answering to evaluate the effectiveness of food safety programmes in primary school
Perceived mother and father acceptance-rejection predict four unique aspects of child adjustment across nine countries.
Background: It is generally believed that parental rejection of children leads to child maladaptation. However, the
specific effects of perceived parental acceptance-rejection on diverse domains of child adjustment and development
have been incompletely documented, and whether these effects hold across diverse populations and for mothers and
fathers are still open questions. Methods: This study assessed children’s perceptions of mother and father
acceptance-rejection in 1,247 families from China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden,
Thailand, and the United States as antecedent predictors of later internalizing and externalizing behavior problems,
school performance, prosocial behavior, and social competence. Results: Higher perceived parental rejection
predicted increases in internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and decreases in school performance and
prosocial behavior across 3 years controlling for within-wave relations, stability across waves, and parental age,
education, and social desirability bias. Patterns of relations were similar across mothers and fathers and, with a few
exceptions, all nine countries. Conclusions: Children’s perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection
have small but nearly universal effects on multiple aspects of their adjustment and development regardless of the
family’s country of origin. Keywords: Parental acceptance-rejection, behavior problems, school performance,
prosocial behavior, social competence, cross-cultural