The importance of social worlds: an investigation of peer relationships [Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No. 29]

Abstract

In the following report, we investigate the developing social worlds in late primary school, exploring the patterns in children’s general peer relationships, their closer and more significant friendships and bullying behaviours. Using cluster analysis, we identify unique groups of children characterized not only by their experiences of bullying and victimization, but the support and satisfaction they receive from their friendships and interactions between the ages of 8 and 10. We also expand past research by examining how children’s early development (ages 3 to 4) may predict their later designation as bullies and/or victims, and whether peer clusters relate to children’s contemporaneous and later adjustment