Chapter 13 - Peer Relationships

Play

* voluntary activities, particulary those of children, with no specific motivation beyond their inherent enjoyment

Non-social types of play

• unoccupied play

• onlooker play

• solitary play

Social types of play

• parallel play

• associative play

• cooperative play

What does play teach?

• cooperation

• how to take turns

• gives them the opportunity to try out social roles

• fosters cognitive development

• encourages language development

physical play

• develops motor skills

• coordination

• balance

• strenght

• promots emotional regulation

• increases positive emotions

CCPT

• child-centered play therapy

• encourages children to express thoughts and emotions through free play

friend

* a person an individual has an intimate, reciprocated, positive relationship

children’s choice of friends

• friendly and social

• similar interests and behaviour

• similar cognitive maturity of play, levels of antisocial behaviour, acceptance by peers, shyness, and levels of cooperativeness

• similar age

• proximinity (varies by culture)

• gender

• same racial/ethnic group

The fact that friends tend to be similar makes it difficult to know whether friends really ______ or whether children simply seek out peers who act the way they do.

affect one’s behaviour

children increasingly define their friendships in terms of:

companionship, similarity in interests, acceptance, trust, genuineness, mutual admiration, and loyalty

Social-compensation hypothesis

* argues that social media can be beneficial for lonely, depressed, and socially anxious teenagers because they can spend more time revising what they say.

Benefits of online communiation

* online communication seems to foster self-disclosure, enhance friendship quality, and let teenagers connect with people to strengthen relationships

Rich-get-richer hypothesis

Youth who already have good social skills benefit from the Internet and related forms of technology when it comes to developing friendships but those who are shy and withdrawn tend to inappropriately vent online which hurts further interactions with peers

Having close, reciprocated friendships in elementary school has been linked to a variety of ______ psychological and behavioural outcomes for children, even into adulthood

positive

Teenager’s use of alcohol and drugs and their friends’ substance use ______ each other, often resulting in an escalation of use

mutually reinforces

Youth with similar genetically based temperamental characteristics like risk-taking may be drawn to one another and drugs and alcohol, so there may be a correlation between _________

genetics and their socialization experiences

Bullying behaviour

• results from a power imbalance

• happens through school groups as well as virtually

• is influenced by a range of individual, home, school, neighbourhood, and societal factors

• tend to be callous, susceptible to peer pressure, higher in social status, and tend to have harsh and insensitive parents

Girls are more likely than boys to co-ruminate with close friends, and girls who are depressed seem more susceptible to the ________ of their friends

anxiety or depression

sociometric status

* a measurement that reflects the degree to which children are liked or disliked by their peers

5 groups of sociometric status

popular, rejected, neglected, average, controversial

what affects peer status?

• physical attractiveness

• athleticism

• status of one’s friends

• children’s social behaviour

• personality

• cognitions about others

• goals when interacting with peers

popular children

• children are viewed positively by many and disliked by few

• skilled at initiating interactions with peers and maintaining positive relationships with others

• perceived by peers and teachers as cooperative, friendly, sociable, helpful and sensitive to others

• can regulate their own emotions and behaviours, and tend to have a relatively high number of low-conflict reciprocated friendships

• not necessarily the most likable, they have other attributes like prestige, athletic ability, physical attractiveness, or wealth that give them power over peers

• tend to be aggressive and use aggressiveness to obtain goals

• able to control the interactions of peers

rejected children

• children are liked by few peers and disliked by many

• more likely to be motivated by the notion of getting revenge

• have more trouble than others in finding constructive solutions to difficult social situations

  • suggest more hostile, demanding, and threatening strategies to deal with difficult social situations

aggressive-rejected children

• prone to physical aggression, disruptive behaviour, delinqunecy, and negative behaviour such as hostility and threatening others

• at risk for becoming even more aggressive over time, engaging in delinquent behaviour, and exhibiting symptoms of ADHD, conduct disorder, and substance abuse

• may become rejected by peers, which leads them to be both lonely and angry which they express through more aggression (cyclical)

withdrawn-rejected

• rejected children who are socially withdrawn, wary and often timid

• frequently victimized by peers, feel isolated, lonely and depressed

• negative feedback loop: withdrawn children are rejected by peers, which leads them to withdraw further to avoid peer rejection

neglected

• children who are just not noticed by peers.

• withdrawn but relatively socially competent

• less sociable and less disruptive

• likely to back away from peer interactions that involve aggression

• receive less support from peers but are not particularly anxious about social interactions

controversial children

• liked by quite a few peers, and are disliked by quite a few others

• tend to have characteristics of both popular and rejected children

  • tend to be aggressive, disruptive, prone to anger, but also cooperative, sociable, good at sports and humorous

  • are socially active and tend to be group leaders

• sometimes develop a network of aggressive friends and are accepted in their peer group, and those who start fights can be viewed as cool, making aggressive children popular

• tend to be viewed by peres as arrogant and snobbish

Research in a variety of regions further indicates that rejected children that are aggressive are more likely than peers to have ______________

academic difficulties, are absent from school more frequently, and have lower grade-point averages

Culture and changes in culture appear to affect children’s evaluations of what is ______ behaviour

desirable

Parent’s strategies for shaping peer relationships

• monitoring and orchestrating children’s interactions with peers

• coaching children on how to interact with unfamiliar peers, which results in them being more socially skiled and more likely to be accepted by peers

Attachment theory maintains that whether a child’s attachment to the parent is secure or insecure affects the child’s future _____________

social competence & the quality of the child’s relationships with others, including peers

securely attached children develop _______ and are thus inclined to interact readily with others

positive social expectations

insecure attachment is likely to impair a child’s _______ with peers

competence

children who are not securely attached do tend to have ______ with peer relationships

difficulties

securely attached children tend to be generally happy and have ______ as found in studies with children all around the world

good social skills

Ongoing parent-child interactions are associated wtih peer relations in much the same way _________ are

attachment patterns

Quality of parenting influences the degree to which children behave in __________ which affects whether they are accepted by peers or not

socially competent ways

Relationships with ____may have a stronger link to mental health than peer relationships

parents