The unique contributions of peer acceptance, friendship, and victimization to adjustment were examined. How these relational systems moderate the influence of one another to influence adjustment was also investigated. Friendship quality, a unique aspect of friendship, was expected to be especially important for adjustment when other relational systems were poor. A total of 238 fifth to eighth graders (boys = 109) participated in the survey-style paradigm. Youth participants completed measures assessing their friendships and peer relationships. Teachers provided assessments of adjustment. Adolescents who had lower levels of peer acceptance, number of friends, and friendship quality had greater teacher-reported maladjustment. Friendship quality was also an important buffer against adjustment problems when peer acceptance and number of friends were low. The outcomes of this article suggest that an approach that includes examining the quality of adolescents' friendships, peer interactions, and interactive models of relationship dimensions are informative for understanding adolescents' general adjustment.

This research examined how conscientiousness contributes to adolescents' positive peer relationships and vulnerability to poorer ones. Given its temperamental origins in effortful control, conscientiousness was expected to be particularly important. A total of 256 fifth to eighth graders completed personality, peer-relationship, and victimization measures. Peers, parents, and teachers also completed assessments. Adolescents higher on conscientiousness experienced less victimization, better quality friendships, and higher peer acceptance even after controlling for the other Big Five dimensions. Externalizing and/or attention problems mediated the link between conscientiousness and peer relations. Conscientiousness moderated the relation between internalizing problems and poor interpersonal functioning. Results suggest that self-control processes associated with conscientiousness are important in developing and maintaining relationships in adolescence.

This multimethod research linked the Big-Five personality dimensions to interpersonal conflict in childhood. Agreeableness was the personality dimension of focus because this dimension has been associated with maintaining positive interpersonal relations in adolescents and adults. In two studies, elementary school children were assessed on the Big-Five domains of personality. Study 1 (n=276) showed that agreeableness was uniquely associated with endorsements of conflict resolution tactics in children as well as parent and teacher reports of coping and adjustment. Study 2 (n=234) revealed that children's perceptions of themselves and others during conflict was influenced by their agreeableness regardless of their partner's agreeableness. Observers also reported that pairs higher in agreeableness had more harmonious, constructive conflicts. Overall findings suggest that of the Big-Five dimensions, agreeableness is most closely associated with processes and outcomes related to interpersonal conflict and adjustment in children.

This study examined the contributions of peer acceptance and friendship (i.e., number and quality) on children being relationally or overtly peer victimized. Fifth-and sixth-grade children (N= 207, 92 boys) provided self-and peer-reports of victimization, friendship, and peer acceptance. General peer acceptance and high-quality friendships uniquely predicted both overt and relational victimization. Fall victimization did not predict spring friendship quality; however, fall friendship quality did predict spring victimization levels. For children with lower peer acceptance, high-quality friendships appeared to play an especially important role in determining the targets of peer abuse. Approaches that include friendship quality as well as interactive models of relationship dimensions may be informative for understanding victimization as well as children's general adjustment.

We used data from a randomized clinical trial to examine the degree to which relationship quality predicted outcomes for aggressive children in two different mentoring programs. Data were available for 145 aggressive children in grades 2 and 3. Children were blocked by school and randomly assigned to PrimeTime (n = 75) or Lunch Buddy (n = 70) programs. PrimeTime combined community-based mentoring with child-focused skills training and consultation for parents and teachers, and mentors were extensively trained and supervised. Lunch Buddy was a stand-alone, school-based mentoring program that involved lunchtime visits and a different mentor each semester. PrimeTime children rated their mentors as more supportive than did Lunch Buddy children. Relationship conflict predicted changes in teacher-rated externalizing problems. Ratings of relationship quality interacted with treatment in predicting changes in parent-rated externalizing behavior for PrimeTime children only. Keywordsaggression; child; mentor; externalizing; relationship Youth mentoring, the pairing of a volunteer mentor with a child or adolescent at risk, is often touted as an effective prevention tool (Armstrong, 2000;Dortch, 2000). Some have portrayed mentoring as a proven method for reducing youth violence and preventing juvenile delinquency (e.g., McGill, Mihalic, & Grotpeter, 1997). Unfortunately, the practice and promotion of youth mentoring has outpaced its empirical support (DuBois & Karcher, 2005). The need for research evidence is particularly acute for programs that target aggressive children and antisocial youth (Blechman & Bopp, 2005;Cavell & Smith, 2005;McClanahan, 2007). Relationship factors are thought to be critical to the success of youth mentoring (e.g., DuBois, Neville, Parra, & Pugh-Lilly, 2002;Parra, DuBois, Neville, Pugh-Lilly, & Povinelli, 2002;Rhodes, 2002Rhodes, , 2005Spencer, 2006), but few studies have examined the role of relationship quality in programs for highly aggressive, school age children.The development of effective interventions for aggression in children is critical. The developmental trajectory of aggressive children is fairly stable, multiply determined, and predictive of serious maladaptive outcomes (Broidy, Nagin, & Tremblay, 2003;Loeber, 1990;Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). Aggressive school age children are early starters on a developmental path toward later delinquency (Patterson et al., 1992). Commonly recommended interventions are behavior management training for parents and social problem solving skills training (PSST) for children (Cavell, Hymel, Malcolm, & Seay, 2006), with some evidence for blending the two interventions (e.g., Kazdin, Seigel, & Bass, 1992).More than 4500 organizations in the United States offer youth mentoring (Rhodes, 2002), and roughly half of all mentoring programs appeared in the last 10-15 years (Sipe & Roder, 1999). Youth mentoring is often cast as an effective but inexpensive remedy for the problems that face at-risk youth (e.g., Dortch, 2000). Proponents point to stu...