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The presence and quality of friendships are posited to have developmental significance, yet little is known about the extent to which children without friends versus low-quality friendships compare on socioemotional adjustment. The current study utilized data from a subsample of 567 children (289 boys) participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Based on maternal reports at kindergarten, four friendship groups were formed: no friends, low quality, average quality, and high quality, and these groups were used to predict teacher-reported behavior problems and social skills concurrently (in kindergarten) and longitudinally (in first and third grade). Concurrently, low-quality friendships were associated with greater externalizing behavior, whereas high-quality friendships were associated with greater social skills. Longitudinally, having no friends in kindergarten was associated with higher levels of externalizing behavior for boys, but lower levels for girls. Children without friends also showed more internalizing problems at first grade. Lastly, having a high-quality friendship in kindergarten was associated with greater social skills in first and third grades, but only for boys. Results underscore high-quality friendship as a context for the development of social skills and indicate different trajectories of problem behavior for kindergarten children with no friends versus low-quality friendships.

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Objective: Drugging (administering a drug to someone without their knowledge or consent) is acknowledged as a problem in "watch your drink" campaigns. However, research on this phenomenon is nascent. Prior research has primarily focused on drugging as a means of sexual assault, and has not addressed drugging more generally. Method: Survey data from 6,064 students at 3 universities was used to explore drugging among those who had drugged someone (or knew someone who had) and those who had been drugged. Results: More than 1 in 13 students reported being drugged (462 students, 7.8% of the sample, reported 539 incidents), and 83 students (1.4%) reported 172 incidents of drugging someone. Participants' perceptions of why people drug others varied by gender. Women were much more likely to mention sex or sexual assault as a motive, while men were more likely to mention having fun as a motive. Participants also mentioned getting others more drunk or high and getting someone to relax as motives. It is possible that some motives (e.g., "to 'loosen' me up") could be euphemisms for more coercive or sexual motives not directly stated. Outcomes for those drugged were also gendered, with female victims experiencing more negative outcomes, including sexual assault, blacking out, and getting sick. Although over 4 out of 5 of victims reported negative outcomes, a small number of (mostly male) victims said they enjoyed being drugged. Conclusions: To design interventions to prevent the negative consequences of drugging, the full context of drugging must be better understood.

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