Friendship Quality as a Predictor of Young Children's Early School Adjustment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a method for assessing young children's perceptions of classroom friendships and to determine whether these perceptions were associated with their adjustment during the transition to grade school. Subscales tapping 5 friendship processes (e.g., validation, aid, disclosure of negative affect, exclusivity, conflict) were extracted from a 24-item friendship interview that was individually administered to 82 kindergarten children (M age = 5.61) who possessed a reciprocated and stable "best" friend in their classroom. Children's reports of the investigated friendship processes were found to be reliable, and processes such as perceived validation and conflict predicted children's satisfaction with their friendships, and the stability of these relationships. Perceived conflict in friendships was associated with multiple forms of school maladjustment for boys, including higher levels of school loneliness and avoidance and lower levels of school liking and engagement. For both boys and girls, validation and aid forecasted gains in perceived support from classmates, and aid also predicted improvements in children's school attitudes. Perceived exclusivity in friendships was associated with lower levels of achievement. These findings, and others reported in this article, are consistent with the hypothesis that the relational features of children's classroom friendships yield psychological benefits or costs (e.g., provisions) that, in turn, affect their development and adjustment.

Investigating Hypervigilance for Social Threat of Lonely Children

“…This was assessed by a four-item "pure" measure derived from Asher, Hymel, and Renshaw's (1984) Loneliness and Social Satisfaction scale. This pure loneliness scale has been used by Ladd and his colleagues (i.e., Ladd , Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996, 1997 in order to avoid a confound with social satisfaction. The items judged on 5-point scales were "I am lonely," "I feel alone."…”

“…The inclusion of such items in research would result in the overlap in content between loneliness and the sensitivity to rejection measures and thus result in correlations between them. Thus, in our three studies, loneliness was assessed by "pure" measures of the construct (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996, 1997) that comprise children's ratings of their affective experiences of loneliness. These pure measures were derived from the broader ILSS and LACA.…”

The Forms of Bullying Scale (FBS): Validity and reliability estimates for a measure of bullying victimization and perpetration in adolescence.

“…Peer support was measured using an eleven item scale adapted from the 24 item Perceptions of Peer Social Support Scale (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996) (e.g., "How often would other students invite you to do things with them"). Response options were 1 (Lots of times), 2 (Sometimes), and 3 (Never).…”

Φιλικές Σχέσεις Μαθητών Με Και Χωρίς Διαταραχή Ελλειμματικής Προσοχής-Υπερκινητικότητα (Δεπ-Υ) Στο Δημοτικό Σχολείο

“…Κουβαβά, Αντωνοπούλου, Μαριδάκη-Κασσωτάκη παρουσιάζουν καλύτερη προσαρμογή σε αυτό το πλαίσιο από τα παιδιά χωρίς φίλους (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996). Επιπλέον, στηρίζονται στους φίλους τους, προκειμένου να καταφέρουν να ανταπεξέλθουν στο αρνητικό κλίμα που μπορεί να βιώνουν στην οικογένειά τους (Gauze, Bukowski, Aquan-Assee, & Sippola, 1996), να προστατευτούν στο σχολείο από τον εκφοβισμό και τη θυματοποίηση (Hodges, Boivin, Vitaro, & Bukowski, 1999), αλλά και να ανταποκριθούν στις απαιτήσεις ομαδικών σχολικών εργασιών που στηρίζονται στη συνεργασία (Rose & Asher, 1999).Φαίνεται, λοιπόν, ότι οι σταθερές και υψηλής ποιότητας φιλικές σχέσεις βοηθούν το παιδί να προσαρμοστεί καλύτερα και να αποκτήσει θετική αντίληψη για το κοινωνικό του περιβάλλον (Ladd et al, 1996).…”