The Role of Aggressive Peer Norms in Elementary School Children’s Perceptions of Classroom Peer Climate and School Adjustment

Abstract

Although prior research has indicated that peer norms for aggression enhance the spread of aggression in classrooms, it is unclear to date how these norms relate to students’ classroom climate perceptions and school adjustment. Aggressive descriptive norms reflect the average aggression of all students in classrooms, whereas aggressive popularity norms represent the extent to which aggressive behavior relates to popularity among peers. This study examined the role of aggressive descriptive and popularity norms in the classroom climate perceptions (cooperation, conflict, cohesion, isolation) and school adjustment (feelings of belonging; social, academic, and general self-esteem) of popular, well-liked, and victimized children. Self-reported and peer-nominated data were obtained from 1511 children (Mage = 10.60 years, SD = 0.50; 47.2% girls) from 58 fifth-grade classrooms. The results indicated that aggressive descriptive and popularity norms both matter in elementary school, but in diverging ways. Specifically, aggressive descriptive norms—rather than popularity norms—contributed to negative classroom climate perceptions irrespective of students’ social position. In addition, whereas descriptive norms contributed to between-classroom variations in some aspects of school adjustment, aggressive popularity norms related to increased school maladjustment for popular and victimized children specifically. Thus, aggressive descriptive norms and popularity norms matter in complementary ways for children’s classroom climate perceptions and adjustment in elementary education.

Peer influence and its impact on behavior among South Indian adolescents: A descriptive cross-sectional study

“…Peers choose peers with similarities as friends or join groups with similar characteristics based on the process of selection similarity, and the dissimilar departs from the peer group through a process of peer group pruning or deselection. [ 24 25 ]…”

Does defending affect adolescents' peer status, or vice versa? Testing the moderating effects of empathy, gender, and anti‐bullying norms

“…Possibly, defending signals youths' genuine care about others' safety and wellbeing, which may elicit an affectionate response among those who profit from these defending behaviors or from those who are witnesses of these behaviors. Moreover, defending behaviors may be helpful in stopping bullying (Saarento et al, 2015) and fostering a positive classroom climate (Laninga‐Wijnen et al, 2021). Therefore, defending may evoke feelings of appreciation and gratitude—not only among victims, but also among other classmates – and enhance the likability of defenders over time.…”

“…First, adolescents with high status—both in terms of being liked and being popular—may feel more confident to defend victimized peers with no fear of social repercussions from bullies, as high‐status youth generally have more friends (Laninga‐Wijnen & Veenstra, 2021), which can protect them against victimization (Hodges & Perry, 1999). Second, adolescents who are well‐liked or popular tend to be more assertive (Poorthuis et al, 2021) and have better social–emotional skills (Laninga‐Wijnen et al, 2021), allowing them to better understand the effect of their behaviors on their peers (Hawley, 2014), making them more likely to defend. Third, costly signaling theory (Grafen, 1990)—which applies mainly to popularity—proposes that people tend to behave more prosocially when they are being observed by others.…”

Construction of Measurement and Investigation of the Role of Classroom Climate on Students' Knowledge and Attitudes in the Learning Process

“…http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter Although previous classroom climate studies have demonstrated consistency across items within the scale, they have not uncovered other potential sources of variability that may influence the strength of agreement of students' perceptions within the classroom. Aggregate perceptions will not be reliable if each student gives a different perception (Laninga-Wijnen et al, 2021;Verlie & Blom, 2022). This is different from the perception of students in the class who have similarities or agreements.…”

“…Based on a conceptual basis, classroom climate is a predictor of students' level of knowledge and skills in a particular field. One of the reasons for increasing students' knowledge and skills is students' comfort in the classroom climate so that they are encouraged to express ideas in class discussions (Bayram Özdemir & Özdemir, 2020;Laninga-Wijnen et al, 2021).…”