When Trust Fails: The Relation Between Children’s Trust Beliefs in Peers and their Peer Interactions in a Natural Setting

Abstract

One hundred and forty-nine 8-11 year-old children (86 males; M = 9 years -4 months and SD = 7 months) from the UK were administered the Trust Beliefs in Peers scale and were observed in the playground over one school year. Quadratic relations were found between trust beliefs in peers and peer interaction, which varied by gender. Compared to girls with the middle range of trust beliefs, girls with very low beliefs and those with very high trust beliefs: (a) were less accepted/more rejected by the peer group (i.e., lower group interaction, and greater negatively received bids), (b) showed greater indirect aggression (engaged in and received), (c) showed greater non-engagement (i.e., being alone), and (d) showed greater concomitant distress. Compared to children with the middle range of trust beliefs, children with those extreme trust beliefs in peers demonstrated greater direct aggression (engaged in and received) and showed passive behavior (for boys only). The findings supported the conclusion that children, primarily girls, who trust peers too little and those who trust too much are at risk for psychosocial maladjustment.Key Words: Children; Trust Beliefs; Social Behavior; Peers; Playground; Gender. "You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough."Frank Crane (1935, p. 172) Trust is crucial to psychosocial adjustment during childhood (Bernath & Feshbach, 1995; Harris, 2007; Rotenberg, 2010;Simpson, 2007) that has been found to be related to their quality of attachment to caregivers (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987; Cohn, 1990). Consistent with Crane's proposition (as quoted above), research has shown that children who trust too little are at risk for social failure in the form of psychosocial maladjustment. For example, it has been found that children with low trust beliefs in peers (e.g., the children expect peers not to keep promises) demonstrated elevated aggression (Malti et al., 2013), and loneliness (Rotenberg et al., 2010; Qualter et al., 2013) than do other children.According to Crane, though, individuals who trust too much are equally at risk for social failure and, thus, poor psychosocial adjustment. This proposition has received scarce attention during childhood (or any other period in development). The few studies that have examined that proposition have yielded support for it. For example, Rotenberg and his colleagues (e.g., Rotenberg et al., 2005) found quadratic relations in which children who held very low and those who held very high trust beliefs in peers demonstrated low psychosocial functioning (e.g., being rejected rather accepted by peers).Studies on children's trust beliefs have been growing in number, but there are major limitations with that line of investigation. There is a dearth of research examining the relation between children's trust beliefs and their normative social behavior with peers in natural settings. Previous research has not adequately determined whether or not children's actual social behavior varies as a fun...

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