Social functioning and adjustment in Chinese children: A longitudinal study.

Abstract

A sample of Chinese children in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, initially 8 and 10 years of age, participated in a 2-year longitudinal project. Information on social behavior and indexes of social and school adjustment was collected from multiple sources. Consistent with Western literature, sociability-leadership was associated with and predictive of indexes of adjustment. Aggression was associated with and predictive of indexes of maladjustment. Finally, inconsistent with the Western literature (e.g., K. H. Rubin & J. Asendorpf, 1993), shyness-sensitivity was positively and concurrently associated with peer acceptance, teacher-assessed competence, leadership, and academic achievement at ages 8 and 10 years in the Chinese children. However, as in the Western literature, shyness-sensitivity was positively correlated with peer rejection at age 12 years. It has been found consistently in Western cultures that prosocial and sociable behavior is positively related to peer acceptance, teachers' assessments of social competence, and academic achievement (Havighurst, Bowman, Liddle, Mathews, & Pierce, 1962). Alternatively, aggression and social inhibition have been found to be associated positively with (a) peer rejection, (b) teacher-rated incompetence, and (c) academic difficulties in children (see Coie, Dodge, & Kupersmidt, 1990; Rubin & Asendorpf, 1993, for reviews). The data extant suggest, therefore, that prosocial and cooperative behaviors are socially adaptive and that aggression and social inhibition, which have been conceptualized as reflecting externalizing and internalizing problems, respectively (e.g., Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981), are maladaptive. Researchers who study adaptive and maladaptive behaviors from a cross-cultural perspective believe that the meanings of