Cross-sex Peer Research Articles

Peers and Homophobic Attitudes in Adolescence: Examining Selection and Influence Processes in Friendships and Antipathies

Homophobic attitudes and behavior are a widespread problem among adolescents, but what the role of peer relationships such as friendships and antipathies is in shaping these attitudes remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined to what extent homophobic attitudes are influenced by friends’ and foes’ homophobic attitudes, and whether homophobic attitudes serve as a selection criterion for the formation of friendships and antipathies. Participants came from three Dutch high schools across two waves (wave 1 November 2014, wave 2 March/April 2015, ages 11–20, N = 1935, 51.5% girls). Stochastic actor-oriented models were estimated for testing hypotheses. The results showed that adolescents adjusted their homophobic attitudes to their friends’ homophobic attitudes, but homophobic attitudes were not consistently related to friendship selection. Further, findings indicated that being dissimilar in homophobic attitudes increased the likelihood to dislike cross-sex peers. Together, the findings suggest that adolescents’ homophobic attitudes were to some extent subject to peer influence, but homophobic attitudes did not steer who adolescents befriended or disliked.

The Role of Pubertal Timing and Heterosocial Involvement in Early Adolescents’ Media Internalization: A Moderated Moderation Analysis

The present three-wave panel study ( N = 968, [Formula: see text] = 11.30, SD = 1.06) examines how developmental factors—pubertal timing and heterosocial involvement (i.e., one’s involvement in cross-sex activities)—influence early adolescents’ level of media internalization. We hypothesized that early pubertal timing positively moderates the association between sexualizing magazine reading and media internalization. Next, we argued that increased heterosocial involvement will weaken the amplifying influence of early pubertal timing on the aforementioned relationship. Both hypotheses were confirmed. For early adolescents who mature earlier than same-age/sex peers, reading sexualizing magazines resulted in more media internalization. Furthermore, our results showed that moderate to high cross-sex peer interactions can serve as a protective force against the negative influence of early pubertal timing. These results highlight the influential role of appearance-related developmental factors in the processing of sexualizing magazine content and point to the potential protective role of cross-sex peer interactions in media internalization.

A Gender Prototypicality Theory of Adolescent Peer Popularity

Despite its salience to adolescents and its relevance for behavioral adjustment, there are few theories explaining the development of peer popularity. In this article, the authors present a gender prototypicality theory of the development of popularity. Popularity refers to social visibility, power, and prestige among peers. Gender prototypicality theory argues that popularity as a distinct form of peer status emerges at the transition to adolescence, as a byproduct of intensifying cross-sex peer interactions and competition for opposite-sex attention as romantic development intensifies. The theory further argues that popularity will be ascribed disproportionately to young adolescents who conform to gender-typical roles in appearance, behavior, and other features, as these youth are more likely to attract the opposite-sex attention that contributes to social status among peers. Given the salience of emerging romantic interactions at this developmental period, adolescents who are leading the way in spending time with the opposite sex are likely to garner considerable attention from peers. This confluence of events begins the process of consolidation of social power into a relatively small proportion of the peer group.

Perceptions of Same-Sex and Cross-Sex Peers: Behavioral Correlates of Perceived Coolness During Middle Childhood

Perceptions of Same-Sex and Cross-Sex Peers: Behavioral Correlates of Perceived Coolness During Middle Childhood

Self-perceptions of pubertal timing and patterns of peer group activities and dating behavior among heterosexual adolescent girls

This study identified patterns of past and concurrent peer group and dating behavior in a sample of adolescent girls (N = 511; aged 17–19 years; 49% White). Peer group activities and dating behaviors were classified as occurring in either early (ages 10–13 years), middle (ages 14–16 years), or late (ages 17–19 years) adolescence according to the age at which each participant indicated the activity/behavior was first experienced. Latent class analysis identified four latent classes: Early Interactions/Early Daters (15%), Early Interactions/Late Daters (17%), Early Interactions/Middle Daters (33%) and Middle Interactions/Middle Daters (35%). Class membership was associated with girl's perceived pubertal timing. Compared to Early Interactions/Early Daters, girls in the Early Interactions/Late Daters class reported higher levels of pubertal timing, indicating greater perception that their pubertal development was late relative to peers. Late perceived pubertal timing is potentially relevant for dating but not necessarily other mixed- and cross-sex peer interactions.

Young Adolescents' Body Dysmorphic Symptoms: Associations with Same- and Cross-Sex Peer Teasing via Appearance-based Rejection Sensitivity.

In this study of young adolescents' (N = 188, M age = 11.93, 54.8% females) body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) symptoms, we examined a theoretically-derived model to determine if symptoms could be explained by appearance-related teasing, general peer victimization, and social anxiety. BDD symptoms were assessed as distressing preoccupation with perceived appearance defects, social avoidance, and repeated grooming and appearance checking. Associations were expected to occur via the social-perceptual bias known as appearance-based rejection sensitivity (appearance-RS). The source of appearance teasing was also considered (same-sex vs. cross-sex peers), and age and gender moderation were assessed. As predicted, in a structural equation model, BDD symptoms were higher when adolescents self-reported more appearance teasing and higher social anxiety. Moreover, it was appearance teasing by cross-sex peers, rather than same-sex peers, that was uniquely associated with elevated BDD symptoms. These associations were partially mediated by appearance-RS. Notably, peer-reported general victimization was not associated with BDD symptoms. There was no evidence for gender moderation, but some age moderation was found, with stronger associations usually found among older compared to younger adolescents. The findings suggest that appearance-related social adversity, particularly cross-sex teasing, is linked with greater concerns about rejection due to appearance and, in turn, heightened BDD symptoms. This has important implications for understanding the development and treatment of BDD. Continued research to identify the social experiences and interpretative biases that contribute to BDD symptomology is needed.

Popularity among same-sex and cross-sex peers: A process-oriented examination of links to aggressive behaviors and depressive affect.

Popularity has been linked to heightened aggression and fewer depressive symptoms. The current study extends this literature by examining the unique contributions of same-sex and cross-sex popularity to children's development, as well as potential mediating processes. Third- and 4th-graders (212 boys, 250 girls) provided data at 3 time points over 2 school years. Data included peer-reported popularity, social exclusion, friendships, peer victimization, and aggression and self-reported social self-esteem and depressive affect. Same-sex and cross-sex popularity independently contributed to the prediction of aggression and depressive affect. Popularity was associated with heightened aggression through reduced social exclusion and was indirectly related to lower levels of depressive affect through increased friendships. For boys only, same-sex popularity was further associated with dampened depressive affect through reduced social exclusion and peer victimization and increased social self-esteem. Findings are discussed in light of the potential tradeoffs associated with popularity in preadolescence.

Girls' and Boys' Choices of Peer Behavioral Characteristics at Age Five

We analyzed age differences in the behavioral profiles of the girls and boys chosen as play partners by same- and cross-sex peers at age 5 and the influence of these choices on subsequent behavior at 9 in a sample of 107 Spanish children. Girls chose girls who had an interest in resources and affective leadership, whereas boys chose boys interested in sport and rejected those preferring role-taking play. Both girls and boys who were preferred by boys at 5 showed low levels of maladaptive behaviors. We suggest that children's selection of the type of play and behavior of their same-sex peers could be considered a relevant mechanism for explaining the adaptive role of sex segregation during childhood.

Gender and Age Differences in Brazilian Children's Friendship Nominations and Peer Sociometric Ratings

The purpose of this study was to examine gender- and age-related patterns of friendship preferences among Brazilian children. In particular, we examined: (a) children's same-sex friendship preference, and its greater intensity among older children; (b) higher exclusivity among girls and higher inclusiveness among boys; and (c) generally higher exclusivity and inclusiveness among older children. Participants were 210 (110 boys, 100 girls) public school students from Brazil who ranged in age from 3.0 to 10.5 years of age. Children were asked to nominate their best friends and to rate how much they liked and disliked each of their other classmates. Children generally nominated more of same-sex peers as best friends and gave more negative ratings to their cross-sex peers. These same-sex preferences were more intense at the older age groups. Girls and older children gave more negative peer ratings and nominated fewer best friends than boys and younger children. However, the oldest age group gave significantly fewer negative peer ratings than did the younger groups—both in their same-sex and overall negative peer ratings. Results are generally consistent with patterns found in prior studies with children from the United States, but unique gender and age-related patterns also emerged.

Cross-sex peer conflict and the discursive production of gender in a Chinese preschool in Taiwan

In this paper, I analyze an excerpt from a videotaped interaction among girl and boy students (ages five to six years) in a Mandarin Chinese speaking preschool in Taiwan to argue that one way in which gender is constructed is via cross-sex conflicts. The social organization of the preschool, including gender relations, is reflexively created through speech. Conflict, as a preferred form of interaction among children, is a prime arena for such organization (Goodwin, 1990; Corsaro, 1994). In my data, based on 500 hours of observations and 16 hours of videotapes of naturally occurring interactions over a nine-month period, I found that conflict occurs as frequently in cross-sex interaction as in same-sex boy-boy interaction. Ethnomethodological and post-structuralist frameworks are drawn on to show how children position themselves as male or female subjects within a particular sociocultural system. Some children, identified as peer leaders, play an important role in producing gender in the context of conflict through the doing of ‘borderwork’ (Thorne, 1986, 1993) to maintain and heighten gender boundaries. I found that an ‘aggravated’ style of conflict talk, associated in the language socialization literature with a masculine sex-typed style (while a ‘mitigated’ style is associated with feminine sex-typing), is also used by girls in the context of cross-sex conflict. Chinese girls subvert the masculine preferred form of conflict to produce new subject positions in the rapidly changing society of modern Taiwan. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A quantitative study of gender differences in the ellipsis of the Japanese postpositional particles-waand-ga: Gender composition as a constraint on variability

ABSTRACTIt has been claimed that the ellipsis of postpositional particles is one of the properties of Japanese women's language. The validity of this claim, however, is compromised by several methodological problems in prior research in this area: (1) the subjective comparison of bare percentages without any statistical verification of male–female differences; (2) the neglect of the intersecting relationships among a variety of potential constraints which simultaneously influence the speaker's choice of the variable; and (3) the exclusive focus on single-sex interactions. Conducting multivariate analyses of conversational data from both single-sex and cross-sex peer interactions, this preliminary study demonstrates the overgeneralization of gender-linked differentiation in past work due to the neglect of the relative strength of potential intersecting factors. The results also reveal statistically significant degrees of stylistic intragender variability across different types of gender composition, which counters the static approach to a social variable of gender in the traditional sociolinguistic paradigm.

Changing Social Dynamics in Early Childhood Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to analyze how social dynamics in early childhood classrooms change from fall to spring and from early to late preschool. The subjects were 92 preschoolers in age-stratified (3-year-old, 4-year-old, and 5-year-old) classrooms. Their sociometric ratings and peer contact patterns were recorded during the fall and spring. From early to late preschool, children's sociometric ratings became increasingly negative, especially toward cross-sex peers. Their contact patterns showed an analogous decrease in cross-sex contacts, although the changes were not as linear as those in the sociometric ratings. The analysis of group sizes showed that the 4-year-olds spent more time in larger groups than both their younger and older peers did. Group sociometric ratings and contact patterns changed from fall to spring, but individual children showed considerable stability in the sociometric ratings that they gave their peers and in the size and gender composition of their play groups.

遊び相手の性別が幼児の行動に及ぼす影響

This study was designed to investigate the effects of the sex of a partner and the type of toys on preschool age children's behavior during dyadic play interactions. Fifty-one preschoolers paired with a same-sex peer or a cross-sex peer were observed when they were playing with one of three types of toys: masculine-typed, feminine-typed, and neutral toys. The results indicated that the sex of a partner influenced children's behavior during play interactions with masculine-typed or feminine-typed toys in several points. Children, for example, shared masculine-typed or feminine-typed toys when they were paired with a same-sex peer, but when paired with a cross-sex peer, they would not share the toys. Especially, girls were found to be less active in their behavior toward a cross-sex peer than toward a same-sex peer. It was also found that children's behavior toward a same-sex peer was not substantially related to their behavior toward a cross-sex peer. Considering these findings, it was suggested that social behavior in children should be understood in relation to their interactive partners.

Sex preferences in sociometric choices.

Sex biases in children's sociometric preferences were examined developmentally using rating-scale data from 195 girls and 191 boys in kindergarten through the third grade (Study 1) and from 91 girls and 88 boys in the third through sixth grades (Study 2). Results of both studies indicated that children at each grade level rated opposite-sex classmates significantly lower than same-sex classmates. Furthermore, there was a significant linear trend for children's sex biases to increase with age, with this trend being particularly pronounced in the younger grades (i.e., kindergarten to Grade 3). Specifically, children received significantly lower ratings from opposite-sex peers in Grade 3 than they received in kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. Results are discussed in terms of future research in the area of sociometric assessment. For over 50 years, researchers have recognized the existence of a sex cleavage in children's peer interactions, emerging as early as the toddler and preschool years. For example, toddlers and preschoolers direct more social behavior and reinforcement to same-sex peers (Fagot & Patterson, 1969; LaFreniere, Strayer, & Gauthier, 1984) and orient their bodies farther away from cross-sex peers (Wasserman & Stern, 1978). Although the intensity of this sex-differentiated behavior may vary as a function of school setting and program variables (Bianchi & Bakeman, 1978), it nevertheless appears that, even without adult interference, children's early social interactions are highly sex biased. It is also generally believed that behavioral segregation of the sexes increases during the elementary school years, reaching its peak in early adolescence. Schofield (1981) has suggested that it is not that young adolescents do not see heterosexuality as the appropriate sexual orientation, but rather that they believe they have few interests to share as friends with members of the opposite sex. Other researchers cite differential rates of maturity (Campbell, 1939), encouragement from parents (Lewis, Young, Brooks, & Michalson, 1975), teachers (Fagot, 1977) and peers (Lamb & Roopnarine, 1979) for sex-appropriate play and activities, and behavioral incompatibilities in the games children play (Lever, 1976) as factors underlying the development of the sex cleavage. Observational studies, however, provide us with limited information regarding the way in which children themselves view their same-sex and cross-sex interpersonal relations. In this regard, sociometric methodology, designed to assess peer attraction and preference or liking within a specified group, is partic

Cross-Sex Collaborative Learning in Elementary Classrooms

Structured naturalistic observations, representing about 1,400 hours of classroom behavior, and student surveys were analyzed to determine: (a) the extent to which small group instruction was used in elementary school classrooms, (b) the academic conditions under which small group instruction was used, and (c) the effects of small group instruction on student attitudes and perceptions, particularly those related to gender stereotypes. In 29 fourth and fifth grade classrooms 23,590 observation records were collected; approximately 11% of the records indicated the use of instructional small groups, of which 8% were mixed-sex groups. Small groups were observed more often in physical education and reading classes and less often in art classes. The use of small groups was not related to gender stereotypes regarding student competence but was negatively related to more general gender stereotypes held by female students. Attitudes toward cross-sex cooperation were negatively related to cooperative groupings for both male and female students, although cross-sex peer ratings by females were positively related to cooperative groupings. Perceptions of oneself as a problem solver were positively associated with cooperative groupings for male students only. The results are discussed in relationship to the characterization of sex as a status characteristic influencing the dynamics of group interaction.

Classroom Interaction and Opportunities for Cross-Sex Peer Learning in Science

The relationship between opportunities for cross-sex peer learning and student attitudes toward cross-sex peer learning in science was addressed in an analysis of data from 29 fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms. It was found that teachers rarely organize instruction to encourage peer learning and that students are generally unwilling to work with a cross-sex classmate on science projects. Students in classrooms exhibiting relatively higher levels of collaborative opportunities held statistically significantly less stereotyped attitudes than students in classrooms where collaboration was relatively rare.

Social Interaction in Young Children: Initiation of Peer Contact

The means by which 3- to 5-yr.-old children attempt to initiate social contact with a peer, and the success of such attempts, were observed in a number of preschool settings using an event-sampling technique. Initiators showed a significant same-sex preference, and contact attempts were significantly more successful with a same-sex peer than with a cross-sex peer. Boys and girls were equally verbal, but girls differed significantly from boys in using twice as many requests, more questions, and fewer suggestions and bids for attention. The most successful contact attempts involved showing or offering an object or joining into on-going activity.