Peer Group Entry Research Articles

Effective Strategies for Preschool Peer Group Entry: Considered Applications for Children with Visual Impairments

Preschool children with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) have difficulty entering into social play, yet educators lack evidence-based strategies for remediating this social deficit. This literary review identifies strategies from typical children, including entry bids, communication skills, and environmental supports. Application and future research implications are suggested related to children with visual impairments.

Impact of a Social Skills Intervention on the Hostile Attributions of Children With Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has been linked to a wide array of developmental deficits, including significant impairments in social skills. Given the extensive body of evidence linking social information-processing patterns with social behavior, it is possible that social information-processing may represent one mechanism of behavioral change. The present investigation sought to answer the question of whether a well-established social skills intervention decreased the hostile attributions of children with PAE. Further, was there a differential impact of the intervention on hostile attributions in the context of peer provocation versus group entry scenarios? Participants consisted of 100 children (51% male) with PAE between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Participants were randomly assigned to either a social skills intervention, Children's Friendship Training (CFT), or to a Delayed Treatment Control (DTC) condition. Analyses indicated that the social skills intervention resulted in a significantly lower proportion of hostile attributions in peer group entry, but not peer provocation, scenarios. This decrease was maintained over a 3-month follow-up period. Deficits in social information-processing among individuals with PAE can be improved through social skills intervention, and these changes may lead to more positive developmental outcomes.

Social information-processing patterns of maltreated children in two social domains

This study examined relations among social information-processing (SIP) variables in the domains of peer provocation and peer group entry. Using Crick and Dodge's [Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101] model, SIP variables were examined within and across domain to determine whether processing patterns varied with type of social situation. The ethnically varied sample included 188 (49% male) maltreated children ( M age = 6.5 years) who had either been neglected or neglected and physically-abused in early elementary school. Factor analyses indicated that the variables representing attribution and evaluation steps of processing were domain-specific, whereas encoding, problem-solving, and enactment were not. In the provocation domain, children who had experienced physical abuse in addition to neglect displayed more hostile attributions and aggressive responses, and fewer competent responses relative to neglected children and nonmaltreated comparison children. In peer group entry, the children in the neglect-only group displayed more processing deficits, generating more aggressive responses than the comparison children.

Social Communication Interventions for Preschoolers: Targeting Peer Interactions during Peer Group Entry and Cooperative Play

Some preschoolers with language impairment approach and manage peer interactions less effectively than typically developing peers. This article discusses assessment and intervention strategies for targeting preschoolers' social communication skills during peer entry and cooperative play situations. Essential features of effective interventions include identification of appropriate social communication targets, addressing and facilitating children's use of these targets during small group sessions with peers, and supporting generalization of newly acquired social communication behaviors to children's peer interactions within the classroom setting.

Facilitating Peer-Group Entry in Kindergartners With Impairments in Social Communication.

This series of case studies examined the efficacy of intervention designed to teach peer-group entry skills to kindergartners with social interaction and communication deficits. The participants were 3 kindergartners at the University of Washington Experimental Educational Unit (EEU) who were selected because of difficulty with peer-group entry and cooperative play as compared to other children in the classroom. The intervention program included direct treatment of the children by the primary researcher and teachers in the classroom. The intervention was modeled on research describing a sequential peer-entry hierarchy that incorporated the children moving from low-risk strategies to high-risk strategies. Specifically, the treatment focused on teaching the children to use props to facilitate the production of high-risk verbal statements. Results demonstrated increases in (a) children's use of props and verbal statements to enter peer groups, (b) cooperative play, and (c) time spent interacting with peers. Results also indicated that following treatment, the children's behaviors more closely resembled those of their comparison peers. Results are encouraging for suggesting strategies for working with kindergartners who exhibit social communication interaction problems. The data indicate that a combined speech-language pathologist/teacher intervention using modeling and prompting with visual stimuli may be successful in teaching children to use props and specific verbal statements as a means of entering peer groups and engaging in cooperative play.

Social Behaviour, Social-Cognitive Scores and Peer Ratings in Australian Children

One hundred 4 to 6 year old Australian children (55 male and 45 female) were assessed for peer acceptance and rejection, and social-cognitive interpersonal problem-solving. Class teachers rated social behaviour of children within educational context. Peer acceptance was found to be positively correlated with teacher rated successful peer group entry, popularity among classmates, outgoing social behaviour; and negatively with conflict initiation. Peer accepted children were more likely to use positive and less likely to use negative strategies to resolve conflicts with peers. Whereas opposite was true for less accepted children. Results of this study clearly predict relationship between peer acceptance and rejection, and social-cognitive interpersonal problem-solving. Peer accepted children suggested more number of relevant and alternative strategies than their less accepted counter parts. Author’s Address: Shanti Balda, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Home Science, C.C.S Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India REFERENCES Asher, S. R. and Renshaw, P.: Children without friends: Social knowledge and social skills. In: S. R. Asher and J. M. Gottman (Eds.): The Development of Children’s Friendships. Cambridge University Press, New York (1981). Asher, S. R., Singleton, L. C., Tinsley, B. R. and Hymel, S.: A reliable sociometric measure for preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 15: 443-444 (1979). Chen, X. and Rubin, K. H.: Correlates of peer acceptance in a Chinese sample of six years olds. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 15(2): 259- 273 (1992). Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A. and Coppotelli, H.: Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18(4): 557-570 (1982). Kemple, K. M.: Preschool children’s peer acceptance and social interaction. Young Children, 46(7): 47- 54 (1991). Parker, J. G. and Asher, S. R.: Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin, 102: 357-389 (1987). Rubin, K. H.: Social Problem Solving Test. Unpublished manuscript, University of Waterloo, Department of Psychology, Ontario, Canada (1988). Rubin, K. H. and Daniels-Beirness, T.: Concurrent and predictive correlates of sociometric status in kindergarten and Grade 1 children. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 29(3): 337-351 (1983). Spivack, G. and Shure, M. B.: Social Adjustment of Young Children: A Cognitive Approach to Solving Real Life Problems. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco (1974). Wasik, B. H.: Sociometric measures and peer descriptions of kindergarten children: A study of reliability and validity. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 16: 218-224 (1987).

Gender Influences on Preschool Children's Social Problem-Solving Strategies

The authors investigated gender influences on the nature and competency of preschool children's social problem-solving strategies. Preschool-age children (N = 179; 91 boys, 88 girls) responded to hypothetical social situations designed to assess their social problem-solving skills in the areas of provocation, peer group entry, and sharing or taking turns. Results indicated that, overall, girls' responses were more competent (i.e., reflective of successful functioning with peers) than those of boys, and girls' strategies were less likely to involve retaliation or verbal or physical aggression. The competency of the children's responses also varied with the gender of the target child. Findings are discussed in terms of the influence of gender-related social experiences on the types of strategies and behaviors that may be viewed as competent for boys and girls of preschool age.

Peer rejection as antecedent of young children's school adjustment: An examination of mediating processes.

A short-term longitudinal design (N = 399) was used to examine peer relations processes that may mediate the relation between peer rejection and children's emotional and academic adjustment during kindergarten. These proposed mediating processes extend the current literature by explicating behavioral pathways via which the attitudinal construct of peer rejection may affect adjustment outcomes. Structural equatiton modeling results supported the hypothesis that negative peer treatment (e.g., victimization, refusal of peer group entry bids, and exclusion from peer activities) and classroom participation partially mediate the relationship between rejection and adjustment outcomes. Rejected children were more likely to experience negative peer treatment, more likely to show decreases in classroom participation, and more likely to report loneliness, to express a desire to avoid school, and to perform less well on achievement measures.

Teachers' ratings of social competence of children with high versus low levels of depressive symptoms

This study examined the relationship between children's self-ratings of depressive symptoms on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and teachers' ratings of the situational social competence of these children based on the Taxonomy of Problematic Social Situations (TOPS). Children in the high CDI group showed significantly higher teacher ratings (indicating lower social competence) than children in the low CDI group on four TOPS scales: peer group entry, response to provocation, response to success, and teacher expectations. Of the children in the high CDI group, 85% could be correctly classified with a discriminant analysis on the basis of TOPS ratings; of the children in the low CDI group, 77% were correctly classified. Implications of these findings, as well as limitations of the study, are discussed.

The Role of the Group in Peer Group Entry

AbstractThis study explored psychological conditions affecting children's receptiveness to a newcomer (the guest) in a peer group entry task. Subjects were 93 host dyads (48 male) of 7‐ to 9‐year‐old children. Hosts played a word‐naming game for 5 min before being joined by a male or female guest. The hosts' pre‐entry interaction was coded to reflect an orientation toward the game (agentic) or toward each other and toward experimental setting demands (communal). Hosts' psychological orientation predicted entry outcomes. Specifically, hosts of excluded children verbally competed with each other (an aspect of agency) more than hosts of children who entered. Male hosts competed more than female hosts and female hosts helped and encouraged each other (aspects of the communal orientation) more than male hosts. These findings suggest that the strategies and effort required by children to achieve group entry may depend on prior psychological conditions attending the interaction of the peer group.

Effects of Friendship and Gender on Peer Group Entry

Effects of Friendship and Gender on Peer Group Entry

Effects of Friendship and Gender on Peer Group Entry

Effects of hosts' conflicting motives (to win a game vs. to be a good friend) on peer group entry processes and outcomes were examined. Subjects were 68 triads (35 female) of 10-12-year-old predominantly White children. Two host friends played a game for a large prize that was forfeited for a smaller prize if the guest (a friend or nonfriend of both hosts) was included. Hosts admitted guest friends more often than nonfriends (44% vs. 26%), suggesting that friendship norms prescribe self-sacrifice. Hosts behaved similarly with guest friends and nonfriends, but guest friends were more active than nonfriends, reflecting freedom derived from friendship security. Female hosts admitted guests more often than male hosts (51% vs. 21%), consistent with communal and agentic gender role prescriptions for girls and boys, respectively. Results suggest that hosts' friendship obligations and psychological orientation affect their response to a newcomer in a group entry situation.

On the relation between social information processing and socially competent behavior in early school-aged children.

This article tested the hypotheses that (1) children's behavioral competence is a function of patterns of social information processing; (2) processing correlates of behavior occur at each of 5 steps of processing within each of 3 social situations; (3) measures at each step uniquely increment each other in predicting behavior; (4) the relation between processing and behavior is stronger within than across domains; and (5) processing patterns are more sophisticated among older than younger children and the processing-behavior relation is stronger among older than younger children. Videorecorded stimuli were used to assess processing patterns (encoding, interpretational errors and bias, response generation, response evaluation, and enactment skill) in 3 domains (peer group entry, response to provocation, and response to authority directive) in 259 first-, second-, and third-grade boys and girls (ages 6-9 years). Ratings of behavioral competence in each domain were made by peers and teachers. Findings generally supported hypotheses, with the magnitude of relations being modest.

Contextual factors in children's social information processing.

Attributions and social problem solutions of socially accepted and rejected boys and girls (M age = 9.33 years) were assessed by verbal responses to hypothetical vignettes embedded in a computer mathematics game involving 3 contextual factors: interpersonal context (competition or collaboration), outcome of the game (success or failure), and story type (ambiguous provocation or peer group entry). More hostile attributions of intent were provided in the failure than in the success condition and in the ambiguous provocation than in the peer group entry stories. More aggressive problem solutions were provided in ambiguous provocation than in peer group entry stories. Boys offered more aggressive solutions than girls in the cooperation condition but not the competition condition and for the provocation stories but not the peer group entry stories. Rejected children offered somewhat more aggressive solutions than accepted children

Children's social competence and sociometric status: Further exploration of aggression, social withdrawal, and peer rejection

AbstractSociometric status differences in children's social competence were examined in a sample of elementary school-aged children using teacher ratings and peer nominations. Rejected children evinced significantly fewer competencies (e.g., peer group entry, responses to provocation) than popular, average, or neglected children but differed from controversial children only with respect to their inability to meet established social norms for cooperative behavior and teachers' expectations for classroom behavior. An examination of the heterogeneity of peer-rejected children revealed that rejected-aggressive children were deficient in all aspects of social competence assessed and were most disliked by their peers. Rejected-withdrawn children were seen by peers as most unhappy, whereas rejected-undifferentiated children (i.e., rejected children who were neither highly aggressive nor highly withdrawn) had problems with social withdrawal, disruptive behavior, and socially appropriate behavior. Rejected-aggressive and rejected-withdrawn children had more difficulties with reactive aggression combined with an inability to respond positively to peers than their nonrejected agemates. The need for further research on the heterogeneity of peer-rejected children and the long-term implications for these children are discussed.

Contributions of Male and Female Guests and Hosts to Peer Group Entry

92 7–9-year-old children (47 girls) were observed while attempting to join 2 relatively unfamiliar same- or opposite-sex peers who were playing a board game. Female guests were less obtrusive than male guests in their entry approaches, whereas male guests were more active and assertive. Guests were less behaviorally constrained when approaching same- than opposite-sex hosts. Female hosts were more attentive to the guests than male hosts, who tended to ignore the newcomers. Successful guests received initiations from the hosts, responded contingently to host initiations, and performed activity-related behavior. Since female hosts initiated more behavior to the guests than male hosts, and female guests were more contingently responsive than male guests, girls entering female groups were the most successful. These findings support the thesis that peer group entry processes and outcomes are affected by the personal characteristics and contexts of both the entering children and their hosts.

Contributions of Male and Female Guests and Hosts to Peer Group Entry

Contributions of Male and Female Guests and Hosts to Peer Group Entry

Effects of an elementary school program to enhance prosocial behavior on children's cognitive-social problem-solving skills and strategies

Children in three suburban elementary schools participated for 5 consecutive years (kindergarten through fourth grade) in a comprehensive intervention program designed to enhance prosocial development. Children in three similar schools served as a comparison group. Cognitive-social problem-solving skills and strategies were assessed annually using one of two different hypothetical-reflective interview measures: one focusing on situations involving conflicts with a peer, and the other on object acquisition and peer group entry situations. The conflict resolution interview was administered to the children in kindergarten, second, and fourth grades, while the object acquisition and peer group entry interview was administered in first and third grades. Classroom observations indicated that the program was implemented during each of the 5 years. Analyses of the social problem-solving data indicated that program children scored significantly higher on measures of cognitive problem-solving skills (i.e., interpersonal sensitivity, consideration of others' needs, and means-ends thinking), and used resolution strategies which were significantly more prosocial than comparison children. Moreover, the differences between program and comparison children in their approaches to solving hypothetical problem situations generally increased from kindergarten through fourth grade, and were replicated among a second cohort of children at kindergarten and first grade. These findings suggest that a comprehensive intervention program which is embedded within the normal classroom and school environment can be of considerable benefit in enhancing children's social competencies.

Peer Group Entry Behavior

The behavior of popular and unpopular children entering popular and unpopular groups of children served as subjects. Group entry behaviors, coded into one of seven categories, were evaluated according to whether the groups accepted, rejected, or ignored the entry child. Unpopular children “waited and hovered” longer than their more popular counterparts and were ignored more frequently by both popular and unpopular groups of children. Results are discussed in terms of a molecular approach to understanding and remediating the skill deficits of unpopular children.