Children's Social Relationships Research Articles

"ひとりでいい"と答える小学生の人間関係 : 友だちの多い子どもとの比較による検討

"ひとりでいい"と答える小学生の人間関係 : 友だちの多い子どもとの比較による検討

The school experience of the child with cancer.

To review literature investigating school absence, behaviour problems and social relationships of children with cancer on return to school. Additionally, we reviewed interventions aimed at promoting successful school re-entry for children with cancer, and increasing classmates and teachers understanding of childhood cancer. Electronic searches were used to identify studies examining the effects of school re-entry on children with cancer. School absences are higher for children with cancer than healthy children and those with other chronic conditions. Although there is mixed evidence about whether children have significant behavioural problems, studies involving social relationships generally conclude that children with cancer are more sensitive and isolated than peers, according to both peer and teacher report.

Correlates and Implications for Agreeableness in Children

This study is an examination of the relationship between agreeableness and other constructs related to children's social relationships. Third through 6th graders (N = 76; 46 boys, 30 girls) completed self-reports on agreeableness (based on the adult version of the NEO Personality Inventory Manual; Costa & McCrae, 1985), social skills (Social Skills Rating System for Children; Gresham & Elliot, 1991). empathy (Feshbach, 1990) and trust (Children's Trust Scale; Imber, 1973). Using multiple regression, agreeableness was predicted by social skills, empathy, and trust for girls. There were no significant predictors of agreeableness for boys. The discussion focuses on the mutability of childhood personality.

Assessing aggressive and depressed children's social relations with classmates and friends: a matter of perspective.

This study examined aggressive, depressed, and aggressive-depressed children's peer relations from the children's own and from their peers' perspective. Participants were 819 fourth through sixth graders (50.2% girls) who were assessed twice during the same school year. Measures included children's aggression and depression, self-rated and peer-rated social acceptance, number of reciprocal friends, and self-rated and friend-rated friendship quality. Analyses revealed different patterns, depending on the perspective considered. Depression but not aggression was significantly related to difficulties with the peer group and with dyadic friends from the children's own perspective, whereas the opposite pattern was found according to the peers' view. The co-occurrence of aggression and depression entailed significant difficulties with peers regardless of perspective. The implications of these results for the links between children's aggression and depression and their interpersonal relationships are discussed.

Social Support Networks and Self-Esteem of Idiocentric and Allocentric Children and Adolescents

People who have an idiocentric value orientation tend to emphasize their own goals and needs over those of the groups to which they belong, and to be independent and self-reliant. Allocentric individuals tend to be cooperative, interdependent, and to have a stronger need to affiliate with others than idio-centrics. A goal of this study was to investigate how children's social relationships and self-esteem vary as a function of their allocentrism. Participants were 419 children between 9 and 18 years of age from a variety of ethnic backgrounds (French Canadian/Quebecois, Greek, Arabic, and Caribbean). As expected, allocentric children reported more social support from their peers than did idiocentric children. In addition, idiocentrics and allocentrics differed in their reported sources of intimacy and companionship, for example from best friends, mothers, and relatives. Also, the self-esteem of idiocentric children, but not of allocentric children, was predicted by social support from their best friend. Implications are that idiocentric and allocentric individuals seek out different members of their social networks to satisfy various needs, and to strengthen their self-esteem.

Deaf children's social relationships in mainstream schools

Deaf children's social relationships in mainstream schools

Deaf children's social relationships in mainstream schools

Arguments supporting the integration of deaf pupils in mainstream schools are often based on possible cognitive gains, but it has been suggested that integration should also be assessed in terms of its social consequences for pupils. If deaf pupils are rejected or feel isolated in mainstream schools, their education may ultimately suffer. We investigated the social adaptation of nine deaf pupils in two mainstream schools using three methods: peer ratings, sociometric status and interviews. The average peer ratings received by deaf pupils were not significantly different from those of hearing pupils. Thus these deaf pupils were not more disliked by their peers. However, they were significantly more likely to be neglected by their peers and less likely to have a friend in the classroom. Hearing pupils who were friends of deaf pupils described their friendship as involving pro-social functions whereas many who had no deaf friends found communication an obstacle to friendship. We conclude that, although deaf pupils are not rejected in mainstream schools, they may feel isolated. It is possible that schools can have a proactive role in helping hearing pupils learn how to overcome communication barriers and develop more positive attitudes towards deaf pupils.

The Impact of Inclusion on Children's Lives: Multiple outcomes, and friendship in particular

This paper describes the work of a Consortium for Collaborative Research on the Social Relationships of Children and Youth with Diverse Abilities. The Consortium was a 5 year research institute funded by the US Department of Education, carrying out research in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento areas of California; the Seattle and rural-suburban regions of Washington State; New York State including New York City, Syracuse and rural regions; and Maryland. The work was undertaken in rural, urban, and suburban school districts, with a demographically diverse population, and also directly with families. This paper shares the results of research findings on children's social lives in inclusive settings, while weaving a theme throughout the presentation of how this research was done. The focus was upon the role research should play and was directed toward closing the gap between research and practice.

Representations of authority and children's moral reasoning

This study examines the relationship between alternative sources of authority which might influence a child's moral reasoning. It returns to Piaget's (1932) work to explore features of a child's social relations which may act either to promote or constrain the communication and acceptance of moral knowledge. Children were asked to judge which of two boys was naughtier in one of Piaget's moral ‘stories’. Those who had independently given different responses were placed in a pair and asked to agree a response together. An authority of status was introduced into some pairs by varying the gender composition of the dyad and contrasted with epistemic authority derived from the arguments more closely associated with moral autonomy. In the absence of an authority of status (in same-sex pairs) influence through epistemic authority occurred with relative ease. When status and epistemic authority conflicted subjects took far longer to accept the legitimacy of the epistemic authority. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Predicting change in academic achievement: A model of peer experiences and self-system processes.

The purpose of this study was to test a model of peer experiences and academic achievement among elementary school children. This model postulates that the quality of children's social relations (e.g., social preference) in the peer group can foster or inhibit feelings of connectedness (e.g., loneliness), which in turn affects children's perceptions of academic competence. Finally, perceptions of academic competence are hypothesized to predict change in academic achievement. Participants were 397 school children (206 girls, 191 boys; mean age = 108 months, range = 88-157 months). Results from structural equation modeling provided support for the proposed model. Discussion centers on the mediational role of self-system processes between children's social relations and change in academic achievement.

My Animals and Other Family: Children's Perspectives on their Relationships with Companion Animals

ABSTRACTThe relationship between children and companion animals in contemporary British society has not been explored in any depth from a sociological perspective. The new paradigm of the ‘sociology of childhood’ constructs children as active social agents whose social relationships are worthy of study in their own right. This raises questions about the nature of children's social relationships, which often include close attachment to companion animals. This exploratory paper draws on data from two different qualitative research projects, a study of children's activities outside school (191 children aged between 12 and 15 years), and a study of children's conceptualizations of family (183 children aged between 8 and 14 years). The paper is based upon children's descriptions of their pets, in their own words, and indicates that children's relationships to their pets changes with age. It concludes that to see pet care as merely a form of role rehearsal for future adult activities is too limited and that we need to take account of the importance of animals in children's lives in the here and now.

Participatory Research: New Approaches to the Research to Practice Dilemma

The dissemination of research into practice presents an enduring challenge to the social sciences. Despite intervention research focused on individuals with disabilities and their families that reveals clear pathways to improving practice, researchers and practitioners alike express concern regarding limited and slow implementation of the results of research in typical school and community settings. This article reviews three widely disparate literatures concerned with the gap between research and practice, highlighting suggestions for narrowing the gap through the incorporation of elements of practice into the research process. For each of the steps in our research on the social relationships of children and youth, we present examples of participatory research approaches to decision making designed to increase the relevance and validity of findings for everyday practice. We conclude with criteria that might be applied to the design of effective interventions for research validation to increase the likelihood that the results of intervention research will be adopted by school and community constituencies.

Relating Aggressive and Victimization Behaviors to Children's Sociometric Status and Friendships

The present study examined peer nominations of pupils in Grades 3-6 (9-12-year-olds) for aggressive and victimization behaviors in relation to peer group sociometric status (popular, average, rejected) and number of mutual friends (reciprocal nominations). Rejected children, relative to other children, were perceived as higher both in aggression and in being victimized (both physically and verbally) and had the smallest number of mutual friends. In addition, the mutual friends of rejected status boys were perceived as higher in being victimized than were the friends of other children. Neither level of aggression nor level of victimization predicted number of mutual friendships. However, significant positive correlations for both aggressive and victimization behaviors were revealed between popular and average status children and their mutual friends, and these congruences were not found between rejected status children and their mutual friends. This research highlights the complexity and importance of evaluating the form and function of social behaviors within multiple levels of children's peer social relationships.

Young children's social relationships with siblings and friends.

Relationships with a close friend and a younger sibling were investigated in 30 first-born young children. Greater positive affect and reciprocity were found between friends than between siblings. Limited support for the consistency of individual differences in relationship quality across friend and sibling dyads was also revealed. Implications for child development and future research are discussed.

Somatisation in children.

This review summarises recent work on somatisation in childhood. Minor physiological dysfunction may play a part in a number of cases and associated psychiatric disorders are commonly though not universally found. Contributory family factors include high rates of health problems and of parental psychological distress and there is some evidence for the role of family modelling and reinforcement of illness behaviour. There is suggestive evidence linking somatisation to emotional closeness in families, to family togetherness around health matters and to anomalies in children's social relationships. Somatisation in children can respond to treatments involving cognitive-behavioural and family techniques as well as to sensitive, psychologically sound advice from paediatricians.

Enhancing Social Opportunities and Relationships of Children who are Deaf-Blind

This article reports on a study of intervention programs to increase the social integration of three children with deaf-blindness, aged 7–10. Although the number of socially integrated activities increased for each child, the children continued to have few consistent friends and acquaintances. The implications of these results for enhancing long-term social relationships of children with deaf-blindness are discussed.

Becoming First Graders in an L2: An Ethnographic Study of L2 Socialization

This ethnographic report “thickly describes” (Geertz, 1973) the participation of ESL children in the daily classroom events of a mainstream first-grade classroom. Data for this paper come from a yearlong study of one classroom in an international school on a college campus in the U.S. Using a language socialization and micropolitical orientation, the report describes how, through socially significant interfactional routines, the children and other members of the classroom jointly constructed the ESL children's identities, social relations, and ideologies as well as their communicative competence in that setting. The sociocultural ecology of the community, school, and classroom shaped the kinds of microinteractions that occurred and thus the nature of their language learning over the course of the year.

What Children Report and Remember: A Six-Year Follow-Up of the Effects of Social Contact between Peers with and without Severe Disabilities

Various models and strategies to promote meaningful social interactions between children with and without severe disabilities have been reported in the special education literature. The reported outcomes associated with these efforts include positive effects on children's attitudes toward disabilities, social competence, and social values (e.g., fairness and community caring). This is an investigation of what teenagers report and remember as a function of elementary school experiences involving different levels of social contact with peers with severe disabilities. Two self-report interpersonal measures were administered to 183 students without disabilities comprising social contact, exposure, and control groups. A subsample of 93 teenagers was interviewed about experiences and attitudes toward persons with disabilities and their memories from earlier school experiences. Analysis of the attitudinal data revealed significantly more positive attitudes, higher levels of current reported social contact, and more support for full community participation as a function of earlier social contact—although all children were relatively positive. The self-concept measure also revealed differences between subgroups of children as a function of gender and condition. The interview data with children in the high social contact group offer caveats for future inclusion efforts to avoid potential negative effects upon children's personal relationships and social attitudes. Suggestions are made for future research to investigate the impact of inclusion on children's socio-personal development and social relationships.

Annotation: sociometry and peer relationships.

Annotation: sociometry and peer relationships.

The social construction of help among Danish children: the intentional act and the actual content

AbstractThis paper is based on an ethnographic study of younger Danish school children's actions and social relations during episodes of sickness and minor accidents. The focus is on how children as social actors give help to others. The main points concern first, the need for a cultural approach to distinguish between the intention and the motive of an action in order to understand children's evaluation of and communication about help. A second point concerns the recognition of children's individual actions as they combine in a collective strategy. Finally I discuss the relationship between children's cultural practices and constitutive elements of their everyday life. I specifically focus on ‘the act of looking’ and time and tempo as it relates to understanding childhood sickness and its relevance in social negotiation between children and adults.