The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between sex, social status and social behaviour in a sample of Australian preschool-aged children. Social behaviour has emerged as an important predictor of social status for children in middle childhood however, although early childhood may be an optimum period for implementation of intervention programs, little is known about the correlates of social status in the preschool years. Additionally, relatively little research has addressed the issue of sex differences in the factors that are associated with peer social status. Sociometric interviews were conducted with 182 children (92 boys and 90 girls) four to five years of age (mean age 62.4 months). Status groups of popular, rejected, neglected, controversial and average children were identified according to criteria established in previous research. Teachers provided an assessment of children’s social behaviour, peer group entry skills and conflict resolution skills. Results indicated that rejected children were less likely to engage in prosocial cooperative behaviour than any other status group. Rejected children were also rated as less successful overall than other groups in their group entry attempts, but were not more likely to display aggressive or disruptive behaviour. Teachers rated boys as more aggressive than girls and more likely to use aggressive or disruptive strategies in group entry and conflict resolution. Results are discussed in terms of the relevance of particular behavioural characteristics and social skills to successful social functioning for preschool-aged boys and girls.
This study examined the relationship of overt and relational victimization to social anxiety, loneliness, and prosocial behaviours in a sample of female adolescents. The Social Experience Questionnaire, Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, and Asher Loneliness Scale were administered to 561 girls in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades of an urban parochial high school. Consistent with prior work, overt and relational victimization were positively associated with fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance of general and new situations, and loneliness. In addition, prosocial behaviours from peers moderated the effects of relational victimization on loneliness. Implications of these findings for the role of peer victimization and prosocial behaviours in female relationships are discussed.
The moral judgment of violence was studied in a group of 20 physically abused and 20 nonmaltreated boys (8 to 13 years old), in order to determine whether the experience of abuse from parents affects children's moral judgment of violence. Factors such as the motive of the offender, the consequences of the action, the age of the offender and the relationship between the offender and the victim, were investigated for judgments about both verbal and physical violence. The results show no significant differences between physically maltreated children and the control group. Main effects of motive and consequences were significant, but no differences between the two groups, the kind of violence (physical or verbal), age, or proximity were found. This result is congruent with previous research indicating that moral judgments of violence, unlike behavior, are not affected by maltreatment in childhood and thus seem to act as an independent cognitive process. INTRODUCTION Since the pioneering research of Piaget (1932) on children's rules of moral judgment, many other researchers have been interested in how moral judgment develops, which factors are involved and how cognitive, social and affective development can affect moral judgment (Anderson 1981, 1991, 1996; Butzin & Anderson, 1973; Hebble, 1971; Koenig, Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2000; Kohlberg, 1964, 1969, 1976; Leon, 1980; Przygotzki & Mullet, 1997; Smetana, Toth, Cicchetti, Bruce, Kane & Daddis, 1999; Surber, 1977, 1982). Anderson's information integration theory (1981, 1991, 1996) is a reliable model that explains the rules of moral judgment in terms of the weights given to different factors such as intent and consequence. While it has been clearly established that some rules stay the same during the life-span development of moral judgment, for example the two important factors of intent and consequence (Surber, 1977, 1982), it is still unclear which other factors can affect moral judgment, especially the moral judgment of violence, and if these factors alter or change in importance according to the social context in which children grow up. The current study questions whether children's moral judgment is influenced by experiencing violence in their social environment, and which factors may be affected.
