Belonging in diverse contexts: Sociability among same-ethnic and cross-ethnic peers.

Ethnically and racially diverse schools provide students opportunities to socially interact with both same- and cross-ethnic peers that can shape their sense of belonging within a school. This study investigates the extent to which same- or cross-ethnic friends influence feelings of school belonging in two large, diverse U.S. high schools (total N = 4,461; 9th-12th grade; 49.6% girls). Employing a longitudinal social network analytic approach, using stochastic actor-oriented modeling, this study found that students become more similar or stay similar to their same-ethnic friends, but not cross-ethnic friends, with no clear indication that students select friends based on similar levels of belonging. These novel findings highlight how feelings of school belonging are fostered through sociability in same-ethnic friend groups. Implications for interventions and other approaches to enhance school belonging are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of school friendship stability, instability, and network size in early adolescents' social adjustment.

This study examined longitudinal associations between early adolescents' school friendship stability, instability, and network size and their perceived social adjustment. The final sample consisted of 430 early adolescents residing in seven Midwestern schools (52% female, 47% Black, 42% White, 5% Hispanic or Latinx, and 6% Other). School friendship stability, instability, and network size were assessed via students' peer nominations of their same-grade friendships collected midway through their 7th and 8th grade years. Students also self-reported on several measures of social adjustment (their social satisfaction, social confidence, and school belonging). Results indicated having new friendships and having a larger friendship network at school were each more predictive of early adolescents' perceived social adjustment than was having maintained friendships or a consistent friend group within this context. However, school friendship stability consistently predicted greater perceived school belonging, whereas having a primarily new friend group and/or having lost more or most of a prior friend group predicted lower levels of this perception. Having lost school friendships was not predictive of early adolescents' social adjustment except when losses composed a significant proportion of their school friendship network (i.e., they had lost more or most of their school friendships from the year before). These findings provide valuable insights about peer friendship dynamics and social adjustment during a life stage critical to social development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Changes in behavioral correlates of social status during early adolescence: Does school context matter?

This study investigated the role of school context in changes in the behaviors associated with having high social status during early adolescence. Three waves of surveys were collected from students (N = 542, 53% girls; 44% Black, 44% White, 5% Hispanic/Latinx, and 7% other; 60% free/reduced-fee lunch) in the middle of their sixth, seventh, and eighth grade school years. Peer nominations were used to assess two types of social status (peer acceptance and popularity) and three behavioral reputations (academic, prosocial, and physical aggression). Approximately half of the students made a transition from an elementary school to a larger middle school after sixth grade and the other half attended the same school from kindergarten through eighth grade (K-8). Across time and school configurations, students who were well-liked were perceived to be academically oriented, prosocial, and not physically aggressive. In contrast, the reputations of popular students differed in the two school configurations. In the K-8 context, popularity became increasingly associated with academic and prosocial behavior, and less characterized by physical aggression over time. In the transition context, popularity was associated with academic and prosocial behavior in elementary school, but these associations were null upon the transition to middle school in seventh grade. When students moved into eighth grade, popular students were increasingly academically oriented. In the transition group, popularity was also characterized by physical aggression at all three grades. Findings highlighted the significance of school context for the development of popularity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

School Attachment and Violent Attitudes Preventing Future Violent Behavior Among Youth.

Evidence derived from social information theories support the existence of different underlying cognitive mechanisms guiding violent behavior through life. However, a few studies have examined the contribution of school variables to those cognitive mechanisms, which may help explain violent behavior later in life. The present study examines the relationship between school attachment, violent attitudes, and violent behavior over time in a sample of urban adolescents from the U.S. Midwest. We evaluated the influence of school attachment on violent attitudes and subsequent violent behavior. We used structural equation modeling to test our hypothesis in a sample of 579 participants (54.9% female, 81.3% African American). After controlling for gender and race, our results indicated that the relationship between school attachment and violent behavior over time is mediated by violent attitudes. The instrumentalization of the school context as a learning environment aiming to prevent future violent behavior is also discussed.

Coping with Discrimination from Peers and Adults: Implications for Adolescents' School Belonging.

School belonging is a key indicator of students' academic well-being that is threatened by adults' and peers' transgressions of discrimination. Moreover, the hierarchical power structure at school enables adults and peers to enact ethnic-racial discrimination differently, which is also more or less salient among Black, Asian American, and Latinx youth. Therefore, this study aimed to disentangle the links between adult and peer-perpetrated racial discrimination at school, five distinct coping strategies, and school belonging across ethnic-racial groups. Participants were 1686 students in grades 9-12. These results indicated that adolescents who reported peer discrimination also reported greater proactive and aggressive coping. Black youth who reported more adult discrimination also reported more proactive coping, whereas Asian and Latinx youth who reported more peer discrimination reported more proactive coping. Peer discrimination was indirectly associated with greater school belonging via proactive coping, whereas adult discrimination was directly and negatively related to belonging. These findings suggest that adolescents may be selecting to proactively cope when faced with the discrimination source they most often navigate.

Adolescents' Friendships, Academic Achievement, and Risk Behaviors: Same-Behavior and Cross-Behavior Selection and Influence Processes.

This study examined to what extent adolescents' and their friends' risk behaviors (i.e., delinquency and alcohol use) hinder or promote their academic achievement (grade point average [GPA]), and vice versa. Longitudinal data were used (N = 1,219 seventh- to ninth-grade adolescents; Mage  = 13.69). Results showed that risk behaviors negatively affected adolescents' GPA, whereas GPA protected against engaging in risk behaviors. Moreover, adolescents tended to select friends who have similar behaviors and friends' behaviors became more similar over time (same-behavior selection and influence). Furthermore, although same-behavior effects seemed to dominate, evidence was found for some cross-behavior selection effects and a tendency in seventh grade for cross-behavior influence effects. Concluding, it is important to investigate the interplay between different behaviors with longitudinal social network analysis.

Social Status and Classroom Behavior in Math and Science during Early Adolescence.

Social status is a salient feature of the classroom peer ecology in early adolescence, yet research has not examined how it plays out within the domains of math and science. The current study investigated the behavioral profiles of cool and admired youth (n = 739, 51% female) in 5th and 6th grade math and science classes. "Cool" youth were perceived by peers as academically oriented, prosocial, and not disruptive. When grade level differences were found, they tended to favor 5th graders, such that cool youth had even more positive profiles in 5th grade compared to 6th grade. Admiration was associated with a more adaptive pattern of behaviors than coolness, and grade level differences were less pronounced. Cross-lagged models revealed some reciprocal relationships between behavior and social status. Implications for teachers are discussed, namely that attention to social status dynamics is important for creating a positive social climate that supports early adolescent engagement in math and science classes.

It's Lonely at the Top: Adolescent Students' Peer-perceived Popularity and Self-perceived Social Contentment.

Popularity is highly desired among youth, often more so than academic achievement or friendship. Recent evidence suggests being known as "popular" among peers (perceived popularity) may be more detrimental during adolescence than being widely well-liked (sociometric popularity). Thus, this study sought to better understand how two dimensions of popularity (perceived and sociometric) may contribute to adolescents' own perceptions of satisfaction and happiness regarding their social life at school, and hypothesized that "being popular" would have a more complex (and curvilinear) association with adolescents' social contentment than previously considered by linear models. Adolescents' peer popularity and self-perceived social contentment were examined as both linear and curvilinear associations along each status continuum in a series of hierarchical regressions. Participants were 767 7th-grade students from two middle schools in the Midwest (52% female, 46% White, 45% African American). Perceived and sociometric popularity were assessed via peer nominations ("most popular" and "liked the most", respectively). Self-reported social satisfaction, best friendship quality, social self-concept, and school belonging were assessed as aspects of social contentment. The results indicated that both high and low levels of perceived popularity, as well as high and low levels of sociometric popularity, predicted lower perceptions of social satisfaction, poorer best friendship quality, and lower social self-concept than youth with moderate levels of either status. Implications to promote adolescents' psychosocial well-being by targeting popularity's disproportionate desirability among youth are discussed.

Characteristics of likability, perceived popularity, and admiration in the early adolescent peer system in the United States and China.

High social status youth are often influential in the peer system. Thus, they may serve as agents of cultural socialization if they exhibit characteristics that reflect cultural values (e.g., interdependence). This research examined the behavior that contributes to high social status in the United States and China. At each of 3 waves, 934 early adolescents (M age = 12.7 years at Wave 1) made behavioral (i.e., prosocial behavior and academic engagement) and social status (i.e., likability, perceived popularity, and admiration) nominations of their peers. Positive behavior was predictive of higher social status in both the United States and China, but this was stronger in China. In the United States, there was a tendency for positive behavior to be less predictive of perceived popularity than other forms of social status (e.g., likability); however, this tendency was not evident in China. (PsycINFO Database Record

Friend influence on early adolescent disruptive behavior in the classroom: Teacher emotional support matters.

This research investigated how the level of disruptive behavior and friend influence on disruptive behavior varies across classrooms in relation to teacher emotional support. Data were collected from 48 fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms (N = 879 students) and included classroom observations at Wave 1 and student reports of their disruptive behavior and peer nominations of their friends at Waves 1 and 2 (fall and spring of the school year, about 6 months apart). In the fall, there were no differences in the level of disruptive behavior between classes that were low versus high in teacher emotional support. However, by spring, disruptive behavior was higher in classes with low teacher emotional support compared to classes high in teacher emotional support. Social network analyses, conducted with stochastic actor-based models, indicated that students were more likely to become similar to their friends in regards to disruptive behavior in classes low in teacher emotional support compared to classes high in teacher emotional support. Thus, the level of disruptive behavior and students' susceptibility to friend influence on disruptive behavior depend on the nature of the classroom context. This study contributes to a growing body of research showing that teachers play an important role in shaping the nature of peer relationships in the classroom. (PsycINFO Database Record

Early adolescent friendships and academic adjustment: examining selection and influence processes with longitudinal social network analysis.

This study investigated early adolescent friendship selection and social influence with regard to academic motivation (self-efficacy and intrinsic value), engagement (effortful and disruptive behavior), and achievement (GPA calculated from report card grades) among 6th graders (N = 587, 50% girls at Wave 1; N = 576, 52% girls at Wave 2) followed from fall to spring within 1 academic year. A stochastic actor-based model of social network analysis was used to overcome methodological limitations of prior research on friends, peer groups, and academic adjustment. Evidence that early adolescents sought out friends who were similar to themselves (selection) was found in regard to academic self-efficacy, and a similar trend was found for achievement. Evidence that friends became more similar to their friends over time (influence) was found for all aspects of academic adjustment except academic self-efficacy. Collectively, results indicate that selection effects were not as pervasive as influence effects in explaining similarity among friends in academic adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Friendship networks and achievement goals: an examination of selection and influence processes and variations by gender.

Interactions with friends are a salient part of students' experience at school. Thus, friends are likely to be an important source of influence on achievement goals. This study investigated processes within early adolescent friendships (selection and influence) with regard to achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) among sixth graders (N = 587, 50% girls at wave 1, N = 576, 52% girls at wave 2) followed from fall to spring within one academic year. Students' gender was examined as a moderator in these processes. Longitudinal social network analysis found that friends were similar to each other in mastery goals and that this similarity was due to both selection and influence effects. Influence but not selection effects were found for performance-approach goals. Influence effects for performance-approach goals were stronger for boys compared to girls in the classroom. Neither selection, nor influence, effects were found in relation to performance-avoidance goals. However, the higher a student was in performance-avoidance goals, the less likely they were to be named as a friend by classmates. Implications for early adolescents' classroom adjustment are discussed.

The company they keep and avoid: social goal orientation as a predictor of children's ethnic segregation.

This study examined whether social goal orientation (i.e., demonstration-approach, demonstration-avoid, and social development goals) predicts changes in ethnic segregation among 4th and 5th grade African American and European American children (n = 713, ages 9-11 years) from fall to spring. Segregation measures were (a) same-ethnicity favoritism in friendships, (b) same-ethnicity favoritism in peer group affiliations, and (c) cross-ethnicity dislike. Social goal orientation was asymmetrically associated with ethnic segregation for the 2 groups. Among African Americans, aspiring to achieve high social status predicted increases in same-ethnicity favoritism and cross-ethnicity dislike. Among European Americans, aspiring to achieve high social status predicted decreases in same-ethnicity favoritism.

Changes in academic adjustment and relational self-worth across the transition to middle school.

Moving from elementary to middle school is a time of great transition for many early adolescents. The present study examined students' academic adjustment and relational self-worth at 6-month intervals for four time points spanning the transition from elementary school to middle school (N = 738 at time 1; 53 % girls; 54 % African American, 46 % European American). Grade point average (G.P.A.), intrinsic value for schoolwork, self-worth around teachers, and self-worth around friends were examined at every time point. The overall developmental trajectory indicated that G.P.A. and intrinsic value for schoolwork declined. The overall decline in G.P.A. was due to changes at the transition and across the first year in middle school. Intrinsic value declined across all time points. Self-worth around teachers was stable. The developmental trends were the same regardless of gender or ethnicity except for self-worth around friends, which was stable for European American students and increased for African American students due to an ascent at the transition into middle school. Implications for the education of early adolescents in middle schools are discussed.

An examination of stereotype threat effects on girls' mathematics performance.

Stereotype threat has been proposed as 1 potential explanation for the gender difference in standardized mathematics test performance among high-performing students. At present, it is not entirely clear how susceptibility to stereotype threat develops, as empirical evidence for stereotype threat effects across the school years is inconsistent. In a series of 3 studies, with a total sample of 931 students, we investigated stereotype threat effects during childhood and adolescence. Three activation methods were used, ranging from implicit to explicit. Across studies, we found no evidence that the mathematics performance of school-age girls was impacted by stereotype threat. In 2 of the studies, there were gender differences on the mathematics assessment regardless of whether stereotype threat was activated. Potential reasons for these findings are discussed, including the possibility that stereotype threat effects only occur in very specific circumstances or that they are in fact occurring all the time. We also address the possibility that the literature regarding stereotype threat in children is subject to publication bias.

Social goals, social behavior, and social status in middle childhood.

This study examines motivational precursors of social status and the applicability of a dual-component model of social competence to middle childhood. Concurrent and longitudinal relationships between self-reported social goals (social development, demonstration-approach, demonstration-avoid goal orientations), teacher-rated prosocial and aggressive behavior, and peer nominations of social status (preference, popularity) were examined over the course of an academic year among 980 3rd- to 5th-grade children. Findings support dual-component expectations. Confirmatory factor analyses verified the expected 3-factor structure of social goals and 2-factor structure of social status. Structural equation modeling (SEM) found that (a) social development goals were associated with prosocial behavior and increased preference, and (b) demonstration-approach goals were associated with aggressive behavior and increased popularity. Demonstration-avoid goals were associated with a popularity decrease. SEMs were invariant across grade, gender, and ethnicity. Discussion concerns the potential risks of high social status, extensions to the dual-component model, and the generality of an achievement goal approach to child social development.

Aberrant detergent-insoluble excitatory amino acid transporter 2 accumulates in Alzheimer disease.

Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized by deposition of amyloid-beta, tau, and other specific proteins that accumulate in the brain in detergent-insoluble complexes. Alzheimer disease also involves glutamatergic neurotransmitter system disturbances. Excitatory amino acid transporter 2 (EAAT2) is the dominant glutamate transporter in cerebral cortex and hippocampus. We investigated whether accumulation of detergent-insoluble EAAT2 is related to cognitive impairment and neuropathologic changes in AD by quantifying detergent-insoluble EAAT2 levels in hippocampus and frontal cortex of cognitively normal patients, patients with clinical dementia rating of 0.5 (mildly impaired), and AD patients. Parkinson disease patients served as neurodegenerative disease controls. We found that Triton X-100-insoluble EAAT2 levels were significantly increased in patients with AD compared with controls, whereas Triton X-100-insoluble EAAT2 levels inpatients with clinical dementia rating of 0.5 were intermediately elevated between control and AD subjects. Detergent insolubility of presenilin-1, a structurally similar protein, did not differ among the groups, thus arguing that EAAT2 detergent insolubility was not caused by nonspecific cellular injury. These findings demonstrate that detergent-insoluble EAAT2 accumulation is a progressive biochemical lesion that correlates with cognitive impairment and neuropathologic changes in AD. These findings lend further support to the idea that dysregulation of the glutamatergic system may play a significant role in AD pathogenesis.

Do gender differences in help avoidance vary by ethnicity? An examination of African American and European American students during early adolescence.

The present research examined whether the nature of gender differences varies by race for two types of academic engagement in the classroom (help avoidance and voice with the teacher) in a sample of early adolescents (N = 456; 55% female, 60% African American and 40% European American) making the transition to middle school. Growth curve analyses indicated that help avoidance increased over time, voice remained stable, and achievement declined. In line with hypotheses based on cultural variations in the female role, there were no gender differences in help avoidance for African American students, whereas for European American students, girls were lower in help avoidance than were boys. For African American students, there were no gender differences in voice with the teacher, whereas for European American students, girls were higher than were boys. These group differences were present at all 3 waves. For all students, increases in help avoidance negatively predicted changes in achievement, whereas increases in voice positively predicted achievement. Results underscore the importance of examining gender and ethnicity together to understand academic adjustment during early adolescence.

Social achievement goals: the nature and consequences of different orientations toward social competence.

The proposition that achievement goals are applicable to the social domain was examined in four studies. Study 1 established that different orientations toward developing or demonstrating social competence can be seen in individuals' responses to open-ended questions about their social goals and social competence. Studies 2 through 4 evaluated a new survey measure of social achievement goals. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized model of social achievement goals. Convergent and discriminant validity for the new measure of social achievement goals was established. In line with hypotheses, a social development goal was associated with adjustment and a social demonstration-avoid goal was associated with maladjustment both concurrently and longitudinally. A social development goal also was positively related to instructor ratings of students' social adjustment in small classroom settings. A social demonstration-approach goal was most often unrelated to adjustment. The importance of social achievement goals for a comprehensive understanding of social motivation and adjustment is discussed.

Sex differences in math performance: The role of children's approach to schoolwork.

This research examined whether the tendency for girls to outperform boys in the classroom is due to differences in how girls and boys approach schoolwork. In 5th grade and then again in 7th grade, children (N=518) reported on how they approach schoolwork (i.e., achievement goals and classroom behavior), their learning strategies, and their self-efficacy in math; math grades and achievement test scores were also collected. Girls were more likely than boys to hold mastery over performance goals and to refrain from disruptive classroom behavior, which predicted girls' greater effortful learning over time. The sex difference in learning strategies accounted for girls' edge over boys in terms of grades. Girls did not do better on achievement tests, possibly because self-efficacy, for which there was also no sex difference, was the central predictor of performance on achievement tests.