1-134 - Contextual Influences, Children’s Social Goals, and Social Behaviors across Cultures

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The proposed symposium include four papers that examined different contextual influences on children’s aggressive behavior and conduct problems, including culture, parent, peer, and teacher influences. Three papers also examine the mechanism through which the contextual factors influence behavior outcomes, specifically through popularity, communal and agentic goals. The proposed symposium advances this field by focusing on the following issues:
(1) Contextual variations: The first study examined teachers’ use of positive and negative strategies across Chinese, Japanese, and U.S. cultures, and how these related to children’s conduct problems. The second study build on the first study by examining the mediation and moderation effect of children’s social goals on the relationship between teachers’ use of strategies and children’s aggression/bullying among Chinese and U.S. children. The third study examined parents’ influence on students’ popularity goals and aggressive behavior in a Chinese sample. The fourth study examined peers’ influence on students’ popularity goals and aggressive behavior while considering individual differences in openness to influence. All studies highlight contextual factors as important influences of aggressive behavior and conduct problems.
(2) Methodological issues: Past research on aggressive behavior is often limited by the use of self-report data and cross sectional design. Studies in this symposium investigated students’ behaviors using different measures, including self-report, teacher report, and peer nomination. In addition, two of the studies used longitudinal design, and two of the studies include samples from more than one country.
These two areas of focus contribute to the literature of aggressive behavior and indicate future working directions.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chairs

• Cixin Wang, University of California, Riverside

• Yan Li, DePaul University

Individual Presentations

• Conduct Problems, Teacher-Student Relationships, and Classroom Management: Differences Between China, Japan, and the U.S. - Presenting Author: George Bear, University of Delaware; Dandan Chen, Univ of Delaware; Lindsey Mantz, University of Delaware; Chunyan Yang, University of Delaware

• Teachers’ Use of Classroom Management Strategies, Children’s Social Goals, and Aggressive Behaviors in U.S. and China - Presenting Author: Cixin Wang, University of California, Riverside; Yan Li, DePaul University; Kavita Atwal, University of California, Riverside

• Parental Popularity Goal Set for Adolescents: Associations with Adolescents’ Popularity Goal, Behaviors, and Popularity - Presenting Author: Yan Li, DePaul University; Yunyi Long, DePaul University; Hui Zhou, Sun Yat-Sen University, China

• Early Adolescent’s Popularity Goal: Influenced by the Peer Group and Associated with Aggression - Molly Dawes, Virginia Commonwealth University; Presenting Author: Hongling Xie, Temple University