Gender today: Advances in the gendered nature of children’s and adolescents’ peer relationships

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Having positive experience with diverse peers across all genders and various social forms could provide youth with a rich social life. Past research predominantly focused on same-gender in-person peer relations, leaving other-gender and online interactions less understood. We address these gaps with recent research from the U.S. and Uganda.
Paper 1 investigated whether and how school children’s expectancies of interacting with other-gender peers relate to academic adjustment. Longitudinal analyses indicate that other-gender inclusion expectancies uniquely positively predicted school liking for both Latinx and non-Latinx children, when controlling for same-gender expectancies. Paper 2 was an investigation of Ugandan adolescents’ friendships with, attitudes about, and activities with, same- and other-gender peers. Other-gender friendships were present; further, girls and boys displayed similar attitudes about same- and other-gender peers and enjoyed a range of activities with peers of both genders. In Paper 3, researchers used an event-sampling assessment to examine adolescents’ problem disclosures with same- and other-gender peers. Both boys and girls co-ruminate more with girls, yet only co-rumination with same-gender peers (but not with other-gender peers) was related to later depressive symptoms. Paper 4 presented initial evidence for how online peer interaction/feedback differs by gender and affects adolescents’ well-being across race/ethnicity. Girls reported more emotional investment in peer feedback than boys; such investment was consistently associated with well-being across gender and race/ethnicity. Findings suggest quality of online experiences (e.g., peers’ gender) is worthy of future investigation.
Together, these studies provide a platform for discussion of how to better assess youth’s gender-based peer dynamics.

Sub Unit

• Sex, Gender

Chair

• Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy

Individual Presentations

• Gender integration and school-age children’s affective school outcomes: A longitudinal study. - Presenting Author: Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy; Non-Presenting Author: Laura D Hanish, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Dawn DeLay, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Richard A Fabes, Arizona State University

• Ugandan Adolescents’ Attitudes Toward, and Shared Activities with, Same- and Other-Gender Peers and Friends - Presenting Author: Flora Farago, Stephen F. Autstin University; Non-Presenting Author: Jingyi Xu, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Natalie D. Eggum, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Linlin Zhang, Capital Normal University; Non-Presenting Author: Danming An, Lehigh University; Non-Presenting Author: Eunjung Kim, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Emily Adams, Stephen F. Austin State University

• Adolescents’ Experiences Disclosing Problems to Same- and Other-Gender Peers: Gender Differences and Associations with Emotional Adjustment - Presenting Author: Sarah K Borowski, Lehigh University; Non-Presenting Author: Allie Spiekerman, University of Missouri; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Rose, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Quantifiable Peer Feedback on Social Media: Differences by Gender and Associations with Depressive Symptoms - Presenting Author: Anne Maheux, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Author: Savannah R Roberts, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Author: Jacqueline Nesi, Brown University; Non-Presenting Author: Brian Galla, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Sophia Choukas-Bradley, University of Delaware