Peer Relations as a Risk Factor for Negative Developmental Outcomes: Addressing High Priority Understudied Areas

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Associations among peer relations and negative developmental outcomes have been well-studied for nearly 50 years, but recent advancements in theory and methodology have allowed for an extension of this research in new and exciting ways. Specifically, three critical and understudied phenomena have been long discussed as high priority within the peer relations literature. First, negative peer relationships have been long thought to be associated with biomarkers of stress, but this research question has proven empirically difficult; second, investigations of peer relations and developmental outcomes may be bound to a specific culture or peer group orientation; lastly, longitudinal associations among peer-status and development may require the differentiation of likability and popularity as distinct metrics of peer status. This symposium examines and integrates these understudied, critical topics through the presentation of three independent empirical papers: 1) how peer victimization trajectories in Canadian adolescent monozygotic and dizygotic twins longitudinally relate to cortisol secretion; 2) how Chinese adolescents’ unsociability relates to their academic achievement, peer status, and how these associations depend on peer group characteristics; 3) how multiple indicators of peer-status co-develop with empathic concern over a five-year period for American adolescents. Collectively, these studies address understudied areas of the peer relations literature, and represent exciting future directions for the field.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Nathan Field, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Discussant

• Matteo Giletta, Ghent University

Individual Presentations

• Does Social Support Moderate the Link Between Chronic Peer Victimization in School and Cortisol Secretion? - Presenting Author: Mara Brendgen, L'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM); Isabelle Ouellet-Morin, Université de Montréal; Christina Cantave; Frank Vitaro, Université de Montréal; Ginette Dionne, Universite Laval; Michel Boivin, Universite Laval

• Unsociability and Psychological and School Adjustment in Chinese Children: The Moderating Effects of Peer Group Cultural Orientations - Presenting Author: Siman Zhao, University of Dayton; Mengting Liu, University of Pennsylvania; Xinyin Chen, University of Pennsylvania; Dan Li, Shanghai Normal University; Junsheng Liu, East China Normal University; Shihong Liu

• A Longitudinal Examination of Within- and Between-Person Associations Between Peer Status and Empathy - Presenting Author: Nathan Field, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Emma Balkind; Kara Anne Fox, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Mallory J. Feldman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Kaitlyn Burnell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Elizabeth Nick, Vanderbilt University; Kristen A Lindquist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Eva H Telzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Mitchell J Prinstein, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill