Poster #222 - Associations Between Social Interaction Style and Social Network Position During Early Adolescence

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Developmental researchers have been interested in behavioral determinants of children’s social position. It has been found that, whereas some of children’s behavior patterns, such as prosocial and cooperative behaviors, were associated with high social status, other behavior patterns, such as aggressive and coercive behaviors, were related with negative relational consequences (Ladd & Sechler, 2012). It is important to note, however, that most of the studies concerning children’s peer interaction and social position focused only on peer acceptance and rejection, or social preference. Given that children’s social status in the peer group are embedded in a larger social network (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003), it is critical to examine children’s social position within a whole network in order to fully understand the behavioral correlates associated with social status. Thus, in the present study, we examined the associations between children’s social interaction style and two measures of social position (i.e., social preference and social network centrality).
The sample included 327 Canadian students (185 girls) in grades 4-8 who participated in peer group observation sessions and completed peer nominations. Children’s social interactions were coded on the basis of the free-play sessions. An event-sampling coding scheme was developed based on the work of Dodge, Schlundt, Schocken, and Delugach (1983) and Putallaz and Gottman (1981), to code initiations and responses in peer interactions. Initiations consisted of high-power, neutral-power, and low-power strategies. High-power initiations included aggression, prohibition, sarcasm, and direct command. Neutral-power initiations included asking questions and information exchange. Low-power initiations included prosocial behavior, general request, and non-verbal passive behavior. An index of peer preference was computed by subtracting standardized negative nomination (i.e., like least) scores from the standardized positive nomination scores (i.e., like most) (Coie, Dodge, & Coppotelli, 1982). Bonacich centrality score indicates individual’s social position in the social network, considering centrality of neighbors that individuals are connected to. Friendship nominations were used to compute Bonacich centrality score in Social Network Analysis. An example of visualization of the peer network and children’s centrality was presented in Figure 1.
As shown in Table 1, the results revealed that, whereas a neutral-power initiation was positively associated with social preference (r (302) = .12, p = .03), a high-power initiation was negatively associated with social preference (r (302) = -.12, p = .04). The results also showed that when children displayed low-power social initiation, their social centrality tended to be low (r (302) = -.12, p = .04). That is, using neutral-power strategies was related with being liked, and using high-power strategies was associated with being disliked by peers. In addition, using low-power initiations was associated with occupying a central position in the peer network. In conclusion, each dimension of social status was associated with a distinct social interaction style, implying that it is necessary to consider children’s centrality in the network as well as social preference to understand the relations between social interaction styles and social status.

Authors

• Jung Hwa Choi, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Xinyin Chen, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jinsol Lee, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Vivien Yiu, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lynne Zarbatany, University of Western Ontario
  Non-Presenting Author

• Wendy Ellis, King's University College
  Non-Presenting Author