Poster #225 - Social Provisions and Loneliness in School: Child- and Classroom-Level Effects

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Social provisions, the benefits derived from relationships (e.g., companionship, validation, help, opportunity for self-disclosure), are thought to fulfill human social needs and thereby protect against loneliness (Shaver & Buhrmester, 1983; Weiss, 1973). Yet little research has examined the extent to which children receive provisions from their peers in the classroom and how provisions distributed by the entire class relate to loneliness. In this research, we tested the hypothesis that receiving provisions from a higher proportion of classmates will be associated with lower levels of loneliness. In addition, building on other peer relations research that has treated the classroom as the unit of analysis (e.g., Bellmore, Nishina, Witkow, Graham, & Juvonen, 2007), we extend the social needs perspective beyond the individual to the classroom, to learn whether the "provision richness" of a classroom is associated with loneliness, over and above provisions received at the individual level.

Participants were 998 third- through fifth-grade children (470 girls) from 38 classrooms in a midwestern United States school district (98% of the children in these 38 classroom participated in this IRB-approved study). To assess provisions received from classmates, children responded to items about companionship (e.g., "Who do you spend time with at lunch or recess?"), validation (e.g., "Who do you tell they're good at things?"), help (e.g., "Who do you do favors for?"), and opportunity for self-disclosure (e.g., "Who tells you private things about themselves?"). For each of the eight items (two items per provision), children indicated on a class roster the names of the children with whom they engaged in each provision-related behavior. From these responses, "provisions received" scores were calculated for each child, indicating the proportion of same- (α = .89) and cross-gender (α = .85) peers who selected them for each item. Classroom-level provisions scores were calculated by taking the average same- and cross-gender provisions received scores for each classroom. Provisions received scores were calculated separately by gender given evidence of pervasive gender segregation in classroom social relationships (e.g., Maccoby, 1998). Children also completed a 12-item loneliness measure that asked about feelings of loneliness in four school contexts without including items about the causes of loneliness (α = .94; Authors, in progress). Using a highly focused loneliness measure is important because loneliness measures that include causal content often overlap with assessments of social provisions (see Weeks & Asher, 2012 for a discussion of this issue).

Multilevel regression analyses with children (n = 998) nested within classrooms (n = 38) were conducted to examine links between child- and classroom-level provisions and children's feelings of loneliness. Controlling for gender and grade, provisions received from same-gender, but not cross-gender, classmates predicted lower levels of loneliness (see Table 1). Furthermore, an interaction was found between child-level and classroom-level provisions received from same-gender classmates, such that child-level provisions received were more strongly related to loneliness in classrooms that were less "provision rich" (see Figure 1). Findings highlight the provision richness of a classroom as an important dimension of classroom social climate (e.g., Hamre & Pianta, 2010).

Authors

• Paula Yust, Duke University
  Presenting Author

• Molly S. Weeks, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gladys A. Williams, University of North Carolina
  Non-Presenting Author

• Steven R. Asher, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author