Social relationship provisions and loneliness in school: Child- and classroom-level effects.

Building on social needs theory (Weiss, 1974), this study introduces the construct of classroom provision richness and examines the association between the exchange of social provisions among children in classrooms and children's feelings of loneliness in school. We examined the receipt of provisions from reciprocally nominated friends versus unilateral (one-sided) and non-friend classmates and examined associations between social provisions and loneliness at the child and classroom levels. Participants were 998 third- through fifth-grade children (468 girls, 530 boys; 88.

Pacifists and Revenge-Seekers in Response to Unambiguous Peer Provocation.

In order to better understand why some children retaliate when they feel provoked and others do not, the present study identified "pacifistically-oriented" children who made negative interpretations in response to unambiguous provocations, yet did not endorse revenge goals, and compared them to "revenge-seeking" children who also made negative interpretations but did endorse revenge goals. Groups were identified based on seventh graders' (N = 367; 54.77% male; 22.

Why do the lonely stay lonely? Chronically lonely adolescents' attributions and emotions in situations of social inclusion and exclusion.

The goal of this study was to identify mechanisms associated with chronic loneliness by examining the effect of adolescents' accumulated history of loneliness on responses to new social situations. Specifically, this study investigated whether attributions and emotions in situations of social inclusion and exclusion differ between chronically lonely adolescents and adolescents with a different loneliness history. A total of 730 adolescents (Mage at Wave 1 = 15.

College Students' Revenge Goals Across Friend, Romantic Partner, and Roommate Contexts: The Role of Interpretations and Emotions.

Residential college environments provide young people with distinctive relationship opportunities and challenges. A major purpose of the present study was to learn whether college students respond differently to conflict-of-interest vignettes in three different relationship contexts. Students were more likely to make negative interpretations about their romantic partner's behavior than they did about their friend's or roommate's behavior.

Loneliness in childhood: toward the next generation of assessment and research.

Loneliness is a sad, even painful emotional experience that is thought to result from deficiencies in the quantity or quality of one's social relationships. Assessments of loneliness have evolved to typically include diverse item content that assesses the causes of loneliness as well as the emotional experience of loneliness itself. This embedding of hypothesized causes in the assessment of loneliness creates pervasive problems in drawing valid conclusions from empirical research on loneliness.

How girls and boys expect disclosure about problems will make them feel: implications for friendships.

Although girls disclose to friends about problems more than boys, little is known about processes underlying this sex difference. Four studies (Ns = 526, 567, 769, 154) tested whether middle childhood to mid-adolescent girls and boys (ranging from 8 to 17 years old) differ in how they expect that talking about problems would make them feel. Girls endorsed positive expectations (e.

When friends disappoint: boys' and girls' responses to transgressions of friendship expectations.

In this study, the prevailing view that girls are pervasively more skilled in their friendships than boys was challenged by examining whether girls respond more negatively than boys when a friend violates core friendship expectations. Fourth- and fifth-grade children (n = 267) responded to vignettes depicting transgressions involving a friend's betrayal, unreliability, or failure to provide support or help. Results indicated that girls were more troubled by the transgressions, more strongly endorsed various types of negative relationship interpretations of the friend's actions, and reported more anger and sadness than did boys.

Modifications in children's goals when encountering obstacles to conflict resolution.

Previous studies have demonstrated that children's goals are associated with their success in peer relationships. The current study extends earlier findings by examining changes in children's goals during hypothetical conflicts. Participants were 252 children ages 9 to 12 years old (133 boys, 119 girls).

Effect of children's perceived rejection on physical aggression.

This study investigated whether the perception of self as socially rejected might contribute to increased physical aggression among elementary-school children. It was hypothesized that physically aggressive children would become more physically aggressive over time if they perceived that they were rejected and tended to blame peers for social failure experiences. Third-grade boys and girls (n = 941) were assessed in the Fall and Spring of the school year.

Children's strategies and goals in response to help-giving and help-seeking tasks within a friendship.

The present research tested whether children's responses to help-giving and help-seeking friendship tasks predicted how many friends they had and the quality of their best friendship. Fifth-grade children (N=511; typically 10 or 11 years old) responded to vignettes in which they could either give help to a friend or seek help from a friend. Children's strategies and goals in both contexts were significantly correlated with the number of friends children had.