Intergroup attitudes of European American children attending ethnically homogeneous schools

Intergroup attitudes were assessed in European American 1st-grade (M=6.99 years, SD=0.32) and 4th-grade (M=10.01 years, SD=0.36) children (N=138) attending ethnically homogeneous schools to test hypotheses about racial biases and interracial friendships. An Ambiguous Situations Task and an Intergroup Contact Assessment were administered to all participants. Unlike previous findings with European American children attending heterogeneous schools, children rated minority perpetrators more negatively than majority perpetrators, and friendship as less likely when a minority than a majority perpetrator was portrayed. These findings suggest that intergroup contact contributes to racial bias in children's interpretations of peer dyadic encounters and to judgments about interracial friendships.     

Impact of the Friendly Schools whole-school intervention on transition to secondary school and adolescent bullying behaviour

Peer bullying increases in times of school transition, influenced by changing peer and friendship groups, new schooling environments and greater stress. Covert forms of bullying, including cyberbullying, become more common in secondary school and cause considerable distress and long-term harm. The period of transition to secondary school is therefore a critical window for intervening to manage and prevent bullying. A three-year cluster randomised control trial was conducted to develop, implement and evaluate the Friendly Schools Project intervention which aimed to reduce bullying and aggression among more than 3,000 students who had recently transitioned to secondary school. Intervention schools were provided with individualised training and resources to support students’ transition and reduce bullying using a multi-level comprehensive intervention addressing classroom curriculum, school policies and procedures, the social and physical environment, pastoral care approaches and school-home-community links. Although the observed effect sizes were small, the intervention had a consistently significant positive effect across a range of outcomes, including bullying perpetration, victimisation, depression, anxiety, stress, feelings of loneliness and perceptions of school safety at the end of the students’ first year in secondary school. However, none of these differences were sustained into the students’ second year of secondary school. These findings demonstrate the immediate value of whole-school interventions to reduce bullying behaviour and associated harms among students who have recently transitioned to secondary school, as well as the need to provide strategies that continue to support students as they progress through school, to sustain these effects.     

Associations between interpersonal behavior and friendship quality in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examined concurrent associations between aggression, withdrawal, assertion, and prosocial behavior and each of positive and negative friendship quality across studies with 22,657 children and adolescents (M_age = 11.71 years; 51.7% girls; 67.7% White). Studies were published between 1995 to 2021 and 32.4% were conducted outside of North America. Aggression was linked to more negative,  = .19, 95% CI [.14, .24], and less positive,  = −.05 [−.08, −.01], friendships. Withdrawal was associated with less positive friendships,  = −.13 [−.18, −.08], whereas prosocial behavior was related to more positive,  = .29 [.22, .37], as well as less negative,  = −.16 [−.20, −.12], friendships. Assertion was related to more positive friendships,  = .15 [.01, .28].     

Intentional Jealousy-Evoking Behavior in Romantic Relationships as a Function of Received Partner Affection and Love Styles

This study examined how (a) affection received from a partner and (b) love styles (i.e., eros, ludus, storge, pragma, mania, and agape) predicted the use of jealousy-evoking behaviors in romantic relationships. Participants were 197 undergraduate students currently involved in a committed romantic relationship, who completed a survey reporting on their partners' expressions of affection and their own perceived love styles and uses of jealousy evocation in their relationships. Results indicated that (a) after controlling for relationship length, the amount of affection received from a partner was inversely correlated with the use of jealousy-evoking behaviors, and (b) after controlling for relationship length and received affection, the ludus and mania love styles remained positive predictors of jealousy-evoking behavior. No other love styles were significant predictors.