Developmental Pathways From Childhood Aggression–Disruptiveness,Chronic Peer Rejection,and Deviant Friendships to Early‐Adolescent Rule Breaking

Childhood aggression–disruptiveness (AD), chronic peer rejection, and deviant friendships were examined as predictors of early‐adolescent rule‐breaking behaviors. Using a sample of 383 children (193 girls and 190 boys) who were followed from ages 6 to 14, peer rejection trajectories were identified and incorporated into a series of alternative models to assess how chronic peer rejection and deviant friendships mediate the association between stable childhood AD and early‐adolescent rule breaking. There were multiple mediated pathways to rule breaking that included both behavioral and relational risk factors, and findings were consistent for boys and girls. Results have implications for better understanding the influence of multiple social processes in the continuity of antisocial behaviors from middle childhood to early adolescence.     

Relations Among Chronic Peer Group Rejection,Maladaptive Behavioral Dispositions,and Early Adolescents' Peer Perceptions

Adolescents' perceptions of peers' relational characteristics (e.g., support, trustworthiness) were examined for subtypes of youth who evidenced chronic maladaptive behavior, chronic peer group rejection, or combinations of these risk factors. Growth mixture modeling was used to identify subgroups of participants within a normative sample of youth (N = 477; 50% female) for whom data had been gathered from fifth grade (M_age = 10.61) through eighth grade (M_age = 13.93). Results revealed that both enduring individual vulnerability (i.e., chronic withdrawn or chronic aggressive behavioral dispositions) and interpersonal adversity (i.e., chronic peer group rejection) were linked with either differences or changes in adolescents' perceptions of their peers' supportiveness and trustworthiness across the early adolescent age period.