Mean or nice? These traits could make or break a child's friendships
Study first to use longitudinal data to examine interplay between being nice, being mean and friendship quality
2021-02-09
(Press-News.org) Not all friendships are created equal. Some friends get along; others struggle to avoid conflict. Conventional wisdom holds that the tenor of a friendship with someone who is nice differs from that with someone who is mean, such that the former discourages negative interactions whereas the latter aggravates them. Although it is logical to assume that children who are mean have friendships characterized by growing strife and that children who are nice report little of the same, these assumptions have not yet been tested in the real-world friendships of children.
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science are the first to conduct a longitudinal study to examine the extent to which being "nice" (prosocial behavior) and being "mean" (relationally aggressive behavior) shape changes in friend perceptions of their relationship. Using a longitudinal framework, researchers examined over time associations between individual attributes and perceptions of relationship quality in 120 same-gender friendships among children in fourth, fifth and sixth grades.
The researchers examined whether one friend's nice and mean behaviors anticipate changes in the other friend's perceptions of relationship negativity (expressions of anger, conflict, and annoyance) across a period of one to three months. Being mean was defined as classmate reports of relational aggression, including the intentional use of exclusion and gossip to harm others. Being nice was defined as classmate reports of prosocial behavior, including providing assistance and treating others fairly. Findings from the study were published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence.
The results confirm the widespread assumption that one child's behavioral traits drive the other child's friendship experiences. Children with mean friends described increases in relationship negativity over time, whereas children with nice friends reported that relationship negativity declined. It is perhaps not surprising that relational aggression forecast greater negativity. Being mean is antithetical to expectations of how friends should behave and is likely viewed as a violation of trust. No one wants to be treated ill by a friend. Less obvious is the finding that one friend's nice behavior and forecast decreases in the other friend's perception of negativity in the relationship. Prosocial behaviors assuage hurt feelings, meet needs for support, and increase the rewards of companionship, all of which should inhibit expressions of negativity. Prosocial children may also be adept at conflict resolution, which can help them defuse problems before they erupt into conflict.
"These findings matter because friendship difficulties threaten socio-emotional adjustment in children as well as their ability to maintain friendships," said Brett Laursen, Ph.D., lead author and a professor of psychology in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, FAU Broward Campuses. "We have long known that negative interactions with friends contribute to subsequent increases in psychological distress and difficulties at school. Friends who don't get along are soon former friends. Children who cannot seem to keep friends report increases in depression and victimization. Conversely, prosocial behaviors are tied to the ability to make new friends and keep old ones. Put simply, behavioral tendencies that threaten friendships threaten well-being. Behavioral tendencies that protect friendships promote child adjustment."
Researchers focused on the late primary and early middle school years, a period when children spend increasing amounts of time with friends and when the closeness and significance of friendships grow commensurately. They studied stable reciprocated friendships - both children nominated one another as friends at both time points. Both friends rated negativity within the friendship at each time point. Classmates rated each child in terms of their prosocial behavior and relationally aggressive behavior.
INFORMATION:
Study co-authors are Olivia Valdes, Ph.D. and Lauren Shawcross, M.A, both graduates of the Department of Psychology, FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.
The research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (0923745) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD096457), awarded to Laursen.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU's world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU's existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit fau.edu.
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-02-09
A new study from University of Alberta researchers has shown that traumatic or stressful events in childhood may lead to tiny changes in key brain structures that can now be identified decades later.
The study is the first to show that trauma or maltreatment during a child's early years--a well-known risk factor for developing mental health conditions such as major depressive disorder in adulthood--triggers changes in specific subregions of the amygdala and the hippocampus.
Once these changes occur, researchers believe the affected regions of the brain may not function as well, potentially increasing the risk of developing mental health disorders as adults during times of stress.
"Now ...
2021-02-09
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Marching band members in leadership roles are more likely to feel discomfort in the neck and upper back than their less experienced bandmates, who in turn are more susceptible to left-hand pain and cognitive strain, a new study by Oregon State University suggests.
The findings also showed that gender had no bearing on how much discomfort a musician felt or the band member's perception of workload.
"The study really seems to indicate that a player's level of experience and role within the band are what drive how much discomfort they feel," said industrial ...
2021-02-09
Neurons are the primary cells of the nervous system, and the signals that are transmitted between them are responsible for all our actions and our cognitive ability. In particular, learning and memory are believed to be associated with a process called "long-term potentiation," which is the strengthening of connections between specific neurons via continued signal transmission through "synapses" (small gaps between neurons). Long-term potentiation can change the connection between neurons via synapses--by changing their size and composition. Understanding ...
2021-02-09
Researchers report that large-scale commercial farms on deforested land in the southern Amazon result in higher temperature increases and less rainfall than small-scale farms.
Deforestation has converted swaths of land in the southern Amazon region from rainforest to farmland. The uses of the deforested land are diverse, and activities can range from small-scale farming in rural settlements to large-scale commodity agriculture. Commercial farms in the Southern Amazon can reach hundreds of thousands of hectares in area, exporting millions of tons in grains and beef every year.
Eduardo Maeda from the University of Helsinki and colleagues used satellite data to compare areas dominated by different land uses and farm sizes to evaluate their impacts on ...
2021-02-09
Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used in various mobile electronics. Concerns of global warming and climate change have recently boosted the demand for LIBs in electric vehicles and solar photovoltaic output smoothing. Si has been studied as an active material with a high theoretical capacity of 3578 mAh/g, which is around ten times higher than that of graphite (372 mAh/g).
Now, a team of researchers at Osaka University has used flake-shaped Si nanopowder wrapped by ultrathin graphite sheets (GSs) to fabricate LIB electrodes with high areal capacity and current density.
Generally ...
2021-02-09
Rivers and lakes at high latitudes are considered to be major sources for greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, but these losses are poorly constrained. In a study published in Nature Communications, Umeå University researchers and collaborators quantify carbon emissions from rivers and lakes across Western Siberia, finding that emission are high and exceed carbon export to the Arctic Ocean.
High latitude regions play a key role in the global carbon cycle and climate system. An important question is the degree of mobilization and atmospheric release of vast soil carbon stocks, partly stored in permafrost, with amplified warming of these regions. A fraction of this carbon is exported to inland waters and emitted to the atmosphere, yet these ...
2021-02-09
Cryopreservation involves preserving biological materials, such as cells, tissues, and organs, at ultra-low temperatures so that they can be revived and used at a later date. To achieve cryopreservation such that the preserved materials are not damaged, scientists use various chemicals called cryoprotectants, which facilitate the freezing process. Unfortunately, many of the existing cryoprotective agents have major limitations. For example, dimethyl sulfoxide is useful for cryopreserving red blood cells, but it is also toxic to the cells.
To overcome these limitations, researchers at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) and Japan's RIKEN have experimented with a class of chemicals known as polyampholytes, identifying one ...
2021-02-09
In research on solar energy and climatology, "clear sky" or "cloudless" conditions are very important. For instance, the number of clear-sky days (number of days having an average cloud cover less than 10%) is a key parameter of solar resource assessments. The instantaneous surface irradiance is highly affected by cloud variations, based on which clear-sky detection (CSD) methods can be developed. However, a general tendency in common among all CSD methods is the detection accuracy deteriorates when aerosol loading increases.
"The lack of accurate clear-sky detection data makes it difficult to assess existing clear-sky detection methods in polluted areas," explains Liu Mengqi, a PhD student from the group of Prof. Xiang'ao Xia at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese ...
2021-02-09
Researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have developed a computational model to calculate 'skeletal age', a personalised estimate of an individual's risk of bone fracture and premature death.
The skeletal age calculator, which will be accessible to doctors and health professionals, aims to better identify those at risk of a first bone fracture and subsequent fractures, and also estimates how fractures impact life expectancy.
Osteoporosis, a disease which reduces bone strength and increases bone fracture risk, is a major national health issue and estimated to affect over 900,000 Australians. ...
2021-02-09
Research groups at University of Helsinki and Institut Jacques Monod, Paris, discovered a new molecular mechanism that promotes cell migration. The discovery sheds light on the mechanisms that drive uncontrolled movement of cancer cells, and also revises the 'text book view' of cell migration.
The ability of cells to move within our bodies is critical in wound healing, as well as for immune cells to patrol in our tissues to hunt bacterial and viral pathogens. On the flip-side, uncontrolled movement of cells is a hallmark of cancer invasion and metastasis.
The machinery that drives cell migration is a complex network of dynamic filaments composed of a protein actin. Actin exists in monomeric form, but ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Mean or nice? These traits could make or break a child's friendships
Study first to use longitudinal data to examine interplay between being nice, being mean and friendship quality
