The Influence Of Children's Individual Status And Peers On Psychological Adaptation: The Role Of Peer Interaction Style

As a important social context,peer group plays a significant and particular role on children's social development.However,the peer group interaction style has only recently attracted the attention of researchers.A large number of researches have shown that children's social status and peer victimization has a significant impact on psychological adjustment.When children joined different peer group with different interaction style,that may enhance or constrain the above-mentioned relationships.Therefore,the current study intends to explore the influence of different interaction styles on the relationship between social status,peer victimization and psychological adjustment.Participants were a sample of 787 children from Shanghai.Data were collected from multiple sources in the study.Class play procedure was used to assess children's social status.Teacher-report was used to assess peer victimization.Self-reports were used to measure children's self-perceptions,depression and loneliness.The Social Cognitive Map procedure was used to identify children's peer group membership.Using hierarchical linear modeling(HLM)to analyze data.The results indicated:(1)in the individual level,boys are more likely to suffer from peer victimization than girls.The loneliness of boys was significantly higher than that of girls.The negative interaction of boys was significantly higher than that of girls.Children in the sixth-grade were significantly suffered more peer victimization than the other four grades.(2)hierarchical linear modeling revealed that the depression level of senior groups was significantly higher than the lower grades.The negative behavior of group can positively predict individual depression.(3)social status can positively predict self-esteem,negatively predict loneliness and depression,that is,low social status means worse psychological adjustment.Peer victimization can positively predict the level of individual depression.(4)the peer interaction style has moderating effect.In the context of free discussion task,the interaction style of the group regulates the relationship between individual status and loneliness and self-esteem.Individual status can significantly predict lower levels of psychological adjustment when the groups were low on positive interaction style;negative laughter regulates the relationship between peer aggression and loneliness.In the high negative laughter group,peer victimization predicts lower psychological adjustment.In the context of limited resources task,the interaction style regulates the relationshipbetween individual status and self-esteem,and low positive behaviors strengthen the relationship between individual status and self-esteem.Conclusion: In general,peer group interaction style moderates the relationship between social status and psychological adjustment,in peer groups with low positive interaction,the social status can predict lower psychological adjustment.