The Role of Peer Relationships in the Development of Early School-Age Externalizing Problems

• Published in: Child development Vol. 82; no. 3; pp. 758 - 765
• Main Authors: Sturaro, Cristina, van Lier, Pol A. C., Cuijpers, Pim, Koot, Hans M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-05-2011; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Additive effects; Aggression - psychology; Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders - prevention & control; Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders - psychology; Behavior; Behavioural problems; Behavioural psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child clinical studies; Child development; Child psychopathology; Child, Preschool; Children; Cohort Studies; Developmental psychopathology; Early childhood education; Elementary school students; Elementary schools; EMPIRICAL REPORTS; Externalizing behaviour; Externalizing problems; Female; Friends; Friends - psychology; Friendship; Grade 1; Human aggression; Humans; Internal-External Control; Interpersonal Relations; Kindergarten education; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Models, Psychological; Peer Group; Peer groups; Peer rejection; Peer relations; Peer relationships; Personality Assessment; Problem solving; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Pupils; Sex Factors; Social Facilitation; Social Identification; Social relations; Sociometric Techniques; Human; Preschool age; School age; Peer relation; Social interaction; Follow up study; Development; Child; Behavioral disorder
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01532.x

This study investigated the role of peer rejection and best friend's externalizing behavior in the development of externalizing behavior in 740 children followed annually from kindergarten (mean age = 6.2, SD = 0.46) to 3rd grade. Consistently across time, children's externalizing problems predicted peer rejection. Peer rejection, in turn, added to the prediction of externalizing problems above and beyond prior levels of problem behavior. Having a best friend with externalizing problems did not add to the prediction of children's externalizing problems. All findings were similar for boys and girls. These results suggest that in early elementary school peer rejection, but not yet best friend's behavioral characteristics, has an additive effect on children's externalizing problem development.