The Journal of Early Adolescence

In this study, we examined the relations between perceived social-class discrimination, attachment, and behavior problems in a sample of Chinese migrant children in Beijing (age X ¯ = 11.48, SD = 1.12; n = 179). Data were collected from two migrant schools in Beijing. The participants completed measures of perceived social-class discrimination, attachment to parents and peers, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The results indicated that perceived social-class discrimination was associated with more internalizing and externalizing problems. In addition, attachments to mother, father, and peer were negatively associated with behavior problems. Results of hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that child-father attachment significantly moderated the associations between perceived social-class discrimination and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The negative effects of perceived social-class discrimination on child outcomes were mitigated when children reported higher levels of attachment to their fathers. Child-mother and child-peer attachment demonstrated no moderating effects. The findings provide some evidence of child-father attachment’s unique contribution to child socioemotional development and protection against behavior problems associated with social risks.

Adolescence is a sensitive period for taking risks, yet research has not investigated whether adolescents who engage in risk-taking actually perceive themselves to be risk-takers. In the current study, students (Grade: 6-8, N = 437) reported on their frequency of risk-taking and perceptions of themselves as risk-takers, forming four groups of interest (aware risk-takers, unaware risk-takers, aware non-risk-takers, unaware non-risk-takers). We also investigated whether these groups were associated with engagement in certain types of risks. Overall, low-risk-takers had more accurate self-perceptions (i.e., greater awareness) compared with high risk-takers. Of concern, unaware high risk-takers engaged in more rule-breaking and adventurous risks compared with non-risk-takers, though they did not consider themselves to be risk-takers. It is possible that this group of adolescents may be less receptive to educational practices that target high risk-takers given that they do not consider themselves to be a risk-taker.

This study examined the association between adolescents’ obesity and sociometric status among their peers across 1 year. The participants were 2,528 junior high school students from Taiwan (mean age = 13.31 years). The negative associations discovered between obesity and sociometric status were both concurrent and cumulative. Moreover, the adolescents who changed from nonobese to obese were more likely to have lower social acceptance and be isolated in their classrooms. These findings inform concerns regarding the sociometric status of adolescents who are (or are becoming) obese.

Although high-quality friendships are presumed to protect peer-victimized adolescents from distress, evidence supporting this claim is mixed. This study investigated whether the protective function of high-quality best friendships for victimized youth varies depending on adolescents’ perceptions of their best friend’s victimization. Among a sample of 1,667 eighth graders, we tested the effects of self-perceived victimization, best friend emotional support, and best friend victimization on depressive symptoms and social anxiety across eighth grade. Perceptions of higher emotional support buffered links between boys’ victimization and depressive symptoms. Perceived emotional support buffered links between girls’ victimization and internalizing symptoms if they viewed their best friend as nonvictimized, but it amplified such associations if they viewed their friend as victimized. These results suggest that although perceptions of best friend emotional support benefit peer-victimized youth, highly intimate friendships between victimized adolescent girls may promote maladaptive coping and increased distress.

This study examined associations of best friend and peer group aggressive characteristics with students’ overt and relational aggression, and whether coolness moderated these associations across the fall and spring of the first year in middle school. Students (N = 174; 57% females) self-reported best friendship and peer group members, as well as peer-nominated coolness and aggression (overt, relational). Results indicated positive relations of best friend and peer group aggressive characteristics with subsequent aggression, and that coolness moderated these associations. Specifically, non-cool youth had higher levels of subsequent overt and relational aggression with aggressive best friends, but lower levels of later relational aggression when in relationally aggressive peer groups. In contrast, cool youth had lower levels of subsequent relational aggression with relationally aggressive best friends, but higher levels of later relational aggression when in relationally aggressive peer groups. Implications for examining multiple peer contexts and coolness during early adolescence are discussed.

The present study used a sample of Chinese rural-to-urban migrants in early adolescence to examine whether emotional awareness (EA) moderated the expected association between status-based discrimination and emotional-behavioral problems and whether patterns of associations differed across informants (self-report vs. teacher-report). A total of 169 migrant early adolescents (46.1% girls, age: 10-13 years) living in Shanghai completed self-report measures of discrimination and emotional-behavioral problems, while self-related and other-related EA were assessed via structured vignettes. Teachers were asked to evaluate their students’ emotional-behavioral problems. Linear regression analyses indicated that at high levels of discrimination, adolescents with higher EA-self reported having more emotional-behavioral problems than those with lower EA-self; in addition, adolescents with lower (as opposed to higher) EA-other were rated as more problematic by their teachers. Our findings suggest that school-based prevention or intervention programs may target EA-related abilities to minimize the adverse effects of discrimination on rural-to-urban migrants’ socioemotional adjustment.