This is the Chapter 13 of the book How Children Develop (Robert Siegler, 1st Edition). Which is content for the exam of the Theory component of Module 2 (Social Behaviour) of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands.

Ch. 13: Peers & Child Development

Importance of playing:

• Play: voluntary activity, with the motivation of own pleasure. It contributes to the social, emotional, cognitive and physical development

Types of play:

Non-social types of play:

• Unoccupied play: looking objects from environment, the attention is not held on anything specifically
• Onlooker play: watching other kids playing
• Solitary play: playing by yourself, not paying attention to others

Social types of play:

• Parallel play: when kids play next to each other, but not together
• Associative play: kids playing together, doing same activity
• Co-operative play: playing together, in an organised way, and each participant of the play has an assigned role

Development friendship:

• Friend: someone with whom you have intimate, positive and mutual relationship

Choosing friends:

• When pleasant to deal with other, and this other behaves pro-socially towards others
• When equality of interest
• When proximity, especially in children)
• When gender or ethnicity similar

Changing friendship:

• Clique: unstable peer group. Their functions are to socialize, share interests and belong to a group
• Crowd: group with same stereotypical reputation (e.g. popular people)

Technology & Friendship:

• Rich-get-richer Hypothesis: individuals with good social skills, benefit even more from internet interactions with others
• Social-compensation hypothesis: socially anxious individuals benefit greatly form internet interactions with others

Chatting:

• Anonymity, very beneficial for shy kids
• Less emphasis on physical appearance
• Increased easiness when finding similar peers

Psychological Functioning/Behaviour & Friendship:

• Friendship provides:
  • Validation of own thoughts, feelings and values
  • Improves social and cognitive skills
  • Openness stimulates cognitive skills and improve creative performance
  • Deviancy training: reinforcement by peers of antisocial behaviour
  • Authoritarian parenting style --> children are more at risk of developing risk-seeking behaviour, since they are more vulnerable to peer pressure

Social Networks:

• Gang: loosely organized group of adolescence/young adults, and often engage with illegal activities

Bullying and Victimization:

• Physical bullying: when hurt physically, or when threaten to be hurt
• Verbal bullying: insulting, teasing, harassing, intimidating
• Social bullying: excluding someone, spreading gossip about someone
• Cyberbullying: use of technology to hurt or harass someone

Gender & friendships:

• Girls, increased attachment, more likely to get back for advice, increased co-rumination (thinking deeply about something) --> reinforce anxiety and depression

Status Child:

• Sociometric status: measurement extent children are liked/disliked by peers
  • Influenced by --> physical appearance, social behaviour, personality
    • Popular children: behaviour either prosocial or very aggressive
      • Relational Aggression: social bullying
    • Rejected children: disliked by many, just liked by a few
      
      • Aggressive-rejected children: inclined to disruptive/negative behaviour
      • Withdrawn-rejected children: socially withdrawn, timid
    • Ignored children: children that are simply not noticeable
    • Average children: regarded as average likability by peers
    • Controversial children: liked and disliked by many
• Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS):
  
  • Identify/analyse emotion expression
  • Conscious strategies of self-control

Patents & Children’s friendships:

• Monitoring social life
• Coaching them in terms of social skills

Attachment style/social competence:

• Insecure attachment style: weak competence for social relationship
• Secure attachment style: strong competence for social relationships