Browsing by Subject "Age groups"
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Item Perceived-age ascriptions as a factor in the social-role perception and social-role behavior of preschool children in a mixed-age setting(Texas Tech University, 1987-05) Blume, Libby BalterThe effect of ascribed age on preschool children's social-role perceptions and interactions in a mixed-age preschool setting was investigated. Person-perception tasks using familiar stimuli were combined with naturalistic observations in a familiar social context. Fourteen boys and 14 girls, aged 39 to 74 months, sorted classmates' photographs by relative age group (Perceived- Young/ Perceived-Old). Subjects also used a pictorial rating scale designed for the study to rate their classmates on three social roles (Show, Help, Share). Observers then coded subjects' social-role behaviors in the mixed-age preschool classroom to determine the relative frequency of the complementary leader/ follower roles of Manager/ Managee, Teacher/ Learner, and Giver/ Receiver with each perceived-age group. Results indicated that differences in age ascriptions for mixed-age classmates influenced preschool children's social-role ratings and behaviors. Children perceived as old were given significantly higher ratings by subjects on the social roles of showing, helping, and sharing than children perceived as young. Subjects also enacted significantly more leader-style social-role behavior with children perceived as young compared to old and significantly more follower-style social-role behavior with children perceived as old compared to young. No significant gender differences were obtained. Findings of the study extend previous research regarding the complementarity of sibling interaction. Data suggest that preschool children can successfully represent showing, helping, and sharing social-role schemas associated with the ascribed relative ages of familiar peers. Representation of a social partner according to a social schema of age-typical social-role behavior may explain the tacit knowledge of social roles children evidence in mixed-age prosocial behavior. Thus, mixed-age preschool groupings may be expected to provide children with the opportunity for social-cognitive development.Item Social goals, achievement goals, and the pathways of peer influence in 6th grade(2002) Summers, Jessica J.; Schallert, Diane L.The main purpose of this study was to bring new considerations to the concept of peer influence on academic achievement motivation variables. While peer influence has focused historically on individual-level effects of influence, this study took into account the idea that goals are frequently shared among peers, especially students who have social goals that are oriented towards having close friends and who value characteristics of high quality friendships. Participants were 200 6th grade math students from a mid-sized city in the southwest. Data included questionnaire responses from the beginning (October) of the school year and then again in the middle of the spring semester (March). The first set of analyses investigated the effects of friendship influence on achievement motivation. An empirical relationship was found between social goals (social intimacy and social status) and characteristics of friendship quality in a regression analysis, indicating that some characteristics of high quality friendship significantly predicted social intimacy goals in both the fall and spring of the school year. Second, social status goals were significantly correlated with performance-avoid goals in math at Time 1 and Time 2, and this was a significantly stronger correlation than the one between social intimacy goals and performance-avoid goals. However, the hypothesis that co-nominated friends in 6th grade who valued social intimacy goals and high quality friendships would become more similar in their achievement motivation orientation over time as a function of peer influence was not confirmed. The second set of analyses investigated the effects of shared social goals and achievement goals using a hierarchical linear model testing for individual effects and classroom effects. Results indicated that high scores for shared achievement goals in math class predicted individual performance-avoid orientation, suggesting that students who belong to classrooms that value the academic goals of peer learning are likely to adopt motivational strategies associated with performance-avoid goals. Discussion revolved around how students may be influenced by their peers and that certain classroom practices may make them more conscious of others’ evaluations, thus leading them to adopt motivational goals of self-protection.