Peer Relationships in Cultural Context

by Xinyin Chen, Doran C. French, Barry H. Schneider

Overview

This book responds to the absence of a comprehensive consideration of the implications of culture for children's peer relationships. Although research in this field has burgeoned in recent years, cultural issues have often been overlooked. The chapters tap such issues as the impact of social circumstances and cultural values on peer relationships, culturally prescribed socialization patterns and processes, emotional experience and regulation in peer interactions, children's social behaviors in peer interactions, cultural aspects of friendships, and peer influences on social and school adjustment in cultural context. The authors incorporate into their discussions findings from research programs using multiple methodologies, including both qualitative (e.g., interviewing, ethnographic and observational) and quantitative (e.g., large scale surveys, standardized questionnaires) approaches, based on a wide range of ages of children in cultures from East to West and from South to North (Asia, South America, the Mid-East, Southern Europe, and ethnic groups in the US).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521842075
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/03/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Social and Emotional Development
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	536
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Xinyin Chen received his Ph.D. from University of Waterloo in 1992. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario. He has received a William T. Grant Scholars Award and several other academic awards. In collaborating with his international colleagues, he has been conducting several large-scale, cross-cultural longitudinal projects in Canada, China and other countries. He is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD), and the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). He has published a number of book chapters and articles concerning culture, children's social behaviors and peer relationships, and parental socialization practices. His work has been published in major developmental journals such as Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly and International Journal of Behavioral Development.

Doran C. French is a Professor and Department Chair of Psychology at Illinois Wesleyan University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1980. He has published articles and book chapters on various aspects of children's peer relationships including cross-age interaction, sociometric status, developmental psychopathology, school adjustment, aggression, and friendship. His research on culture and peer relationship dates from the time of his Fulbright fellowship in Indonesia. Since that time, he has collaborated with colleagues in Indonesia and S. Korea to study social status, aggression, conflict and friendship, work that has been published in Child Development, Social Development, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, and the Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology.

Barry H. Schneider is Professor of Psychology and Vice-Dean of Research (Social Sciences) at the University of Ottawa, Canada, where he has taught since 1981. Since that time, he has received several professional awards, including Professor of the Year, Bea Wickett Award for an outstanding contribution to mental health in education, and fellow status with the Canadian Psychological Association. In addition to his research in Canada, he has worked in Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Hungary, and Italy. Dr Schneider is the author of three books, Friends and Enemies: Peer Relations in Childhood (London, Arnold, 2000); Children's Social Competence in Context: The Contributions of Families, Schools, and Cultures (Oxford, Pergamon, 1993); and The Gifted Child in Social Context (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1987). He is also the senior editor of two edited volumes in peer relations: Social Competence in Developmental Perspective (with Attili, Nadel & Weissberg; Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer, 1989) and Children's Peer Relations: Issues in Asssessment and Intervention (with Rubin & Ledingham, New York: Springer Verlag, 1985.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Culture and peer relationships Xinyin Chen, Doran C. French and Barry H. Schneider; Part I. Culture and Peer Relationships: Theoretical and Methodological Issues: 2. Children's social behaviors and peer interactions in diverse cultures Carolyn Pope Edwards, Maria Rosario T. de Guzman, Jill Brown and Asiye Kumru; 3. Cultural influences on peer relations: an ecological perspective Anne Marie Tietjen; 4. Analytic considerations in cross-cultural research on peer relations Noel A. Card and Todd D. Little; 5. Qualitative research on children's peer relations in cultural context William A. Corsaro; Part II. Temperamental and Emotional Influences on Peer Relationships: 6. Temperament, socio-emotional functioning and peer relationships in Chinese and North American children Xinyin Chen, Li Wang and Amanda DeSouza; 7. Emotional aspects of peer relations among children in rural Nepal Pamela Cole, Alisha Walker and Mukta S. Lama-Tamang; 8. Emotion, emotion-related regulation, and social functioning Nancy Eisenberg, Qing Zhou, Jeffrey Liew, Claire Champion and Sri Untari Pidada; Commentary I: 9. Temperamental and emotional influences on peer relationships Joan Stevenson-Hinde; Part III. Peers and Parents: 10. Parenting and peer-group behavior in cultural context David A. Nelson, Larry J. Nelson, Craig H. Hart, Chongming Yang and Shenghua Jin; 11. Real and symbolic entry of children in the social world of peers and parent-child interactions: cultural and cross-cultural aspects Paul Goudena; 12. Culture, family contexts and children's coping strategies in peer interactions Yiyuan Xu, Jo Ann Farver, Lei Chang, Lidong Yu and Zengxiu Zhang; Part IV. Peer Interactions and Social Behaviors: 13. The cultural organization of Yucatec Mayan children's social interactions Suzanne Gaskins; 14. Cross-cultural differences in competition amongst children and adolescents Barry H. Schneider, Maria del Pilar Soteras de Toro, Sharon Woodburn, Marta Fulop, Consuelo Cervino, Seth Bernstein and Monica Sandor; 15. Ethnic peer discrimination and psychological well-being among early adolescents Maykel Verkuyten; Commentary II: 16. On hand-holding, spit, and the 'big tickets': a commentary on research from a cultural perspective Kenneth H. Rubin; Part V. Friendships: 17. Friendships of Indonesian, S. Korean and United States youth: exclusivity, intimacy, enhancement of worth, and conflict Doran C. French, Okhwa Lee and Sri Pidada; 18. The cultural practice of close friendships among urban adolescents in the United States Niobe Way; 19. Latino-heritage adolescents' friendships Margarita Azmitia, Angela Ittel and Charlotte Brenk; 20. The cultural context of children and adolescents: peer relationships and intimate friendships among Arab and Jewish children in Israel Ruth Sharabany; Commentary III: 21. Peers and culture: details, local knowledge, and essentials William M. Bukowski and Ryan Adams; Conclusion: peer relationships in cultural perspective: methodological reflections Barry H. Schneider, Doran C. French and Xinyin Chen.

Editorial Reviews

"This comprehensive volume taps such issues as the impact of social circumstances and cultural values on peer relationships...The authors incorporate into their discussions findings from research using multiple methodologies."
Adolescence

From the Publisher