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This article focuses on the link between social norms and behavioral development as presented in research on norms regarding bullying and aggression. The aim is to present a conceptual framework for how classroom norms may explain children's decisions to defend others or refrain from defending. Norms emerge from group consensus about what is appropriate in given social circumstances, and can also shape, constrain, and redirect behavior at the individual level. The study of norms has gained much attraction in peer relation research, and has turned attention to group-level processes, often defined at the classroom level, which create and sustain shared meanings that impact behavioral and social adjustment. Norm conformity, pluralistic ignorance, and power balance are presented as potential micro-level mechanisms for the link between classroom popularity (or rejection) norms and defending behavior. Directions for further research are discussed, including the need to assess and test the microfoundations directly, examine gender-specific versus common norms, focus on competing classroom norms, test developmental effects of norms, examine the impact of teachers on social norms, and pay attention to the influence of personal norms.

Existing literature has mostly explained the occurrence of bullying victimization by individual socioemotional maladjustment. Instead, this study tested the person-group dissimilarity model (Wright et al., "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology," 50: 523-536, 1986) by examining whether individuals' deviation from developmentally important (relational, socio-behavioral, and physical) descriptive classroom norms predicted victimization. Adolescents (N = 1267, k = 56 classrooms; M[subscript age] = 13.2; 48.7% boys; 83.4% Dutch) provided self-reported and peer-nomination data throughout one school year (three timepoints). Results from group actor--partner interdependence models indicated that more person-group dissimilarity in relational characteristics (fewer friendships; incidence rate ratios [IRR][subscript T2] = 0.28, IRR[subscript T3] = 0.16, fewer social media connections; IRR[subscript T3] = 0.13) and, particularly, lower disruptive behaviors (IRR[subscript T2] = 0.35, IRR[subscript T3] = 0.26) predicted victimization throughout the school year.

Not much is known regarding underlying biological pathways to adolescents' loneliness. Insight in underlying molecular mechanisms could inform intervention efforts aimed at reducing loneliness. Using latent growth curve modeling, baseline levels and development of loneliness were studied in two longitudinal adolescent samples. Genes (OXTR,OXT, AVPR1A,AVPR1B) were examined using SNP‐based, gene‐based, and polygenic risk score (PRS) approaches. In both samples, SNP‐ and gene‐based tests showed involvement of the OXTR gene in development of loneliness, though, significance levels did not survive correction for multiple testing. The PRS approach provided no evidence for relations with loneliness. We recommend alternative phenotyping methods, including environmental factors, to consider epigenetic studies, and to examine possible endophenotypes in relation to adolescents' loneliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Previous work has linked high levels of belongingness needs to low well-being, suggesting that high desire for social connection causes problems. Against that view, we hypothesized that problems stem especially from unmet belongingness needs. To examine this, discrepancies between belongingness needs and relationship satisfaction were measured.Method: A total of 1,342 adolescents (Mage  = 13.94 years, 48.6% boys) completed questionnaires about belongingness needs, relationship satisfaction, loneliness, depressive symptoms, and self-esteem. A combination of polynomial regression analyses with response surface modeling examined the effects of both fulfilled and unmet belongingness needs on well-being.Results: Fulfilled belongingness needs did not affect adolescents' well-being. However, larger discrepancies between high belongingness needs and low relationship satisfaction were related to higher loneliness, more depressive symptoms, and lower self-esteem. Thus, well-being was most strongly affected among adolescents reporting an unmet need to belong.Conclusions: We add to the current knowledge by emphasizing that especially belongingness needs that exceed relationship satisfaction, regardless of the actual levels of both, contribute to actual health outcomes. Thus, high need to belong is not detrimental per se, but only in combination with low relationship satisfaction. Implications for clinical practice could be to prevent unmet belongingness needs to ultimately alleviate negative affect and self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Friendship quantity and quality are related to adolescent loneliness, but the exact link between these constructs is not well understood. The present study aimed to examine whether adolescents’ perception of friendship quantity and quality, and the perceptions of their peers, were related to loneliness. We examined the relation between loneliness and the number of unilateral and reciprocal friendships and compared the views of best friendship quality. Overall, 1,172 Dutch adolescents (49.1% male,Mage = 12.81,SD= .43) nominated their friends and rated their friendship quality. Friendship quantity was measured using sociometrics to distinguish reciprocated and unilateral (i.e., one-sided) friendships. The analyses indicated that loneliness was related to fewer reciprocal and unilateral-received friendships (i.e., the adolescent received a friendship nomination but did not reciprocate that nomination) and a lower quality of best friendship. Actor–partner interdependence analyses revealed that adolescents’ loneliness was related to a less positive evaluation of their friendship, as reported by adolescents themselves (i.e., a significant actor effect) but not by their friends (i.e., nonsignificant partner effect). These findings (a) indicate that loneliness is negatively related to the number of friends adolescents have, as perceived by themselves and their peers and (b) suggest that, once a friendship is established, lonely adolescents may interpret the friendship quality less positively compared to their friends. Implications of these findings for our current understanding of adolescent loneliness are discussed, and suggestions for future research are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated selection, deselection, and influence processes of happiness in adolescent friendship networks. Longitudinal data on friendship networks and happiness of 426 adolescents ( M = 15.78, SD = 0.65) were analyzed, using stochastic actor-based models. Although happiness similarity did not predict friendship formation (selection), happiness dissimilarity predicted friendship dissolution (deselection). In addition, adolescents influenced each other's happiness over time (influence). Our findings indicated that happiness influence can involve either increases or decreases in adolescent happiness, depending on the average level of happiness of their friends. The results highlighted that, in order to understand the development of adolescents' happiness, it is important to examine the happiness of their friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's aim was to examine whether there are negative increasing cycles of peer victimization and rejection sensitivity over time. Drawing from Social Information Processing Theory, we hypothesized that victimization leads to higher levels of rejection sensitivity, which would put adolescents at risk for higher future victimization. Data were collected in a four-wave study with 233 Dutch adolescents starting secondary education ( M = 12.7 years), and a three-wave study with 711 Australian adolescents in the last years of primary school ( age = 10.8 years). Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to disentangle between-person from within-person effects. In each sample, a significant between-person association was found: adolescents with higher levels of victimization as compared to their peers also reported higher levels of rejection sensitivity. At the within-person level, all concurrent associations between individual fluctuations of victimization and rejection sensitivity were significant, but there were no significant cross-lagged effects (except in some sensitivity analyses). These findings demonstrate that victimization and rejection sensitivity are interrelated, but there may not be negative victimization-rejection sensitivity cycles during the early-middle adolescent years. Possibly, cycles establish earlier in life or results are due to shared underlying factors. Further research is needed examining different time lags between assessments, age groups, and contexts.M age = 10.8 years). Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to disentangle between-person from within-person effects. In each sample, a significant between-person association was found: adolescents with higher levels of victimization as compared to their peers also reported higher levels of rejection sensitivity. At the within-person level, all concurrent associations between individual fluctuations of victimization and rejection sensitivity were significant, but there were no significant cross-lagged effects (except in some sensitivity analyses). These findings demonstrate that victimization and rejection sensitivity are interrelated, but there may not be negative victimization-rejection sensitivity cycles during the early-middle adolescent years. Possibly, cycles establish earlier in life or results are due to shared underlying factors. Further research is needed examining different time lags between assessments, age groups, and contexts.

Family and friends are central to human life and well-being. Yet, interdependencies between family and friends have scarcely been examined. How is the relative frequency of daily contact with family and friends (i.e., the friends/family-ratio) related to personality and to well-being? In an experience sampling study with 396 participants ( M = 40 years, range 14-88 years, 52% females), we studied how the friends/family-ratio in contact differed along Big Five personality trait scores and was connected to affective well-being across six daily measurements on nine days (average of 55 assessments). Most participants reported more daily contact with family than friends (i.e. they held a family orientation), but individual differences were substantial. More agreeable individuals reported a greater family orientation. More extraverted individuals reported more positive affect in the company of friends than with family. Age moderated the effect of the friends/family-ratio on positive affect. Younger adults reported less positive affect in the company of family, yet older adults reported more positive affect in the company of family, the more they were friendship oriented. We discuss how examining the friends/family-ratio extends previous knowledge on personality differences in social relationships, and how the friends/family-ratio yields promising, yet challenging, future directions in personality-relationship associations.age = 40 years, range 14-88 years, 52% females), we studied how the friends/family-ratio in contact differed along Big Five personality trait scores and was connected to affective well-being across six daily measurements on nine days (average of 55 assessments). Most participants reported more daily contact with family than friends (i.e. they held a family orientation), but individual differences were substantial. More agreeable individuals reported a greater family orientation. More extraverted individuals reported more positive affect in the company of friends than with family. Age moderated the effect of the friends/family-ratio on positive affect. Younger adults reported less positive affect in the company of family, yet older adults reported more positive affect in the company of family, the more they were friendship oriented. We discuss how examining the friends/family-ratio extends previous knowledge on personality differences in social relationships, and how the friends/family-ratio yields promising, yet challenging, future directions in personality-relationship associations.

Not much is known regarding underlying biological pathways to adolescents' loneliness. Insight in underlying molecular mechanisms could inform intervention efforts aimed at reducing loneliness. Using latent growth curve modeling, baseline levels and development of loneliness were studied in two longitudinal adolescent samples. Genes (OXTR, OXT, AVPR1A, AVPR1B) were examined using SNP-based, gene-based, and polygenic risk score (PRS) approaches. In both samples, SNP- and gene-based tests showed involvement of the OXTR gene in development of loneliness, though, significance levels did not survive correction for multiple testing. The PRS approach provided no evidence for relations with loneliness. We recommend alternative phenotyping methods, including environmental factors, to consider epigenetic studies, and to examine possible endophenotypes in relation to adolescents' loneliness., (© 2019 The Authors Journal of Research on Adolescence published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Research on Adolescence.)

An extensive body of research has established that eating with others can have inhibitory effects on food intake. Recent findings suggest that these effects may (partly) persist over time when the eating norm is no longer enforced. To gain more insights into the persistence of effects of a live non-eating stranger, the main aim of the present study is to explore how food intake of young women changes as a result of previous exposure to a non-eating confederate (i.e., adult stranger). To address this aim, an experiment was conducted in which 64 young women, aged 17 to 26 (M = 19.81, SD = 1.95), were given access to chocolates at two different time points. First, participants were all paired with a non-eating stranger (i.e., confederate). Afterwards, half of the participants remained with the non-eating stranger (i.e., together-together condition), while the other half was left alone with the food (i.e., together-alone condition). Results indicated that participants who were left alone increased their intake on average, although raw data revealed interesting individual differences. In contrast, most of the participants who remained with the non-eating stranger did not increase intake. Participants in an ad hoc added control condition (i.e., no exposure to a non-eating confederate; alone-alone condition; n = 26) showed food intake similar to participants in the together-alone condition after they were left alone. Our findings suggest that if intake behaviors are too extreme and divergent from the desire to eat as much as possible, women may, on average, only adhere to these behaviors in the presence of others., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)