Classroom social hierarchy and associations between children's behavioral control and peer relationships

Abstract

Our study investigated concurrent associations between classroom-level social hierarchy and preschool to third-grade children's friendship and victimization. We considered its moderating role in the associations between children's behavioral control and their friendship and victimization, and explored grade level differences. We conducted three parallel sets of analyses using three operationalizations of classroom social hierarchy: social impact, peer liking, and social preference. Results revealed the three operationalizations of classroom social hierarchy were positively associated with victimization but not friendship. In hierarchical classrooms (operationalized as social preference), children with higher behavioral control had more friends and experienced less victimization (though random slope was nonsignificant) than children with lower behavioral control. In less hierarchical classrooms, behavioral control was unrelated to friendship and victimization. Analyses using social impact or peer liking did not show significant interactions. Associations were consistent across grade levels. Findings underscore the roles of classroom social hierarchy in young children's peer relationships.