I’m respectful. Why don’t they like me? Evaluator and gender effects of showing respect and children’s social competence
Abstract
Despite extensive research on the importance of conceptualizing respect, little is known about how respect recipients and peer onlookers evaluate showing respect. Few studies have examined how such evaluations affect children's peer relations across four levels of social complexity (individual, interactions, relationships, and group), and few have assessed how gender influences the evaluations of showing respect to peers on peer social competence. This study used multi-group structural equation modeling (MSEM) to examine how (a) cross-evaluators’ views on showing respect mediated the relation between multiple measures of social complexity and children's social competence and (b) whether gender moderated the above relations. Two hundred and sixteen participants were chosen from third to sixth graders (111 girls; Mage=10.30). They completed self-reports of social competence and showing respect, and peer reports of classmates’ showing respect, overt aggression, physical victimization, mutual friends, and social competence. Self-evaluations of showing respect were negatively related to group-level social competence. Peer evaluations of showing respect mediated the association between peer relations (specifically, number of mutual friends and overt aggression) and individual-level and group-level social competence. Gender moderated three paths in the model, namely links between overt aggression and (a) peer evaluations for showing respect; (b) group-level social competence; and (c) individual-level social competence. Negative associations were stronger for girls than for boys. The research findings suggest that gender norms shape the complex relations between children's showing respect and social competence, and an understanding of these relations must take into account differences in evaluations made by children and their peers.
Publication Title
Social Development
Recommended Citation
Audley, S., Hsueh, Y., & Zhang, H. (2020). I’m respectful. Why don’t they like me? Evaluator and gender effects of showing respect and children’s social competence. Social Development, 29 (1), 249-272. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12389
