Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study examined the structure of social competence and the associations of its components with peer preference, academic achievement, and perceived self-worth in Chinese children and adolescents. The participants included 2,359 Chinese students (1,172 boys) in the fourth and eighth grades (Mage = 10 and 14 years). Social competence was measured using peer assessments. The results showed that leadership and the ability to form friendship were central nodes and that social attractiveness was more central in adolescence. Trustworthiness was the primary node positively associated with peer preference and social innovativeness was the primary node positively associated with academic achievement and perceived self-worth in both grades. The results help understand the meanings and functions of specific attributes of social competence in childhood and adolescence.

Keywords

social competence adjustment Chinese children and adolescents

Developmental theorists and researchers have been interested in children’s and adolescents’ social competence over the past several decades (e.g., Rose-Krasnor, 1997; Waters & Sroufe, 1983). Various perspectives and models have been proposed about the meaning, structure, and function of social competence (e.g., Gates et al., 2023). In traditional research, social competence is typically viewed as a latent construct and measured based on a composite score of various attributes and behaviors. A major limitation of this approach is the lack of understanding of interconnections among the attributes of social competence, variations in the relative influence of attributes (e.g., centrality) within the competence system, and the associations between specific attributes and adjustment outcomes. With advancements in analytic techniques such as Psychological Network Analysis (PNA, Borsboom et al., 2021), researchers have explored in recent years the network structures of social and psychological constructs, such as shyness, delinquency, personality, and mental health (e.g., Bekkhus et al., 2023; Borsboom et al., 2021; Xia & Ma, 2023). The network models provide an alternative approach to the exploration of social competence through examining the relations among their constituent attributes. In the present study, we used PNA to examine social competence in a sample of Chinese children and adolescents. Specifically, we sought to examine the structure of social competence, identify central attributes within the network, and assess their associations with peer preference, academic achievement, and perceived self-worth as major indexes of social, school, and psychological adjustment.

Social Competence in Children and Adolescents

Social competence refers to the ability to achieve social goals effectively and appropriately (Rose-Krasnor, 1997). In the multi-level “Prism Model”, Rose-Krasnor (1997) asserts that social competence is manifested at three interrelated levels: a higher-order global level which is indicated broadly by effectiveness in interaction, an index level which is indicated by performance in achieving self-oriented and other-oriented social goals across different contexts, and a skill level which captures the specific social, emotional, and cognitive abilities that support the effort to achieve social goals. This framework underscores that social competence involves the pursuit of both personal goals (e.g., self-expression, influence) and group goals (e.g., cooperation, mutual support) through the exhibition of skills and behaviors such as assertiveness, initiative, self-regulation, and adherence to social norms (Gates et al., 2023; Gresham, 2016). Researchers have identified distinct yet overlapping components of social competence. For example, sociability and prosociality have been shown to contribute uniquely to different aspects of adjustment (Chen et al., 2000), and subdimensions such as popularity-leadership and prosocial behavior are linked to social and academic outcomes, respectively (Gest et al., 2006).

Traditional approaches often treat social competence as a composite or latent construct, aggregating items under the assumption of equal weight and interchangeability. These models overlook the unique interactions among attributes and cannot identify which specific features drive associations with adjustment outcomes (Guo et al., 2023).

Psychological Network Analysis (PNA; Borsboom et al., 2021) offers a novel approach by modeling social competence as a network of interconnected attributes. In the PNA framework, nodes represent individual social competence attributes, and edges represent the strength of their conditional associations (e.g., more similar or tightly related attributes will be connected by thicker edges). This approach not only uncovers the structural patterns of social competence but also permits comparisons on the patterns across groups defined by age, gender, or other characteristics (Williams et al., 2020). A key advantage of this approach is its focus on centrality, a metric that quantifies how strongly each attribute is directly linked to other attributes in the network (Epskamp & Fried, 2018). Attributes with high centrality co-vary strongly with other attributes and therefore represent the core of social competence. For instance, leadership may function as a central node given its broad connections to various social skills, including cooperation and influence (Gates et al., 2023; Hawley, 2014; Van Vugt et al., 2008). Leadership requires navigating group dynamics to achieve both personal and group objectives and has been suggested as a key marker of social status and competence (Rubin et al., 2015; Tackett et al., 2023). Similarly, the ability to form positive relationships (e.g., being nominated for “someone who has many friends”) reflects a constellation of social skills, such as approaching peers, initiating and sustaining positive interactions, offering support to others, and coordinating shared activities (Gresham, 2016; Hartup, 1989). By identifying such central nodes, PNA provides important information about the structure and nature of social competence.

Moreover, PNA can reveal clusters of similarly themed attributes as well as antagonistic relations among attributes. For instance, whereas group-oriented social competence attributes (e.g., cooperation, prosociality) co-occur positively, attributes related to pursuing personal goals (e.g., influence) may conflict with group-oriented attributes (e.g., prosociality) (Maner & Mead, 2010; Zhao et al., 2024) because assertiveness may elicit negative responses if perceived as inappropriate (Gaucher et al., 2012). Thus, network analysis not only captures how these attributes connect but also how they may compete or diverge in real-world interactions.

From a developmental perspective, the structure of social competence undergoes notable change from middle childhood to adolescence due to the requirements in peer interactions and growth of social-cognitive abilities (Rubin et al., 2015). For example, research has indicated that children in middle to late childhood often engage in interactions centering on shared and play-based activities mainly to fulfill the need for peer acceptance and integration (Bagwell & Schmidt, 2011; Rubin et al., 2015; Sullivan, 1953). Peer interactions become increasingly extensive and complicated with age as children and adolescents become interested in exploring different lifestyles with peers and, at the same time, attempt to maintain a balance between the pursuit of personal autonomy and peer affiliation (Chen, 2012). Thus, social competence attributes, such as those directed toward social status and group cohesion, may be more differentiated, as reflected in their weaker associations, to fulfill different roles across contexts in adolescence than in childhood. The increased need for status and social recognition among peers in adolescence, along with the development of social-cognitive abilities, such as perspective-taking, heighten sensitivity to peer evaluation, reputation, and social hierarchy and enhance the capacity to accurately understand peers’ thoughts and reactions (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; Rubin et al., 2015; Schreuders et al., 2023). As a result, adolescents may be more inclined than children to focus on achieving self-oriented goals, such as popularity and leadership in school, using assertive strategies (Cillessen, 2011). Accordingly, assertive and dominance-related attributes, such as expressing own opinions in social activities, often gain prominence in adolescence and can conflict with attributes that promote group cohesion, such as prosociality (LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010; Nelson et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2024). In short, the development of social competence structure from childhood to adolescence may be marked by an increased distinction of competence attributes, specifically reflected by weaker positive associations or stronger negative associations between self-assertive and status-oriented attributes and group-oriented attributes, with a higher salience of self-oriented and status-related attributes.

Peer Assessments of Social Competence: The Revised Class Play

Peer assessments are widely recognized as one of the most effective methods for evaluating social competence in children and adolescents. As daily observers of one another’s social behaviors, peers provide reliable and ecologically valid information that serves as a meaningful basis for interactions (Gest et al., 2006). Compared to other informants such as teachers, parents, or self-reports, peer assessments have demonstrated superior validity in predicting important developmental outcomes, including peer relationships, academic success, and psychological adjustment (Heverly-Fitt et al., 2016; Kwon et al., 2012; Masten et al., 1985).

A commonly used peer assessment tool is the Revised Class Play (RCP; Masten et al., 1985), in which students nominate classmates who best fit various behavioral descriptions. The nominations received are aggregated to form item scores. As one of the most thoroughly validated peer-report instruments in developmental research, this 12-item social competence measure deliberately includes both skill-based behaviors (e.g., “Helps others when they need it,” “Willing to express his or her own opinions”) and more general status-related qualities (e.g., “Is a good leader,” “Everyone likes to be with”), which is consistent with the integrative theoretical model of social competence as a multi-level construct (Rose-Krasnor, 1997). This measure allows us to capture specific competence attributes or skills and higher-level outcomes that reflect overall social effectiveness and appropriateness. Previous research has indicated that the measure taps multiple distinct and interrelated facets of social competence (Casiglia et al., 1998; Gest et al., 2006; Musso et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2024), suggesting the suitability of the measure for modeling social competence as a multifaceted network. This measure has been validated across cultural contexts (e.g., Aleva et al., 2017; Chen et al., 1992) and commonly used to assess peer-related behaviors and attributes (e.g., Bowker et al., 2010; Chen et al., 2023). Examining the measure from the PNA perspective also helps maintain continuity with the prior and ongoing research and promote future research on children’s and adolescents’ social competence in the field.

To date, Psychological Network Analysis (PNA) of interpersonal and behavioral constructs has largely relied on self-report measures. For example, Tsang and Salekin (2019) used PNA to examine self-reported psychopathic personality traits in a sample of undergraduate students, mapping a maladaptive network. Among the results, the study showed that the traits of manipulativeness and irresponsibility/impulsivity had the strongest centrality in the psychopathy network. A major concern about self-report instruments is that the item-level scores are vulnerable to shared-method variance and social-desirability biases, which can compromise the reliability of the items (Tsang & Salekin, 2019). Unlike self-report measures, peer assessments such as the RCP offer highly reliable item-level data by aggregating input from multiple raters (Aleva et al., 2017; Chen et al., 1992), making them well-suited for applying PNA to investigate the interconnections among social competence attributes in peer contexts.

Social Competence and Its Relations With Adjustment

Prior research consistently demonstrates positive associations between general or latent social competence and school adjustment in different domains (Blandon et al., 2010; Okano et al., 2019; Williams & Galliher, 2006). However, relatively little is known about how specific social competence attributes are associated with them. According to the multidimensional framework proposed by Kochenderfer-Ladd et al. (2022), school adjustment encompasses students’ abilities to meet academic, social, and emotional demands in the educational environment. In line with this framework, we selected three important adjustment indicators: peer preference, academic achievement, and perceived self-worth. Peer preference indicates the ability to successfully build and maintain positive peer relationships, which are fundamental for social integration (Chen, 2023; Ladd et al., 2000); academic achievement reflects effective management of educational demands, which is closely related to opportunities for future career success (Gest et al., 2006; Guo et al., 2023); and perceived self-worth provides insight into psychological adjustment through students’ self-evaluations (Chen et al., 2000; Dryburgh et al., 2022).

Children and adolescents may use different social skills to achieve peer preference, academic achievement, and self-worth, each of which may entail unique social and personal factors in development, results in differential relations between specific social competence facets or attributes and school adjustment in these domains. For example, attributes representing consideration of others’ needs and fostering interpersonal harmony, such as trustworthiness, politeness, and helpfulness, likely enhance positive peer interactions and peer preference (Coulombe & Yates, 2022; Schreuders et al., 2023). Attributes reflecting leadership and assertiveness involve initiative-taking, social problem-solving, and communication skills, which are likely to contribute to academic performance through facilitating peer collaborations on learning and schoolwork (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Dryburgh et al., 2022; Gajda et al., 2017; Guo et al., 2023). The associations between these attributes and academic achievement may become stronger in adolescence, as academic performance increasingly requires sophisticated collaborative and regulatory skills (Gajda et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2024). As assertiveness and initiative-taking attributes indicate individual autonomy, self-expressiveness, and self-confidence, they may also be associated with perceived self-worth (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Dryburgh et al., 2022; Gajda et al., 2017; Guo et al., 2023). However, these attributes may be less relevant to peer preference in Chinese children and adolescents because they are sometimes viewed negatively for social interactions and relationships, especially if they are perceived as related to dominant or aggressive behaviors, which typically bring about social disapproval (Hawley, 2014; Zhao et al., 2024; Zhou et al., 2024).

In short, specific social competence attributes may be associated with adjustment in different domains in a relatively distinct manner. Other-oriented attributes, such as trustworthiness and friendship skills, is likely to be notably useful for the attainment of peer preference, and leadership and assertive attributes may be directly associated with academic performance. Whereas other- and self-oriented attributes may be both related to how children and adolescents perceive and feel about themselves, self-confidence and expressiveness in social settings may be particularly in line with the development of self-worth.

The Present Study

Whereas researchers have been interested in social competence in children and adolescents, little is known about its structure and the relations between its specific aspects or attributes and adjustment outcomes. To fill this gap, this study aimed to investigate, in a sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students in China, the structure of social competence and its associations with school adjustment from the psychological network perspective. Social competence was measured using the RCP, a well-validated peer-nomination instrument that is widely used in child and adolescent research (Aleva et al., 2017; Bowker et al., 2010; Chen et al., 2023). School adjustment was assessed in the main domains of peer preference (using sociometric nominations), academic achievement (drawn from school records), and perceived self-worth (using self-reports), as suggested by other researchers (e.g., Kochenderfer-Ladd et al., 2022).

Based on the previous discussion, we made following main hypotheses. First, as suggested in the literature (e.g., Maner & Mead, 2010; Zhao et al., 2024), we expected that items assessing similar characteristics, such as those mainly addressing personal needs or the needs of others, would exhibit stronger associations. Second, giving the arguments about the important features of social competence (e.g., Gates et al., 2023; Gresham, 2016; Tackett et al., 2023), we hypothesized that attributes addressing integrated needs of the self and others or linking multiple aspects of social competence, such as leadership and the ability to form social relationships, would be more likely than others to serve as central nodes in the networks. Third, consistent with the literature on the developmental changes in social-interactional requirements and social-cognitive abilities (e.g., Rubin et al., 2015), we expected that attributes in the networks would be more differentiated, as reflected in their weaker positive associations or stronger negative associations, in adolescence than in childhood. More specifically, we expected weaker positive associations or stronger negative associations between attributes reflecting self-assertion and pursuit of social status (e.g., leadership, popularity, expressing opinions) and group-oriented attributes (e.g., prosociality), along with a higher centrality of individual-assertive and status-driven attributes relative to group-oriented attributes, in adolescence than in childhood. Fourth, considering the requirements of school adjustment in specific domains and social competencies to fulfill the requirements (e.g., Kochenderfer-Ladd et al., 2022; Schreuders et al., 2023), we expected that attributes representing considerations of others’ needs and group wellbeing, such as willingness to help others and trustworthiness, would be more likely to be positively associated with peer preference whereas attributes indicating leadership, responsibility, and assertive skills would be more likely to be positively associated with academic achievement. We also expected that attributes indicating self-confidence and self-expressiveness in social settings would be positively associated with perceived self-worth.

Method

Participants

The participants in the study included 2,359 students (1,172 boys) in 12 public schools in a region predominantly comprising towns, small cities, and surrounding areas in East China. This region has a population of approximately 2.7 million located in the lower Yangtze River drainage basin and Yangtze River Delta. The participants were from 52 classes in fourth grade (n = 937, 476 boys, Mage = 10 years and 6 months, SD = 8.30 months) and eighth grade (n = 1,422, 696 boys, Mage = 14 years and 4 months, SD = 8.94 months), with about 45 students in each class.

The curriculum and organization, mandated by the Ministry of Education of China, are consistent across schools in the region. Students follow similar daily schedules of courses and activities in the school. Students are not allowed to switch classes. Students are encouraged to participate in a variety of extracurricular social and academic activities, providing ample opportunities for peer interaction. Almost all children and adolescents in this sample were of the Han nationality, the predominant ethnic group that comprises over 90% of China’s population.

Procedure

We group administered a peer assessment measure of social competence, a sociometric nomination measure of peer preference, and a self-report measure of perceived self-worth in class during a regular class time. To minimize sequential response biases, nomination items for different attributes (e.g., prosocial, assertive) were mixed rather than presented in thematic blocks. Data on academic achievement were obtained from school records. The study was approved by the University Institutional Review Board. All students in the schools were invited to participate, with no criteria for exclusion. The participation rate was approximately 95%. Written assent was obtained from all participants and written consent was obtained from their parents through the school. A group of faculty and graduate psychology students in China administered the measures. Extensive explanations were provided during data collection, and there was no evidence to suggest that students had difficulties understanding the measures or the procedure.

Measures

Peer assessments of Social Competence

A peer nomination measure, adapted from The Revised Class Play (RCP, Masten et al., 1985), was used to assess students’ social competence. Following the procedure described by Masten et al. (1985), students were asked to nominate up to three classmates who would best fit the role in the class play. Both same-sex and cross-sex nominations were allowed (Terry & Coie, 1991). The nominations from all classmates were aggregated to calculate item scores for each student. The item scores were then standardized within each class to adjust for variations in the number of nominators. The measure comprised 12 items that evaluated various aspects of social competence. The items are presented in Table 1. The measure has been used and shown to be reliable and valid in other studies with Chinese children and adolescents (e.g., Chen et al., 2024; Liu et al., 2023). Test-retest reliabilities of the items in a separate sample (N = 132) with an interval of 2 weeks ranged from .71 to .97.

Table 1.

Means and Standard Deviations of Variables for Boys and Girls in Each Grade

	Grade 4			Grade 8
Variables	Boys	Girls	F value	Boys	Girls	F value
Academic achievement	−0.12 (0.90)	0.12 (0.88)	10.55**	−0.14 (0.92)	0.14 (0.80)	25.59***
Peer preference	−0.12 (1.64)	0.18 (1.35)	9.19**	−0.16 (1.61)	0.18 (1.51)	16.7***
Perceived self-worth	3.42 (0.80)	3.42(0.74)	0.99	3.45(0.70)	3.25(0.71)	26.84***
1. Good leader	−0.06 (0.87)	0.10(1.16)	5.79*	−0.05 (0.90)	0.05 (1.06)	3.17
2. Good ideas for things to do	−0.14 (0.85)	0.16 (1.14)	22.27***	−0.05 (0.90)	0.05 (1.06)	3.98*
3. Someone you can trust	−0.12 (0.69)	0.16 (1.26)	18.93***	−0.09 (0.85)	0.09 (1.08)	11.34***
4. Has many friends	0.02 (1.02)	−0.01 (0.96)	0.19	−0.03 (0.91)	0.05 (1.05)	1.905
5. Will wait his/her turn	−0.18 (0.82)	0.21 (1.13)	37.33***	−0.15 (0.94)	0.17 (1.01)	37.53***
6. Everyone listens to	−0.13 (0.83)	0.17 (1.13)	21.14***	−0.03 (0.88)	0.05 (1.10)	2.67
7. Willing to express his or her own opinions	−0.27 (0.41)	0.30 (1.31)	80.99***	−0.18 (0.75)	0.20 (1.16)	53.37***
8. Polite	−0.23 (0.58)	0.24 (1.27)	53.55***	−0.16 (0.82)	0.16 (1.11)	39.09***
9. Makes new friends easily	−0.15 (0.60)	0.18 (1.30)	25.20***	−0.13 (0.68)	0.13 (1.21)	25.46***
10. Helps other people when they need it	−0.03 (0.99)	0.04 (1.00)	1.27	0.06 (1.01)	−0.05 (0.96)	3.94*
11. Everyone likes to be with	−0.04 (0.79)	0.08 (1.23)	3.20	−0.11 (0.70)	0.11 (1.20)	16.73***
12. Likes to play with others rather than alone	−0.02 (1.01)	0.03 (1.02)	0.69	0.03 (1.03)	−0.01 (0.96)	0.63

Note. F values were obtained through analysis of variance (ANOVA). *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Sociometric Nominations of Peer Preference

Students were asked to nominate up to three classmates within the class with whom they most liked to be and three classmates with whom they least liked to be (positive and negative nominations). The nominations received from all classmates were totaled and then standardized by classroom to permit appropriate comparisons. As suggested by other researchers (e.g., Terry & Coie, 1991), cross-gender nominations were allowed. Following the Coie et al. (1982) procedure, an index of peer preference, which indicates how well an individual is liked by peers in the classroom, was formed by subtracting negative nomination scores from positive nomination scores and was used in the analyses. The procedure has been used and validated in previous studies with Chinese children and adolescents (e.g., Chen et al., 2000; Liu et al., 2023).

Academic Achievement

Information on students’ academic achievement in Chinese, mathematics, and English, key subjects in Chinese schools, was obtained from school records. The scores on these subjects were based on objective examinations conducted by the school. Each subject had a possible maximum score of 100 for Grade 4 and 120 for Grade 8, with a passing cutoff set at 60 for Grade 4 and 72 for Grade 8, respectively. These grades have been shown as reliable measures of academic achievement in Chinese students (Chen et al., 2024). In this study, scores across Chinese, mathematics, and English were significantly correlated, ranging from r = .68 to .71, p < .001 for Grade 4, and r = .65 to .77, p < .001 for Grade 8. Following procedures from previous research (e.g., Fu et al., 2020), the scores for the subjects were aggregated and standardized within each class to create a composite academic achievement variable. The internal reliability of the measure was .86 for Grade 4 and .85 for Grade 8 in this study.

Perceived Self-Worth

Students’ self-perceptions of self-worth were assessed using a self-report measure, adapted from the Self-Perception Profile for Children (Harter, 1985). Students were asked to respond, on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 = not at all true to 5 = always true, to six items describing general self-worth (e.g., “I like the kind of person I am,” “I am happy with the way I do a lot of things,” and “I am proud of myself in many ways”). The average score of the responses was computed, with higher scores indicating more positive self-regard (e.g., Chen et al., 2024). The internal reliability of the measure was .74 for Grade 4 and .76 for Grade 8 in this study.

Data Analytic Plan

We applied psychological network analysis (Borsboom et al., 2021) to examine the structure of social competence and its associations with peer preference, academic achievement, and perceived self-worth in children and adolescents. The findings are presented in graphical networks, where nodes represent social competence items and adjustment outcomes, while edges indicate conditional associations.

Networks were estimated using a conventional network analytical approach, applying the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regularization technique (Epskamp et al., 2018) to reduce the likelihood of spurious associations and minimize trivial associations to zero. This method effectively removes potentially false positive edges, resulting in a graph that displays only the most significant edges. The extended Bayesian information criterion (EBIC) was used as the model selection criterion (Chen & Chen, 2008). As suggested by other researchers (e.g., Burger et al., 2022), we further assessed the robustness of our network estimates using bootstrap sampling procedures, which involved resampling and conducting simulations to repeatedly estimate model parameters, thereby enhancing the precision of the sample estimates. The bootstrap procedure was set at 1000 replications. To ensure the depicted associations are statistically significant, only those edges are presented whose weight intervals, calculated as the original estimate plus or minus two standard deviations from the bootstrap distribution, do not include zero. The network models were estimated using the R package “bootnet” (Epskamp et al., 2018).

We first estimated two social competence networks based on social competence items for children (Grade 4) and adolescents (Grade 8), with node importance evaluated using strength centrality and expected influence (Burger et al., 2022). Specifically, we focused on strength centrality, which measured how well a node was directly connected to others (Borsboom et al., 2021) and tested their stability across subsamples. Additionally, following Robinaugh et al. (2016), we calculated expected influence as a complementary centrality measure, reflecting a node’s role in activating or deactivating other nodes, especially relevant in networks containing negative edges. Higher strength centrality indicated greater overall influence within the network, while higher expected influence specifically suggested stronger positive impacts on the entire network. We then estimated expanded networks including peer preference, academic achievement, and perceived self-worth for each grade. Our focus was on edges linking social competence attributes to these adjustment outcomes.

Finally, we compared network structures across grades and examined potential moderation by gender using the mgm package (Haslbeck et al., 2021), with bootstrap routines (1,000 replications) applied to enhance estimate precision.

Results

Descriptive Data

The Little’s MCAR test (Little, 1988) for missing data (2.1% and 0.7% for peer nominations, 3.4% and 0.3% for perceived self-worth, and 30.9% and 38.5% for academic achievement for Grades 4 and 8, respectively) showed that they were missing completely at random, χ²(13) = 1.04, p = .999 and χ²(14) = 17.48, p = .231, for Grades 4 and 8, respectively. Girls had higher scores than boys on academic achievement and peer preference in both grades and had lower scores on perceived self-worth than boys in Grade 8. Girls also had higher scores than boys on 8 of the social competence items in each grade. The means and standard deviations for both boys and girls across the grades are detailed in Table 1.

Network Estimation

Social Competence Networks

Significant grade-level differences were found in the social competence network structures between Grades 4 and 8, with the largest edge difference being M = 0.30 (p < .001). Results from the network analyses of social competence in Grades 4 and 8 are presented in Figure 1. Nonsignificant differences in overall network strength were found between Grades 4 and 8 (S = 0.46, p = .481), indicating a similar average connection strength among nodes in these grades.

Figure 1.

Network Structure of Social Competence Attributes in Fourth and Eighth Grades. Note. This network diagram was generated using the EBICgLasso regularization method. Edges represent conditional associations that remained significant after bootstrap testing (Weight ±2 SD ≠ 0). Blue edges indicate positive associations and red edges indicate negative associations; edge thickness and color intensity reflect the magnitude of each association, with thinner, paler edges corresponding to weaker links

The strength and expected influence centralities of the social competence items were assessed. Strength centrality indicates how well a given node is connected within the network - it is calculated by summing the absolute values of all edges directly linked to that node; nodes with high strength are strongly associated, either positively or negatively, with many other nodes. Expected influence builds on this concept by summing the signed edge weights - it differentiates nodes that tend to have predominantly positive connections from those with mixed or negative associations. Because our networks include both positive and negative edges, expected influence is particularly helpful for understanding a node’s overall tendency to activate or inhibit other nodes. The results about the centrality of the items for each grade are presented in Figure 2. Items “has many friends” (4) and “good leader” (1) in both grades and “everyone likes to be with” (11) in Grade 8 had the highest strength and expected influence centralities. These items had most extensive and significant associations with items, representing the most central elements in their networks. The high centrality for these nodes indicates that variations in friendship formation, leadership abilities, social attractiveness are likely to co-occur with, and potentially drive, variations in many other social competence attributes. Items “likes to play with others rather than alone” (12) and “will wait his/her turn” (5) in both grades and “someone you can trust” (3) in Grade 8, exhibited the lowest strength and expected influence. The results indicated that these attributes had fewer and weaker positive connections with other social-competence items, suggesting they played a more peripheral role in the social competence network.

Figure 2.

Strength and Expected Influence of Nodes of Network Structure of Social Competence Attributes in Fourth and Eighth Grades

Concerning specific edges, the strongest positive links included those between “good ideas for things to do” (2) and “willing to express his or her own opinions” (7) and between “good leader” (1) and “everyone listens to” (6) in both grades, between “polite” (8) and “helps other people when they need it” (10) in Grade 4, and between “has many friends” (4) and “everyone likes to be with” (11) in Grade 8.

There was a significant negative link between “will wait his/her turn” (5) and “everyone listens to” (6) in Grade 4. In Grade 8, “good leader” (1) had negative links with “makes new friends easily” (9) and “likes to play with others rather than alone” (12); and “willing to express his or her own opinions” (7) had negative links with “someone you can trust” (3) and “everyone likes to be with” (11). In addition, “has many friends” (4) had a negative line with “polite” (8); and “will wait his/her turn” (5) had a negative link with “likes to play with others rather than alone” (12).

Edge significance tests between grades showed the positive associations between “someone you can trust” (3) and “makes new friends easily” (9), between “polite” (8) and “helps other people when they need it” (10), between “good leader” (1) and “everyone likes to be with” (11), and between “has many friends” (4) and “everyone listens to” (6) were significantly stronger in Grade 4 than in Grade 8. The associations between “will wait his/her turn” (5) and “polite” (8) and between “good leader” (1) and “everyone listens to” (6) were significantly stronger in Grade 8 than in Grade 4. The association between “will wait his/her turn” (5) and “likes to play with others rather than alone” (12) was more negative in Grade 8 than in Grade 4. The results suggested that, in general, more attributes were positively associated with each other in Grade 4 than in Grade 8.

Analysis of the bootstrapped confidence intervals for edge weights indicates stability across the connections within the network, as depicted in Figure 3. Edge and node strength comparison is visualized in Figures S1 and S2. Figure S3 confirms that the stability of the node strengths is satisfactory. There were no significant gender differences on edges or network strengths.

Figure 3.

Bootstrapped Confidence Intervals of Estimated Edge Weights of the Network of Social Competence Attributes in Fourth and Eighth Grades. Note. The black line indicates the bootstrapped mean values of the confidence interval, the red line indicates the sample values, and the gray area the 95% confidence intervals. numbers of each node could be identified as following: sc1 (“good leader”); sc2 (“good ideas for things to do”); sc3 (“someone you can trust”); sc4 (“has many friends”); sc5 (“will wait his/her turn”); sc6 (“everyone listens to”); sc7 (“willing to express his or her own opinions”); sc8 (“polite”); sc9 (“makes new friends easily”); sc10 (“helps other people when they need it”); sc11 (“everyone likes to be with”); sc12 (“likes to play with others rather than alone”)

Social Competence and Adjustment Networks

Significant grade difference in the structure of social competence and adjustment networks was found between Grade 4 and Grade 8, with the largest edge difference being M = 0.314 (p < .001). Results from the network analyses of social competence and adjustment in Grade 4 and Grade 8 are presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Network Structure of Social Competence Attributes and Adjustment in Fourth and Eighth Grades. Note. This network diagram was generated using the EBICgLasso regularization method. Edges represent conditional associations that remained significant after bootstrap testing (Weight ±2 SD ≠ 0). Blue edges indicate positive associations and red edges indicate negative associations; edge thickness and color intensity reflect the magnitude of each association, with thinner, paler edges corresponding to weaker links

In the social competence and adjustment networks, our analysis focused on the associations between social competence items and adjustment variables. In both grades, peer preference was positively associated with “someone you can trust” (3) and academic achievement was positively associated with “good ideas for things to do” (2). In addition, in Grade 4, peer preference was positively associated with “has many friends” (4). In Grade 8, peer preference was positively associated with “everyone likes to be with” (11) and negatively associated with “willing to express his or her own opinions” (7). Academic achievement in Grade 8 was positively associated with “good leader” (1), “willing to express his or her own opinions” (7) and “polite” (8). Perceived self-worth was positively associated with “willing to express his or her own opinions” (7) in Grade 4 and positively associated with “good ideas for things to do” (2) in Grade 8. Figure 5 showed the bootstrapped confidence intervals for edge weights, which indicates a general stability in the edges. Edge strength comparisons within each grade are illustrated in Figure S4. In both grades, peer preference was associated with “someone you can trust” (3) more strongly than with other social competence nodes.

Figure 5.

Bootstrapped Confidence Intervals of Estimated Edge Weights of the Network of Social Competence Attributes and Adjustment in Fourth and Eighth Grades. Note. The black line indicates the bootstrapped mean values of the confidence interval, the red line indicates the sample values, and the gray area the 95% confidence intervals. numbers of each node could be identified as following: acad (academic achievement); prefer (peer preference); pcgen (perceived self-worth); sc1 (“good leader”); sc2 (“good ideas for things to do”); sc3 (“someone you can trust”); sc4 (“has many friends”); sc5 (“will wait his/her turn”); sc6 (“everyone listens to”); sc7 (“willing to express his or her own opinions”); sc8 (“polite”); sc9 (“makes new friends easily”); sc10 (“helps other people when they need it”); sc11 (“everyone likes to be with”); sc12 (“likes to play with others rather than alone”)

Edge significance tests between grades showed that the positive association between peer preference and “has many friends” (4) was significantly stronger in Grade 4 than in Grade 8. The positive associations between peer preference and “someone you can trust” (3) and “everyone likes to be with” (11) and the negative association between peer preference and “willing to express his or her own opinions” (7) were significantly stronger in Grade 8 than in Grade 4. Additionally, the positive relations between academic achievement and “willing to express his or her own opinions” (7) and “polite” (8) were significantly stronger in Grade 8 than in Grade 4. There were no significant gender differences in the relations among nodes in the social competence and adjustment networks.

Discussion

Social competence and its associations with adjustment remain an important issue in developmental science and education. In the present study, we explored the meaning and function of social competence in children and adolescents using a psychological network approach. The results showed that leadership (“good leader”) and ability to form and maintain friendship (“has many friends”) were key attributes in the network of social competence in both children and adolescents and that social attractiveness or popularity (“everyone likes to be with”) was more central in adolescents than in children. The social competence attributes were more strongly and positively associated with each other in children than in adolescents, suggesting a trend of differentiation with age. Concerning the relations between social competence attributes and adjustment, peer preference was positively associated with trustworthiness and academic achievement and perceived self-worth were positively associated with innovativeness or social problem-solving ability in both children and adolescents. Among the attributes, social assertiveness was positively associated with academic achievement and negatively associated with peer preference in adolescence but not in childhood. These results help us better understand the structure of social competence and suggest that the function of specific social competence components in different periods of development.

Social Competence in Children and Adolescents

The findings revealed that leadership and the ability to form and maintain friendships were central attributes in the social competence networks of both children and adolescents, while popularity emerged as more central in adolescence. The results support the hypothesis that these social attributes are core to social competence. Leadership involves planning, communication, collaboration, and influence (Tackett et al., 2023), while friendship requires social-emotional regulation and perspective-taking (Hartup, 1989). In network terms, these attributes interconnect with a wide array of other social competence attributes, making them high-centrality nodes the activation of which broadly impacts the social competence network. The increased centrality of popularity in adolescence likely reflects a developmental shift toward heightened sensitivity to peer status and group belonging (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; Daddis, 2011; LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010; Nelson et al., 2016). This pattern is consistent with our expectation that self-oriented and status-related attributes would gain salience in adolescence, reflecting developmental shifts in peer dynamics. Due to the development of social-cognitive abilities, adolescents become highly attuned to reputational cues, group hierarchies, and social influence (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; Nelson et al., 2016). Popularity therefore functions as a key bridge connecting status-related behaviors and attributes, such as norm enforcement, with other attributes, elevating its centrality in the social competence network. In the Chinese context, attributes related to social status and reputation play a particularly salient role in social interactions as the cultural emphasizes maintaining face (mianzi) and navigating hierarchical relationships (Chen et al., 2023). Adolescents are highly sensitive to cultural values (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; Choudhury, 2010), which may result in the emergence of social attractiveness or popularity as a more central attribute in the networks. Considering the similar patterns in Western societies (e.g., LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010), our results suggest that the centrality of status-oriented attributes may reflect an important inherent feature of social competence in childhood and adolescence across cultures.

In contrast, nodes such as “someone you can trust,” “will wait his/her turn,” and “likes to play with others rather than alone” showed consistently low centrality. These attributes may reflect either other-oriented behaviors (e.g., trustworthiness) or personal social preferences (e.g., play motivation) that are less connected to broader social skill domains or proactive engagement (Afshordi et al., 2024; Brambilla et al., 2011; Chen et al., 2024; Devine & Apperly, 2022). Trustworthiness and waiting one’s turn may largely represent moral and personality characteristics that help cooperation and forming positive relationships, particularly at the intimate inter-personal level (Crocetti et al., 2018; Selman, 1980). However, it is possible that they have a relatively weaker impact on social interactions and activities in the broader fluid dynamic peer context, compared with other attributes such as leadership and popularity. Research has shown that these attributes often correlate modestly with efficiency, competence, and friendship skills (Afshordi et al., 2024; Brambilla et al., 2011). Similarly, preference for play with other indicates children’s sociable tendency and motivation for social engagement (Asendorpf, 1990; Devine & Apperly, 2022). Our results suggest that it may not play an evident role in shaping broad social functioning.

Patterns of associations within the networks further suggest meaningful distinctions among attributes. Similar traits—such as “good ideas” and “expresses opinions,” or “good leader” and “everyone listens to”—were positively linked, while dissimilar traits often showed negative associations. For example, in Grade 4, “waits turn” was negatively linked to “everyone listens to,” and in Grade 8, leadership and opinion expression were negatively linked to traits related to social connectedness (e.g., “makes new friends,” “someone you can trust”). These patterns may reflect tensions between self-oriented and other-oriented attributes, where pursuit of dominance or attention may conflict with prosocial engagement and group harmony (Gaucher et al., 2012; Grueneisen & Tomasello, 2022; Maner & Mead, 2010).

Consistent with our hypothesis that that social competence would become more differentiated from childhood to adolescence, edge comparisons between grades indicated stronger and more cohesive associations in childhood than in adolescence, suggesting increasing differentiation of social competence with age. As adolescents face more complex social dynamics and prioritize individual goals, such as social status, the structure of social competence becomes more heterogeneous (Caravita & Cillessen, 2012; Cillessen, 2011; Zhao et al., 2024).

Social Competence and Adjustment in Children and Adolescents

This study extends prior findings on the links between social competence and adjustment (e.g., Blandon et al., 2010; Chen et al., 1992; Okano et al., 2019; Williams & Galliher, 2006) by identifying specific attributes associated with social and academic outcomes. Trustworthiness was the strongest predictor of peer preference in both grades, especially in Grade 8, suggesting that adolescents increasingly value reliability in peer interactions (Ma et al., 2022; Schreuders et al., 2023). Although not a central node in the network, trustworthiness played a key role in peer acceptance. Sociability also predicted peer preference, with “has many friends” linked to peer preference in Grade 4 and “everyone likes to be with” in Grade 8, reflecting a growing emphasis on popularity and social status during adolescence (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010).

Notably, assertiveness—as indicated by “willing to express his or her own opinions”—was negatively associated with peer preference in Grade 8. While such expression may reflect social dominance and the pursuit of influence (Hawley, 2014; Wang et al., 2023), it may be perceived as self-serving or disruptive in collectivist contexts like China, where group harmony is prioritized (Chen, 2023; Oyserman et al., 2002). Assertive adolescents may therefore face peer disapproval, especially when their behavior is seen as undermining group cohesion.

Regarding academic achievement, “good ideas for things to do” was positively associated with performance across both age groups, suggesting a consistent link between social innovativeness and learning (Deng et al., 2023; Gajda et al., 2017). In Grade 8, additional attributes—leadership, politeness, and opinion expression—were also linked to academic success. These attributes may facilitate collaboration and access to academic support (Palacios et al., 2024), especially in environments that emphasize group learning (Gillies, 2004). Interestingly, assertiveness, though negatively linked with peer preference, was positively associated with academic achievement, highlighting its dual role in peer and academic contexts.

For perceived self-worth, “willing to express opinions” was significant in Grade 4, while “good ideas” was predictive in Grade 8. These findings point to a developmental shift in the sources of self-worth—from autonomy and self-expression in childhood to social creativity and competence in adolescence (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; Deci & Ryan, 2000). In adolescence, generating valued ideas may enhance both peer recognition and academic self-concept, particularly in cultures where academic success is closely tied to personal worth (Fu et al., 2020).

Limitations and Future Directions

Several limitations in the study should be noted. First, the present study includes peer preference, academic achievement, and perceived self-worth as adjustment variables, which, although important, do not capture the full range of socioemotional, school, and psychological adjustment. Future research should include adjustment variables from other domains, such as teacher–student relationships, school engagement and learning attitudes, depression, loneliness, and other indexes of psychological wellbeing.

Second, we used the RCP to assess social competence in this study. Although the RCP consists of items in various main aspects and has been commonly used and shown to be effective and appropriate with children and adolescents in different contexts, the items tap mixed attributes that reflect social and emotional skills (e.g., helping, self-regulation) and reputational or role-based attributes (e.g., popularity, leadership). This approach is consistent with Rose-Krasnor’s multi-level model (1997) and allowed us to examine the salience of attributes at different levels in the social competence network. Nevertheless, the mixture of the items should be considered when interpreting the results concerning the centrality patterns in the networks (e.g., the reputational attributes may be perceived as more important as they indicate social positions in peer groups). Future research may benefit from using measures that distinguish skills and reputational roles more clearly, which may help clarify the developmental significance of different attributes.

Moreover, the peer nomination method provides little information about the internal social-cognitive processes, such as emotion regulation and motivational factors, underlying competent social functioning. Relative to peer nominations, self-report measures are more effective in capturing children’s subjective experiences and motivations although self-reports are prone to response and social desirability biases. To address specific methodological limitations, future studies should adopt a multi-method, multi-informant approach, integrating peer nominations with self-reports, along with other assessments such as direct observations, in the study of children’s and adolescents’ social competence networks.

Third, the study was conducted with students in middle childhood and early adolescence. The characteristics of social competence network and its relations with adjustment likely vary across developmental periods. For example, in early childhood, social competence often centers on caregiver-mediated skills and behaviors (e.g., following adults’ directions, emotional regulation; Nelson et al., 2016), whereas in late adolescence, establishing and maintaining intimate dyadic relationships and sophisticated social skills such as conflict-negotiation may become more salient manifestations of social competence (Nelson et al., 2016). Resistance to peer influence may also be an important social competence attribute during middle to late adolescence (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007). These social-cognitive, emotional, and relational changes suggest that the network structure and the centrality of specific social competence attributes may be reconfigured across developmental periods. It will be important to investigate the structure and function of social competence in other periods, such as early childhood and late adolescence.

Fourth, the data in the present study are correlational, so the results should be interpreted with caution in terms of causality. Although grade-level comparisons helped us understand age-related differences in the structure of social competence, they did not capture the developmental processes over time. Longitudinal research should be conducted in the future, which will help address the developmental issues.

Fifth, we did not find significant gender differences in the study. It has been argued that due to gender-stereotypical expectations, boys and girls may have different experiences when demonstrating specific social competence attributes (Ellemers, 2018). For example, boys are often expected to be more competitive during social interactions than girls (Hibbard & Buhrmester, 2010), which may have implications for adjustment. Therefore, the issue of gender should be further examined in future research.

Finally, the present study was conducted in a rural region in East China. There are remarkable differences in social and economic conditions across regions, particularly between rural and urban regions, in China (Chen et al., 2023). Thus, one needs to be careful to generalize the results to other regions, such as cities in China, or Western societies.

Despite its limitations, this study helps us understand the structure of social competence among children and adolescents in Chinese society. Practically, the centrality of leadership and friendship highlights the importance of fostering these skills in educational and intervention programs. Moreover, the findings suggest that enhancing trustworthiness may support peer relationships, while promoting social innovativeness may benefit academic outcomes and self-worth. Interventions targeting these specific competencies may be particularly effective for youth experiencing social or academic challenges.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material - The Structure of Social Competence and School Adjustment in Chinese Children and Adolescents: A Network Analysis

Supplemental Material for The Structure of Social Competence and School Adjustment in Chinese Children and Adolescents: A Network Analysis by Jiaxi Zhou, Xinyin Chen, Dan Li, Junsheng Liu, Liying Cui and Tong Zhou in The Journal of Early Adolescence

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Jiaxi Zhou

Xinyin Chen

Junsheng Liu

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Author Biographies

Jiaxi Zhou is a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Education,University of Pennsylvania. Her research primarily explores children’s and adolescents’ peer relationships.

Xinyin Chen is a professor at the Graduate School of Education,University of Pennsylvania. His research focused on children’s and adolescents’ socioemotional functioning and social,academic,and psychological adjustment from a contextual-developmental perspective.

Dan Li is a professor in the School of Psychology at Shanghai Normal University. Her research interests are centered on children’s moral and social development.

Junsheng Liu is a professor at the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science,East China Normal University. He studies peer relationships,social behavior,and socioemotional adjustment during childhood and adolescence.

Liying Cui is a professor in the School of Psychology at Shanghai Normal University. Her research interests include children’s social development and cooperative behavior.

Tong Zhou is an assisstent professor in the School of Psychology at Shanghai Normal University. Her research interests include the process of academic socialization in children and adolescents.

References

Afshordi

P. H.

Koenig

(2024). Trusting information from friends: Adults expect it but preschoolers do not. Developmental Psychology, 60(6), 1161–1173. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001761

Aleva

A. E.

Goossens

F. A.

Dekker

P. H.

Laceulle

O. M.

(2017). The reliability and validity of a modified revised class play examined in Dutch elementary-school children. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 33(6), 475–485. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000301

Asendorpf

J. B.

(1990). Beyond social withdrawal: Shyness, unsociability, and peer avoidance. Human Development, 33(4–5), 250–259. https://doi.org/10.1159/000276522

Bagwell

C. L.

Schmidt

M. E.

(2011). Friendships in childhood and adolescence. The Guilford Press.

Bekkhus

McVarnock

Coplan

R. J.

Ulset

Kraft

(2023). Developmental changes in the structure of shyness and internalizing symptoms from early to middle childhood: A network analysis. Child Development, 94(4), 1078–1086. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13906

Blakemore

S. J.

Mills

K. L.

(2014). Is adolescence a sensitive period for sociocultural processing? Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 187–207. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115202

Blandon

A. Y.

Calkins

S. D.

Grimm

K. J.

Keane

S. P.

O’Brien

(2010). Testing a developmental cascade model of emotional and social competence and early peer acceptance. Development and Psychopathology, 22(4), 737–748. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579410000428

Borsboom

Deserno

M. K.

Rhemtulla

Epskamp

Fried

E. I.

McNally

R. J.

Robinaugh

D. J.

Perugini

Dalege

Costantini

Isvoranu

A. M.

Wysocki

A. C.

van Borkulo

C. D.

van Bork

Waldorp

L. J.

(2021). Network analysis of multivariate data in psychological science. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 1(1), 58. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-021-00055-w

Bowker

J. C.

Rubin

K. H.

Buskirk-Cohen

Rose-Krasnor

Booth-LaForce

(2010). Behavioral changes predicting temporal changes in perceived popular status. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 31(2), 126–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2009.10.002

10.

Brambilla

Rusconi

Sacchi

Cherubini

(2011). Looking for honesty: The primary role of morality (vs. Sociability and competence) in information gathering. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41(2), 135–143. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.744

11.

Burger

Isvoranu

A. M.

Lunansky

Haslbeck

J. M. B.

Epskamp

Hoekstra

R. H. A.

Fried

E. I.

Borsboom

Blanken

T. F.

(2022). Reporting standards for psychological network analyses in cross-sectional data. Psychological Methods, 28(4), 806–824. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000471

12.

Caravita

S. C. S.

Cillessen

A. H. N.

(2012). Agentic or communal? Associations between interpersonal goals, popularity, and bullying in middle childhood and early adolescence. Social Development, 21(2), 376–395. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00632.x

13.

Casiglia

A. C.

LoCoco

Zappulla

(1998). Aspects of social reputation and peer relationships in Italian children: A cross-cultural perspective. Developmental Psychology, 34(4), 723–730. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.34.4.723

14.

Chen

(2008). Extended Bayesian information criteria for model selection with large model spaces. Biometrika, 95(3), 759–771. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/asn034

15.

Chen

(2012). Culture, peer interaction, and socioemotional development. Child Development Perspectives, 6(1), 27–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00187.x

16.

Chen

(2023). Socialization and socioemotional development in Chinese children. Cambridge University Press.

17.

Chen

Liu

(2000). Sociable and prosocial dimensions of social competence in Chinese children: Common and unique contributions to social, academic, and psychological adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 36(3), 302–314. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.36.3.302

18.

Chen

Rubin

K. H.

Sun

(1992). Social reputation and peer relationships in Chinese and Canadian children: A cross-cultural study. Child Development, 63(6), 1336. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131559

19.

Chen

Zhou

Liu

Cui

(2024). Affinity for solitude in Chinese children and adolescents: Relations with social, school, and psychological adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 60(5), 954–965. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001699

20.

Chen

Zhou

Liu

Zhang

Zheng

Han

(2023). Concern for mianzi: Relations with adjustment in rural and urban Chinese adolescents. Child Development, 95(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13964

21.

Choudhury

(2010). Culturing the adolescent brain: What can neuroscience learn from anthropology? Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5(2–3), 159–167. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsp030

22.

Cillessen

A. H.

(2011). Toward a theory of popularity. In Cillessen

A. H. N.

Schwartz

Mayeux

(Eds.), Popularity in the peer system (pp. 273–299). Guilford.

23.

Coie

J. D.

Dodge

K. A.

Coppotelli

(1982). Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18(4), 557–570. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.18.4.557

24.

Coulombe

B. R.

Yates

T. M.

(2022). Maternal caregiving, prosocial behavior, and self-esteem in middle childhood. Social Development, 31(3), 639–655. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12576

25.

Crocetti

Moscatelli

Kaniušonytė

Branje

Žukauskienė

Rubini

(2018). Adolescents’ self-perception of morality, competence, and sociability and their interplay with quality of family, friend, and school relationships: A three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(8), 1743–1754. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0864-z

26.

Daddis

(2011). Desire for increased autonomy and adolescents’ Perceptions of peer autonomy: “everyone else can; why can’t I?”. Child Development, 82(4), 1310–1326. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01587.x

27.

Deci

E. L.

Ryan

R. M.

(2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1104_01

28.

Deng

Chen

Wang

Peng

(2023). A comparative study of twenty-first century competencies in high school mother tongue curriculum standards in China, the United States and Finland. Language Culture and Curriculum, 36(2), 142–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2022.2072506

29.

Devine

R. T.

Apperly

I. A.

(2022). Willing and able? Theory of mind, social motivation, and social competence in middle childhood and early adolescence. Developmental Science, 25(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13137

30.

Dryburgh

N. S. J.

Ponath

Bukowski

W. M.

Dirks

M. A.

(2022). Associations between interpersonal behavior and friendship quality in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 93(3), e332–e347. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13728

31.

Ellemers

(2018). Gender stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology, 69(1), 275–298. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011719

32.

Epskamp

Borsboom

Fried

E. I.

(2018). Estimating psychological networks and their accuracy: A tutorial paper. Behavior Research Methods, 50(1), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0862-1

33.

Epskamp

Fried

E. I.

(2018). A tutorial on regularized partial correlation networks. Psychological Methods, 23(4), 617–634. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000167

34.

Lee

Chen

Wang

(2020). Academic self-perceptions and academic achievement in Chinese children: A multiwave longitudinal study. Child Development, 91(5), 1718–1732. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13360

35.

Gajda

Karwowski

Beghetto

R. A.

(2017). Creativity and academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(2), 269–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000133

36.

Gates

J. A.

Gerber

A. H.

Miller

C. E.

Lerner

M. D.

(2023). Quantifying social skill deficits and strengths profiles in autistic youth. Child Development, 94(3), 659–673. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13889

37.

Gaucher

Wood

J. V.

Stinson

D. A.

Forest

A. L.

Holmes

J. G.

Logel

(2012). Perceived regard explains self-esteem differences in expressivity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(9), 1144–1156. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167212445790

38.

Gest

S. D.

Sesma

Masten

A. S.

Tellegen

(2006). Childhood peer reputation as a predictor of competence and symptoms 10 years later. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(4), 509–526. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-006-9029-8

39.

Gillies

R. M.

(2004). The effects of cooperative learning on junior high school students during small group learning. Learning and Instruction, 14(2), 197–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4752(03)00068-9

40.

Gresham

F. M.

(2016). Social skills assessment and intervention for children and youth. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46(3), 319–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2016.1195788

41.

Grueneisen

Tomasello

(2022). How fairness and dominance guide young children’s bargaining decisions. Child Development, 93(5), 1318–1333. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13757

42.

Guo

Tang

Marsh

H. W.

Parker

Basarkod

Sahdra

Ranta

Salmela-Aro

(2023). The roles of social–emotional skills in students’ academic and life success: A multi-informant and multicohort perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(5), 1079–1110. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000426.supp

43.

Harter

(1985). Manual for the self-perception profile for children. University of Denver.

44.

Hartup

W. W.

(1989). Social relationships and their developmental significance. American Psychologist, 44(2), 120–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.2.120

45.

Haslbeck

J. M.

Borsboom

Waldorp

L. J.

(2021). Moderated network models. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 56(2), 256–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2019.1677207

46.

Hawley

P. H.

(2014). The duality of human nature: Coercion and prosociality in youths’ hierarchy Ascension and social success. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(6), 433–438. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414548417

47.

Heverly-Fitt

Rubin

K. H.

Dennis

Taylor

H. G.

Stancin

Gerhardt

C. A.

Vannatta

Bigler

E. D.

Yeates

K. O.

(2016). Investigating a proposed model of social competence in children with traumatic brain injuries. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 41(2), 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsv085

48.

Hibbard

D. R.

Buhrmester

(2010). Competitiveness, gender, and adjustment among adolescents. Sex Roles, 63(5), 412–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9809-z

49.

Kochenderfer-Ladd

Ladd

G. W.

Thibault

S. A.

(2022). Children’s interpersonal skills and school-based relationships: Links to school adjustment in early and middle childhood. In Smith

P. K.

Hart

C. H.

(Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (3rd ed., pp. 366–385). Wiley Blackwell.

50.

Kwon

Kim

E. M.

Sheridan

S. M.

(2012). A contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group: Who is the best judge? School Psychology Quarterly, 27(3), 121–133. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028696

51.

Ladd

G. W.

Buhs

E. S.

Seid

(2000). Children's initial sentiments about kindergarten: Is school liking an antecedent of early classroom participation and achievement? Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 46(2), 255–279.

52.

LaFontana

K. M.

Cillessen

A. H.

(2010). Developmental changes in the priority of perceived status in childhood and adolescence. Social Development, 19(1), 130–147. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00522.x

53.

Little

(1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83(404), 1198–1202. https://doi.org/10.2307/2290157

54.

Liu

Chen

Liu

(2023). Social, academic, and psychological characteristics of peer groups in Chinese children: Same-domain and cross-domain effects on individual development. Developmental Psychology, 59(1), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001449

55.

Westhoff

van Duijvenvoorde

A. C. K.

(2022). Uncertainty about others’ trustworthiness increases during adolescence and guides social information sampling. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 7634. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09477-2

56.

Maner

J. K.

Mead

N. L.

(2010). The essential tension between leadership and power: When leaders sacrifice group goals for the sake of self-interest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(3), 482–497. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018559

57.

Masten

A. S.

Morison

Pellegrini

D. S.

(1985). A revised class play method of peer assessment. Developmental Psychology, 21(3), 523–533. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.21.3.523

58.

Musso

Lo Cricchio

M. G.

Lo Coco

Tani

Ingoglia

Rubin

K. H.

(2020). A revised short form of the extended class play among Italian early adolescents. Psychological Reports, 123(5), 1986–2016. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294119884009

59.

Nelson

E. E.

Jarcho

J. M.

Guyer

A. E.

(2016). Social re-orientation and brain development: An expanded and updated view. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 118–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2015.12.008

60.

Okano

Jeon

Crandall

Powell

Riley

(2019). Developmental cascades of social competence, achievement in school, and achievement on standardized assessments during the transition to adolescence and secondary school. Journal of Adolescence, 74(1), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.06.001

61.

Oyserman

Coon

H. M.

Kemmelmeier

(2002). Rethinking individualism and collectivism: Evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 128(1), 3–72. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.1.3

62.

Palacios

Berger

Kanacri

B. P. L.

Huisman

Veenstra

(2024). The role of academic performance, prosocial behaviour and friendships on adolescents’ preferred studying partners: A longitudinal social network analysis. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(3), 681–699. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12675

63.

Robinaugh

D. J.

Millner

A. J.

McNally

R. J.

(2016). Identifying highly influential nodes in the complicated grief network. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125(6), 747–757. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000181

64.

Rose-Krasnor

(1997). The nature of social competence: A theoretical review. Social Development, 6(1), 111–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.1997.tb00097.x

65.

Rubin

K. H.

Bukowski

W. M.

Bowker

J. C.

(2015). Children in peer groups. In Bornstein

M. H.

Leventhal

Lerner

R. M.

(Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Ecological settings and processes (7th ed., pp. 175–222). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

66.

Schreuders

van Buuren

Walsh

R. J.

Sijtsma

Hollarek

Lee

N. C.

Krabbendam

(2023). Learning whom not to trust across early and middle adolescence: A longitudinal neuroimaging study to trusting behavior involving an uncooperative other. Child Development, 95(2), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13986

67.

Selman

(1980). The growth of interpersonal understanding. Academic Press.

68.

Steinberg

Monahan

K. C.

(2007). Age differences in resistance to peer influence. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1531–1543. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1531

69.

Sullivan

H. S.

(1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. Norton.

70.

Tackett

J. L.

Reardon

K. W.

Fast

N. J.

Johnson

Kang

S. K.

Lang

J. W. B.

Oswald

F. L.

(2023). Understanding the leaders of tomorrow: The need to study leadership in adolescence. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(4), 829–842. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221118536

71.

Terry

Coie

J. D.

(1991). A comparison of methods for defining sociometric status among children. Developmental Psychology, 27(5), 867–880. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.27.5.867

72.

Tsang

Salekin

R. T.

(2019). The network of psychopathic personality traits: A network analysis of four self-report measures of psychopathy. Personality disorders, 10(3), 246–256. https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000319.supp

73.

Van Vugt

Hogan

Kaiser

R. B.

(2008). Leadership, followership, and evolution: Some lessons from the past. American Psychologist, 63(3), 182–196. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.3.182

74.

Wang

Lambe

Huang

Liu

Craig

Zhang

(2023). Perceived social competition and school bullying among adolescents: The mediating role of moral disengagement. Current Psychology, 42(28), 24554–24563. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03515-y

75.

Waters

Sroufe

L. A.

(1983). Social competence as a developmental construct. Developmental Review, 3(1), 79–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(83)90010-2

76.

Williams

D. R.

Rast

Pericchi

L. R.

Mulder

(2020). Comparing Gaussian graphical models with the posterior predictive distribution and Bayesian model selection. Psychological Methods, 25(5), 653–672. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000254

77.

Williams

K. L.

Galliher

R. V.

(2006). Predicting depression and self-esteem from social connectedness, support, and competence. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 25(8), 855–874. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2006.25.8.855

78.

Xia

(2023). Network structure of the links between extracurricular time-use and delinquent behaviors: Moving forward and beyond linear relations. Child Development, 94(6), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13953

79.

Zhao

Chen

Park

Liu

Cui

(2024). The development of self- and group orientations among Chinese young adolescents: Implications for social and behavioral adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 60(5), 942–953. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001719

80.

Zhou

Chen

Liu

Cui

(2024). Leaders of peer groups in Chinese early adolescents: The roles of social, academic, and psychological characteristics in group leadership. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 53(9), 2151–2164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-02003-9

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.55 MB

0.00 MB