Abstract
This study examined social support processes in the context of positive events. The conversations of fourth-grade through sixth-grade focal children and their friends (N = 116) were observed after focal children outperformed their friend on an achievement-related task. Changes in focal children’s performance-related positive affect from prediscussion to postdiscussion were predicted from the features of these conversations. Focal children reported more positive affect when friends engaged in relatively high levels of help seeking and relatively low levels of off-task talk. Friends’ responses were, in turn, predicted by friendship quality as rated by focal children and friends. Results are discussed in light of the changes in school adjustment and peer relationships that many children experience as they approach adolescence.
Recommended Citation
Altermatt, Ellen Rydell and Ivers, Ivy E.
(2011)
"Friends’ Responses to Children’s Disclosure of an Achievement-Related Success: An Observational Study,"
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: Vol. 57:
Iss.
4, Article 5.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/mpq/vol57/iss4/5