In this short-term longitudinal study, Canadian young adolescents' peer relationships were assessed as students moved from Grade 6 in small elementary schools to Grade 7 in a middle-level school offering Grades 7 through 12. Sociometric nominations were conducted in May of Grade 6, monthly during the fall term, and in May of Grade 7. Peer rejection was stable; peer acceptance was less stable during the transition than subsequently. Girls experienced greater instability in reciprocated friendships than did boys, although girls and boys had similar numbers of reciprocated friendships overall. During the fall term of Grade 7, students lost old reciprocated friendships and formed new reciprocated friendships with previously unfamiliar peers. Girls were more likely than boys to nominate previously unfamiliar peers as friends. Girls from the large elementary school, as compared with other girls, established reciprocated friendships with peers who were unfamiliar from elementary school earlier in the fall term.

The results suggest that reforming flawed organisational processes that contribute to registered nurses' bullying experiences may help to reduce chronically high turnover. Nurse leaders and managers need to create workplace processes that foster positive networks, fairness and respect through more transparent and accountable practices.

Temperament and pain experience may play a role in children's pain reactivity, and reactivity may contribute to the development of somatization. Although the model that guided the analysis proved to be a reasonable description of the outcomes, several anticipated relationships were not significant. We discuss implications for a refined model of somatization and for early identification and prevention.

Access to psychologically informed mental health services has historically been a challenge for the more than 6 million Canadians residing in rural and northern (R&N) communities. However, over the past 20 years, Canada has been witness to a number of positive psychologist-led initiatives aimed at enhancing access for R&N Canadians. These can be grouped into 2 main categories, namely recruiting and retaining psychologists in R&N communities and developing and implementing technologically supported psychology services offered at a distance (telepsychology). This article provides an overview of the barriers to accessing psychologically informed mental health services and reviews some of the psychologist-led initiatives aimed at enhancing access in R&N Canada. Potential benefits and limitations of these initiatives are presented and the importance of enhanced collaboration between urban and R&N-based psychologists is discussed. Finally, psychologists are encouraged to look for and embrace opportunities to further broaden and enhance their positive presence in R&N communities.

We assessed predictability of the friendship participation and quality, as well as the popularity, of 154 children 8 to 12 years of age from measures of their mothers' social relationships. Measures included questionnaires assessing qualities of the mothers' best friendships and the quality of the marital relationship, and an interview measure of maternal acceptance of the child. Results indicated that qualities of the mothers' best friendship, in particular self-referent reward qualities, significantly predicted child friendship participation, the closeness and helpfulness of children's friendships, child popularity and maternal acceptance. Marital status was an important predictor, and marital quality a lesser predictor, of child friendship quality but not of popularity. Results suggest domain-specific parental influences on children's friendships which are distinct from peer popularity.