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This study presents a model of maladaptive social interactions that includes both behavioural and communication correlates of peer acceptance and self-perceived social competence. Tested in a sample of 377 Hong Kong secondary school students, verbal and nonverbal aggression contributed concurrently and longitudinally to peer acceptance. Communication avoidance was predictive only of self-perceived social competence but not of peer acceptance, whereas, as observed in Western children, social withdrawal negatively predicted peer acceptance and self-perceived social competency. These findings are presented in a discussion of the verbal and nonverbal involvement in defining aggression and social withdrawal in adolescent social interactions.

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Two experiments on preschoolers' understanding of the effects of exposure on knowing-that and knowing-how were conducted with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children (N=388) in 2 locations: a small midwestern city in the United States and a suburban area of Hong Kong, China. By using both English- and Chinese-speaking samples, the authors examined differences in children's understanding of knowing-that and knowing-how as well as the impact of different types of linguistic markers on the understanding of these concepts. Across both studies, in both locations, and for judging the knowledge of self or of others, children's understanding for knowing-that preceded their understanding for knowing-how. Implications of these findings both for universal patterns of theory-of-mind development and for how culture may impact on that development are discussed.

This study reconceptualizes and operationalizes peer status in elementary school classrooms by considering both teachers' and peers' preferences. Within this framework, a sample of 1411 students (Grades 1-6) in Hong Kong were classified into four types based on combinations of their peers' and teachers' preference scores: (1) popular stars-those liked by both peers and teachers; (2) teachers' pets-those liked by teachers but not by peers; (3) students' heroes-those liked by peers but not by teachers; and (4) rejected-those disliked by both peers and teachers. Results of MANOVA tests revealed significant differences among the four status groups in their leadership, aggression, social withdrawal, and academic performance. Path analyses showed both similarities and differences among the four status groups in terms of students' attributes and how they predicted teachers' and peers' preferences.