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There has been a rapid growth of studies focused on selection and socialization processes of peer groups, mostly due to the development of stochastic actor-based models to analyze longitudinal social network data. One of the core assumptions of these models is that individuals have an accurate knowledge of the dyadic relationships within their network (i.e., who is and is not connected to whom). Recent cross-sectional findings suggest that elementary school children are very inaccurate in perceiving their classmates’ dyadic relationships. These findings question the validity of stochastic actor-based models to study the developmental dynamics of children and carry implications for future research as well as for the interpretation of past findings. The goal of the present study was thus to further explore the adequacy of the accuracy assumption, analysing data from three longitudinal samples of different age groups (elementary school children and adolescents). Our results support the validity of stochastic actor-based models to study the network of adolescents and suggest that the violation of the accuracy assumption for elementary school children is not as severe as previously thought.

A capacidade das crianças para compreender as emoções e as intenções sociais dos outros relaciona-se com a qualidade das interações com os pares. Os comportamentos de brincadeira não-social durante o pré-escolar poderão estar associados a dificuldades no desenvolvimento do conhecimento emocional. O presente estudo teve como objetivos: 1) identificar diferentes perfis de comportamentos de brincadeira social e não-social de crianças em idade pré-escolar, e 2) verificar se o conhecimento emocional das crianças varia de acordo com os diferentes perfis. Participaram no estudo 193 crianças, com uma média de 53.31 meses de idade. As educadoras preencheram a versão portuguesa do Preschool Play Behaviour Scale para discriminar os comportamentos sociais e não-sociais das crianças durante a brincadeira. O conhecimento emocional das crianças foi avaliado através da versão portuguesa do Affect Knowledge Test. A análise hierárquica de clusters identificou três perfis de crianças que apresentam diferentes comportamentos sociais e não-sociais durante a brincadeira: reticentes, solitários-sociais e sociais. O grupo mais representativo da nossa amostra foi o solitário-social. As crianças reticentes demonstraram um menor conhecimento emocional por comparação com o grupo de crianças sociais. Os nossos resultados reforçam a existência de diferentes tipos de comportamentos sociais e não-sociais durante a brincadeira e a sua relação com o conhecimento emocional

Given the high prevalence of anxiety disorders, there has been an increasing need to intervene on the early risk factors for their development, namely behavioral inhibition and social withdrawal (BI/SW) during early childhood. However, the participation rates in preventive evidence-based interventions targeted at BI/SW have been modest, due to the gaps in parents’ and key gatekeepers’ (teachers and pediatricians) problem recognition. Given their pivotal role in enhancing problem recognition, this study aimed to explore the perceptions of Portuguese psychologists about BI/SW and their related intervention needs. Eighteen psychologists were distributed into three focus groups. Each focus group was moderated by a trained researcher, using a semi-structured interview guide. The thematic analysis revealed that Portuguese psychologists identified the manifestations and consequences of BI/SW, particularly in the social domain. Portuguese psychologists recommended the development of multi-component family interventions and interventions targeted at preschool teachers to promote social skills in the classroom.