An investigation of the impact of young children's self‐knowledge of trustworthiness on school adjustment: A test of the realistic self‐knowledge and positive illusion models

Young children's interpersonal trust consistency as a predictor of future school adjustment

“…The results from the current study contribute to the growing literature on the importance of trust and trustworthiness for children's psychosocial adjustment (Bernath & Feshbach, 1995;Betts & Rotenberg, 2007a;Betts et al, 2009;Rotenberg et al, 2010;Rotenberg, Boulton, & Fox, 2005;Rotenberg, MacDonald et al, 2004;Rotenberg, McDougall et al, 2004;Rotenberg et al, 2008). Further, the findings of the present study extend previous research by exploring the direct relationship between interpersonal trust consistency and young children's school adjustment over a year.…”

“…Specifically, whilst promise-keeping and secret-keeping reflect observable behaviours that children are likely to be aware of, especially in the context of friendships, the relative private nature of secret-keeping and disclosure (Betts et al, 2009), and the preference of young children to engage in same-sex peer relationships (Hay et al, 2004;Maccoby, 1988Maccoby, , 1990Yee & Brown, 1994), may account for why secret-keeping interpersonal trust consistency was a stronger predictor of school adjustment. Also, secret-keeping interpersonal trust consistency may be more predictive of the child-rated measures of school adjustment because maintaining confidentiality and disclosure form a central part of children's peer Running head: YOUNG CHILDREN'S TRUST CONSISTENCY 19 relationships, especially for girls (Berndt & Perry, 1986;Furman & Bierman, 1984).…”

“…The propensity to trust others, and to engage in trustworthy behaviour, is associated with psychosocial adjustment (Bernath & Feshbach, 1995;Rotenberg, Boulton, & Fox, 2005;Rotenberg, MacDonald, & King, 2004;Rotenberg, McDougall et al, 2004) and school adjustment during childhood (Betts & Rotenberg, 2007a;Betts, Rotenberg, & Trueman, 2009;Rotenberg et al, 2010;Rotenberg, Michalik, Eisenberg, & Betts, 2008). The likely mechanism that underpins these relationships is that trust and trustworthiness facilitate the development of peer relationships which, in turn, aid positive school adjustment (Betts & Rotenberg, 2007a).…”

“…For example, developing positive peer relationships are associated with higher levels of school liking (Ladd & Coleman, 1997;Hughes & Zhang, 2007), higher academic performance (Bossaert, Doumen, Buyse, & Verschueren, 2011), and lower levels of loneliness (Coplan, Closson, & Arbeau, 2007) during the early years of school. Further, both trust beliefs and trustworthiness predict children's school adjustment such that higher trust beliefs and higher levels of trustworthiness are predictive of successful school adjustment (Betts & Rotenberg, 2007a;Betts et al, 2009;Imber, 1973;Rotenberg, McDougall et al, 2004). A sense of trust has also been identified as crucial for fostering a positive classroom community (Graff, 2003).…”

Adolescents’ Experiences of Victimization: The Role of Attribution Style and Generalized Trust

“…The importance of trust for psychosocial (e.g., Bernath & Feshbach, 1995;Rotenberg, Boulton, & Fox, 2005;Rotenberg, MacDonald, & King, 2004;Rotenberg, McDougall et al, 2004) and school adjustment (Betts & Rotenberg, 2007;Betts, Rotenberg, & Trueman, 2009;Rotenberg, Michalik, Eisenberg, & Betts, 2008) during childhood is widely acknowledged.…”