When the wheels on the bus go round: social interactions on the school bus

Abstract

Children's social interactions are often dependent upon the setting or context in which they occur. The current study explored the school bus as a unique context for social interaction. One hundred and fifty-seven elementary school students (78 males and 79 females), in grades 3, 4, and 5, completed a questionnaire concerning the rate and types of prosocial and aggressive behaviors that occur on the school bus ride. Overall, findings indicated that students were prosocial more often on the school bus than they were aggressive. Regarding the types of social behaviors, differences found in the current study were distinctive. Participants mentioned non-traditionally studied prosocial behaviors (e.g., companionship and benevolence) more often than traditionally studied behaviors (e.g., sharing and helping). In addition, participants mentioned physical aggression more often among their female peers than among their male peers. This study reveals the importance of context in understanding children's social behaviors. It is concluded that the present results have important implications for the school bus context and for future research on children's social interactions.

Maternal Control of Girls Versus Boys: Relations to Empathy and Persuasive Style with Peers

“…Similar gender differences have been found when examining interpersonally sensitive behavior with peers (e.g., Barnett et al 1980;Feschbach and Roe 1968). For example, although both boys and girls describe including a peer in a group as an example of being nice (Greener and Crick 1999), girls are more likely than boys to report comforting others (Galliger et al 2009) and helping friends (Terwogt 2002). In a study of children's dyadic conversation, Leaper (1991) found that in middle childhood, girls used more collaborative, peer-focused speech than boys.…”

“…Our study focused on children's gender, but exploring how fathers versus mothers socialize concern for others in school-age boys and girls is a promising direction for future research. Self-determination theory would likely predict that fathers encourage somewhat different, and probably more intrinsically motivated forms of concern for others in their boys, such as being gregarious toward peers (Galliger et al 2009;Hastings et al 2007a).…”

Adolescents’ Social Reasoning About Relational Aggression

“…When asked to provide examples of mean behavior that children engage in, youth provide examples of relational aggression (Crick et al 1996;Galliger et al 2009;Giles and Heyman 2005). Relational aggression, like physical aggression, is associated with a variety of psychosocial consequences for the victims, perpetrators, and even witnesses (e.g., Crick et al 2006;Prinstein et al 2001).…”

Moral Behavior in the Locker Room Predicts Perceptions of Task Cohesion in Youth Ice Hockey Player

“…Prosocial and antisocial behavior . To assess perceived prosocial and antisocial behavior, the current study utilized a modified version of an instrument used by Galliger et al (2009) to assess moral behavior on the school bus. Specifically, this instrument captures participants’ perceptions of how often they are prosocial/antisocial to peers as well as how often they feel that peers are prosocial/antisocial to them.…”