Developmental cascades of peer rejection, social information processing biases, and aggression during middle childhood. Development and Psychopathology

This study tested a developmental cascade model of peer rejection, social information processing (SIP), and aggression using data from 585 children assessed at 12 time points from kindergarten through Grade 3. Peer rejection had direct effects on subsequent SIP problems and aggression. SIP had direct effects on subsequent peer rejection and aggression. Aggression had direct effects on subsequent peer rejection. Each construct also had indirect effects on each of the other constructs. These findings advance the literature beyond a simple mediation approach by demonstrating how each construct effects changes in the others in a snowballing cycle over time. The progressions of SIP problems and aggression cascaded through lower liking, and both better SIP skills and lower aggression facilitated the progress of social preference. Findings are discussed in terms of the dynamic, developmental relations among social environments, cognitions, and behavioral adjustment. A key goal in the developmental psychopathology literature has been to describe and understand the etiology of mental health and behavioral problems as they develop during childhood and adolescence. Recent attention to developmental cascade models offers an important advance toward this goal because such models go beyond examining a set of predictors in relation to a set of outcomes by trying to map the mechanisms throug