Cognitive representational models of social interaction: Proposed linkage between the family and the peer system

Conceptualizing cognitive representations of social relationships as potential mediating links between the family and peer systems, the current study sought to demonstrate that parents' and children's models of social relationships in both the family and peer contexts vary as a function of the child's acceptance by their peers. Parents and their children (who were identified as either sociometrically popular or rejected in their classroom) were interviewed to assess potential components of such social-cognitive models when faced with social problems. Components assessed included interpretations of the situation, affective responses, strategies, goals, anticipation of consequences, and the generation of alternative strategies. In addition, several questionnaires were used to assess family members' feelings of efficacy and knowledge of the effectiveness of various strategies, the degree to which they value social relationships, as well as several psychological constructs including depression, loneliness, social dissatisfaction, and marital satisfaction. Results indicated that, on several dimensions, children's cognitive representations of social relationships are similar for both the family and peer contexts, though this depended greatly on the situation in which they were assessed. These representations appear to vary as a function of the child's success in their peer group. Relationships were also found between parents' models and children's models, again as a function of that child's sociometric status. These results provide preliminary evidence for the role of the family in the development of children's social representations across various contexts.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio