Groups Social Functioning and Individual Socioemotional and School Adjustment in Chinese Children

The study examined the relevancy of group social functioning to individual social, academic, and psychological adjustment. From a sample of elementary and high school students in China, 323 children were identified as group members. Information concerning social functioning, social preference, leadership, school-related competence and problems, academic achievement, and psychological adjustment including loneliness, depression, and perceived social competence was obtained from multiple sources. It was found that social functioning, including sociability, aggression, and shyness-inhibition, of group peers had unique contributions to individual social and school adjustment and adjustment problems, over and above the child’s self social functioning. It also was found that the contributions of peer social functioning to individual school adjustment might depend on the child’s social characteristics, and that the relations between child social functioning and socioemotional adjustment might be moderated by group context