Faculty
Cynthia
A. Erdley
Phone: (207)581-2040
Cynthia.Erdley@umit.maine.edu
My
research interests focus on children’s peer relationships.
In one line of research, I have been examining how children’s
friendship experiences are related to their psychological adjustment.
More specifically, in a sample of third- through sixth-grade
students, we have been investigating how children’s peer
group acceptance, quality of friendships, and quantity of friendships
are related to children’s feelings of loneliness and
depression. Our results suggest a pathway through which children’s
peer acceptance affects their friendship experiences (quality
and quantity), and then friendship impacts loneliness. Finally,
the effects of the peer variables on children’s depression
are mediated through loneliness. Currently, we are collecting
data from a sample of third, fourth, seventh, and eighth grade
students to examine whether there may be developmental differences
in the ways in which peer experiences affect psychological
adjustment. In this study, we are using loneliness, depression,
and social anxiety as outcome variables. In other work, with
my graduate student Julie Newman, we are investigating how
children’s peer experiences predict their adjustment
as they make the transition to middle school. We are examining
outcome variables such as loneliness, depression, self-esteem,
grade point average, attitudes toward school, and school avoidant
behavior. Interestingly, we have found that of these outcome
variables, the peer variables seem to most strongly predict
students’ grade point average.
In other research projects, I have
been interested in how children’s social-cognitive
processes (e.g., attributions of intent, social goals, self-efficacy
perceptions, and beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression)
relate to their behavior and peer acceptance. These studies
have been conducted in elementary schools. With graduate
student Jessica Matthews, I have been examining how adolescents’ experiences
of being a victim of aggression relate to their adjustment,
and how coping styles may mediate this relationship. My students
and I have regular lab meetings with Dr. Doug Nangle and
his graduate students. This provides an excellent opportunity
for learning and collaboration. Some current projects include
studying heterosocial skills in adolescence and conducting
an intervention program in which parents of children in Head
Start are learning how to teach their children social skills.
We are also involved in the development of a more general
program, the COMPASS program, that is focused on enhancing
the social skills of children in Head Start.
Recent Publications:
Nangle,
D. W., Erdley, C. A., Zeff, K. R., Stanchfield, L. L., & Gold,
J. A. (in press). Opposites do not attract: Social status and
behavioral-style concordances and discordances among children
and the peers who like and dislike them. Journal of Abnormal
Child Psychology.
Nangle,
D. W., Erdley, C. A., Newman, J. E., Mason, C. A., & Carpenter,
E. M. (2003). Popularity, friendship quantity, and friendship quality: Interactive
influences on children’s psychological adjustment. Journal of Clinical
Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 526-555.
Nangle,
D. W., Erdley, C. A., Carpenter, E.M., & Newman, J. E.
(2002). Social-skills training as a treatment for aggressive
children and adolescents: A developmental-clinical integration.
Aggression and Violent Behavior, 7, 169-199.
Erdley,
C. A., Nangle, D. W., Newman, J. E., & Carpenter, E. M.
(2001). Children’s friendship experiences and psychological
adjustment. In D. W. Nangle & C. A. Erdley (Eds.). New
directions for child and adolescent development: The role of
friendship in psychological adjustment (pp. 5-24). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Nangle,
D. W., & Erdley, C. A. (Eds.). (2001). New directions for
child and adolescent development: The role of friendship in
psychological adjustment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Asher,
S. R. (1999). A social goals perspective on children’s
social competence. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders,
7, 156-167.
Erdley,
C. A., & Asher, S. R. (1998). Linkages between children’s
beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression and their behavior. Social Development,
7, 321-339.
Erdley,
C. A., Nangle, D. W., & Gold, J. A. (1998). Operationalizing
the construct of friendship among children: A psychometric
comparison of sociometric-based definitional methodologies.
Social Development, 7, 62-71
Erdley,
C. A., Cain, K. M., Loomis, C. C., Dumas-Hines, F., & Dweck,
C. S. (1997). Relations among children’s social goals,
implicit personality theories, and responses to social failure.
Developmental Psychology, 33, 263-272.
Erdley,
C. A. (1996). Motivational approaches to aggression within
the context of peer relationships. In J. Juvonen & K. R.
Wentzel (Eds.), Social motivation: Understanding children’s
school adjustment (pp. 98-125). New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Erdley,
C. A., & Asher, S. R. (1996). Children’s social goals
and self-efficacy perceptions as influences on their responses
to ambiguous provocation. Child Development, 67, 1329-1344.
Nangle,
D. W., Erdley, C. A., & Gold, J. A. (1996). A reflection
on the popularity construct: The importance of who likes or
dislikes a child. Behavior Therapy, 27, 337-352.
Back to Faculty
