Addressing the widespread and painful problem of chronic peer rejection, this book combines up-to-date research with practical strategies for school- and clinic-based intervention. An innovative developmental framework is presented for understanding why certain children face rejection, the peer group dynamics involved, and implications for social-emotional development and mental health. Strategies for assessing rejected children are discussed in detail, and guidelines are provided for implementing social competence coaching programs and other effective interventions. Illustrative case studies and interviews are featured throughout.
--- from the publisher Contents
I. Understanding Problematic Peer Relations
1. The Developmental Significance of Peer Relations
2. Characteristics of Rejected Children
3. Rejection Processes: The Role of Peers
4. Peer Relations and the Developing Self
II. Assessing Social Competence and Peer Relations
5. Assessment Goals and Strategies
6. Assessing Problematic Peer Relations
7. Assessing Social Behavior
8. Observing Peer Interactions
9. Assessing Self-System Processes
III. Intervention Methods
10. Approaches to Intervention
11. The Design of Social Competence Coaching Programs
12. Intervention Process and the Promotion of Self-System Change
13. Collateral Interventions: Providing Support at School and Home
14. Future Directions
Appendix. Description of Exemplar Session Activities Reviews
"This superb book is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject of peer rejection and friendships in childhood and adolescence since Asher and Coie's seminal work in 1990. Since then, the field has seen significant advancements in empirical research and conceptual understandings. Bierman's timely, integrative review draws from diverse literatures in personality, cognitive, social, behavioral, developmental, clinical, and school psychology....Enhancing her stellar research is the perspective Bierman brings as a seasoned clinician."-Jan N. Hughes, PhD, Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University
"Exactly what I needed as one of the primary texts for my Children's Social Reasoning course. It is a research-to-practice-focused work that is readable for undergraduates while sufficiently sophisticated for graduate students."-Helen Swanson, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Stout
About the Author
Karen L. Bierman, PhD, is currently Director of the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium (CYFC) at The Pennsylvania State University, where she is Distinguished Professor of Clinical Child Psychology. Her research has focused on understanding how peer relationships contribute to children's social-emotional development, social competence, and school adjustment. Dr. Bierman is particularly interested in the design and evaluation of programs that promote social competence and positive intergroup relations and that reduce aggression and violence. Currently, she is the director of the Pennsylvania site of the Fast Track Program, a national, multisite prevention trial focused on preventing antisocial behavior among high-risk youth, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (with additional funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the U.S. Department of Education). She is also Coinvestigator of the newly funded PROSPER program, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which involves the diffusion of empirically supported prevention programs to schools through the use of cooperative extension-facilitated university-community partnerships. |
