The Role of Friendships and Peer Acceptance in Adjustment over the Secondary Transition

This thesis examines the role of children's peer relationships and their adjustment to school following the secondary transition.

he contributions of three dimensions of children's friendships (close friendships, the size and the characteristics of friendship groups) to adjustment in their new school are explored.

The role of acceptance in the peer group is also investigated.

A broad conceptualisation of school adjustment is adopted, incorporating perceptions of, comfort within and involvement in school alongside achievement.

A systematic review (reported in Chapter Two) of children's peer relationships over transition and their post-transition school adjustment found that children's peer acceptance was most strongly predictive of academic achievement and school involvement.

Peer acceptance also related to children's comfort within and perceptions of their new school. The role of the quality of students' close friendships was less well supported, but may relate to perceptions and comfort.

Interventions targeting children's peer relationships consistently resulted in increased adjustment.

Comparatively few articles investigated peer relationships within children's new schools in comparison to those in their previous schools. No included articles investigated the effects of peers' characteristics on adjustment.

In order to address these areas of the literature, a longitudinal correlational study utilising self- and peer-report alongside school data was conducted to investigate the predictive effects of three friendship dimensions following transition on children's subsequent school adjustment.

This is reported in Chapter Three. Friendship quality predicted children's positive school perceptions and comfort in school, friends' characteristics predicted comfort and achievement.

Friendship dimensions predicted all measures of school adjustment for girls but only comfort and achievement for boys.

The effect of high and low school support for peer relationships in preventing and remediating social isolation was also investigated.

Over time, isolated children became more socially included in both high and low support schools.