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Younger Than You Think: Peer Pressure Begins in Elementary School
University of Maryland researchers say undue group influences, cliquishness and biases can develop at an early age. The research contradicts an older view that conflicts between group loyalty and fairness are not yet part of elementary-school aged children’s everyday interactions.
The study appears in the journal Child Development, and is available online.
The investigators say their work represents a new line of research — what they call “group dynamics of childhood.”
No prior research has investigated what children think about challenging groups that act in ways that are unfair or nontraditional, they noted.
“This is not just an adolescent issue,” said University of Maryland developmental psychologist Dr. Melanie Killen, the study’s lead researcher. “Peer group pressure begins in elementary schools, as early as age nine. It’s what kids actually encounter there on any given day.”
Even at this earlier age, children show moral independence and will stand up to the group, Killen adds. But it is also a setting where the seeds of group prejudices can develop, if not checked.
“Parents and teachers often miss children’s nascent understanding of group dynamics, as well as kids’ willingness to buck to the pressure,” Killen said. “Children begin to figure out the costs and consequences of resisting peer group pressure early. By adolescence, they find it only gets more complicated.”
The emergence of peer groups in elementary school also aids children’s development by providing positive friendships, relationships, and social support, Killen added.
The downsides include the undue influence of a group when it imposes unfair standards, especially on outsiders, or members of “outgroups,” which is what is often created when peers form an “ingroup.”
“Children may need help from adults when they face conflicts between loyalty to the group and fairness to outsiders,” Killen said.
“They may be struggling to ‘do the right thing’ and still stay on good terms with friends in the group, but not know how. If a child shows discomfort and anxiety about spending time with friends, this may signal conflicts in their peer group relationships.”
For the study, researchers conducted extended interviews and surveys with representative groups of fourth- and eighth-graders from a Mid-Atlantic suburban area.
All were from middle income families and reflected U.S. ethnic backgrounds. Investigators probed attitudes on a moral issue – dividing up resources equally for those in and out of the group, and on a question of tradition (group T-shirts).
“We know that children have a sense of fairness very early on in life but soon enough they belong to groups that sometimes want to do something unfair. What do they advocate for, the fairness principle or group loyalty?” the study asks.
Among the findings:
- When children are members of groups that want to be selfish, they think it is wrong, going so far as to explain why it’s wrong. They even think that one should stand up to groups when they want to be unfair – though the cost of social exclusion is still a concern.
- Children support members of their own groups that will tell the group to divide up resources equally, not unequally, and they strongly advocate for equal allocation of resources.
- Children are more positive about a peer who advocated for equality than a peer who advocated for doing something that reflected group identity such as the conventional act of wearing the club shirt.
- Children understand that their view of what the ingroup member “should do” would be different from what the group would want. While individually favorable towards someone who challenges the group, they expected that the group would not like it.
“Overall, these findings show that with age, children can apply their understanding of fairness to social groups, and recognize what makes group dynamics complex,” the study said.
“They know that groups might not like it, but there may be times when standing up to the group is the right thing to do.”
Source: University of Maryland
Three boys hanging out photo by shutterstock.
20 Minutes of Yoga Can Tone Mind As Well As Body
Investigators discovered that a single session of Hatha yoga significantly improved participants’ speed and accuracy on tests of working memory and inhibitory control.
The improvement in brain function exceeded the benefit of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise for the same amount of time.
The study assessed 30 young, female undergraduate students; the findings appear in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.
“Yoga is an ancient Indian science and way of life that includes not only physical movements and postures but also regulated breathing and meditation,” said Neha Gothe, study leader and doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “The practice involves an active attentional or mindfulness component but its potential benefits have not been thoroughly explored.”
“Yoga is becoming an increasingly popular form of exercise in the U.S. and it is imperative to systematically examine its health benefits, especially the mental health benefits that this unique mind-body form of activity may offer,” said Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Edward McAuley, Ph.D.
The yoga intervention involved a 20-minute progression of seated, standing and supine yoga postures that included isometric contraction and relaxation of different muscle groups and regulated breathing.
The session concluded with a meditative posture and deep breathing. Participants also completed an aerobic exercise session where they walked or jogged on a treadmill for 20 minutes.
Each subject worked out at a suitable speed and incline of the treadmill, with the goal of maintaining 60 to 70 percent of her maximum heart rate throughout the exercise session.
“This range was chosen to replicate previous findings that have shown improved cognitive performance in response to this intensity,” the researchers reported.
Gothe and her colleagues were surprised to see that participants showed more improvement in their reaction times and accuracy on cognitive tasks after yoga practice than after the aerobic exercise session, which showed no significant improvements on the working memory and inhibitory control scores.
“It appears that following yoga practice, the participants were better able to focus their mental resources, process information quickly, more accurately and also learn, hold and update pieces of information more effectively than after performing an aerobic exercise bout,” Gothe said.
“The breathing and meditative exercises aim at calming the mind and body and keeping distracting thoughts away while you focus on your body, posture or breath. Maybe these processes translate beyond yoga practice when you try to perform mental tasks or day-to-day activities.”
Many factors could explain the results, Gothe said. “Enhanced self-awareness that comes with meditational exercises is just one of the possible mechanisms. Besides, meditation and breathing exercises are known to reduce anxiety and stress, which in turn can improve scores on some cognitive tests,” she said.
Future research will build on these findings potentially expanding the use of yoga among all ages.
“Yoga research is in its nascent stages and with its increasing popularity across the globe, researchers need to adopt rigorous systematic approaches to examine not only its cognitive but also physical health benefits across the lifespan,” said McAuley.
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Woman in a yoga posture photo by shutterstock.
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