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Navigating the Transition to Junior High School: The Influence of Pre‐Transition Friendship and Self‐System Characteristics
Author(s) -
Aikins Julie Wargo,
Bierman Karen L.,
Parker Jeffrey G.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2005.00290.x
Subject(s) - friendship , psychology , transition (genetics) , developmental psychology , distress , quality (philosophy) , social psychology , clinical psychology , chemistry , biochemistry , philosophy , epistemology , gene
Abstract The present study examined the influence of pre‐transition friendship and self‐system characteristics on junior high school transition adjustment in a sample of 111 early adolescent girls and boys. Transition adjustment was defined in terms of youth's post‐transition friendship quality, emotional distress, and school adjustment. Pre‐transition friendship characteristics were directly linked with both post‐transition friendship quality and school adjustment, while youth's expected possible selves, a component of youth's self‐system, made additional unique contributions to the prediction of youth's emotional distress and school adjustment. Results suggest the importance of developmentally salient friendship and self‐system characteristics in contributing to individual variability in transition adaptation.