Peer Interactions and Relationships: Speaker: Kenneth H. Rubin, University of Maryland Biographical Sketch. Kenneth H. Rubin is Professor of Human Development and Director, Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture at the University of Maryland. He received his B.A. from McGill University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. Rubin has been President of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, has twice served as an Associate Editor of Child Development, and has been on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals. His research interests include the study of children’s peer and family relationships and their social and emotional development. He has published eleven books (including The Friendship Factor, Penguin, Gold Award, National Parenting Publications Awards) and over 225 peer reviewed chapters and journal manuscripts. Rubin is currently Principal Investigator for a National Institute of Mental Health funded longitudinal research project on friendship and psychosocial adjustment in middle childhood and adolescence’; he is Co-Principal Investigator for a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded project, ‘Social outcomes in pediatric traumatic brain injury.’ Abstract. In this presentation, “old” questions regarding children’s interactions and relationships in the peer group (and to some extent, in the home) will be re-examined through the lens of culture. Central questions to be addressed are: Do the “meanings” and significance of given social behaviors or social relationships that occur in the peer group differ from culture-to-culture or are there cultural universals in interpreting these given social behaviors and relationships? More specifically, are there particular behaviors that result in peer acceptance in some cultures, but rejection and/or victimization in others? Do young adolescents’ friendships satisfy the same provisions when examined from a cultural perspective? And is the quality of the parent-child relationship (howsoever defined within culture) meaningfully associated with the quality of children’s peer and friendship relationships within and across cultures? To address these and other questions, results of several cultural and cross-cultural studies will be explored, and the need for culturally-relevant theory and research of social behavior and relationships will be discussed. |