Washington: A research conducted at the University of Maryland looks at the numerous complex reasons as to why young children decide to include or exclude (排斥) other kids from their group of friends.
It suggests that the kids’ decision-making process is much more complex than previously believed.
"They take into account group information, ranging from cliques (小圈子) and networks, when deciding what makes a group work well. Sometimes kids are excluded because they lack social skills, but a lot of time it has nothing to do with that. Instead it has to do with what we refer to as ’group membership’ such as gender, race, nation, and culture," says Professor Melanie Killen, the Associate Director of the Centre for Children Relationships and Culture at Maryland, who led the 4-year project.
Reporting their findings in the journal, the researcher said whatever was the reason, individuals who experienced long-term exclusion (排斥) from the group of friends suffered from depression, anxiety and loneliness.
The study looked at two models to define how children make decisions regarding acceptance of other kids in their group -- the individual social deficit model and the inter-group social cognition (认同) model. While the former says that children’s rejection occurs due to social deficits like shyness, wariness or fearfulness, the latter says that it happens because of group dynamics, prejudice and exclusion.
It was also found that the age of children was also a factor that influenced their decisions regarding other kids’ acceptance as friends.
"With age, kids become more aware of group dynamics, conventions, customs, and rituals. With this comes a greater concern about group functioning, which can lead to exclusion which can be negative from a social justice viewpoint," says Killen.
The researcher believes that her study may have many benefits, as it could provide insights into how to help when children are rejected by their peers.
小题1:While making friends, kids think more about the following EXCEPT ______.
A．social skills
B．culture
C．race
D．gender小题2:The underlined word "deficit" in Paragraph 5 may mean “_______”.
A．skill
B．relationship
C．weakness
D．experience小题3:One of the major purposes of the research is to _______.
A．tell the reader how to tell inclusion from exclusion
B．remind children to be careful while making friends
C．seek ways to help kids excluded by their peers
D．stop the children belonging to the inter-group social cognition model小题4:While making friends, children exclude those of social deficit model to _______.
A．keep their groups purer
B．make their groups more socially powerful
C．refuse other customs and cultures
D．prove their groups to be strict
