Kids show a sharp eye for peers’ personalities

As early as Grade 1, friends know their classmates better than their classmates know themselves.

Aggressive children tend to underplay their aggressiveness, preferring to think of themselves as “awesome,” said Alexa Martin-Storey, one of two Concordia University researchers who recently published a paper on childhood peer evaluation. Even at a very young age, their peers are much more accurate, correctly identifying the behaviour that tends to get aggressive children into trouble throughout their lives.

The research comes out of the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, started in 1976, “before I was born,” said Martin-Storey, today a postdoctoral student at the University of Texas.

Over a period of two years, Montreal pupils in Grades 1, 4 and 7 rated their classmates in terms of aggression, likability and social withdrawal. The children also rated themselves.

A follow-up study, conducted between 1999 and 2003, measured the children as adults, rating them for neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, according to co-author Lisa Serbin of Concordia’s department of psychology.

Even on the measure of likability, children whose peers found them likeable grew up to be more agreeable, conscientious and less neurotic than children who assessed themselves as likeable.

More attention is paid to aggressivity in children because it is linked with “generally negative outcomes in adulthood,” said MartinStorey.

These outcomes include higher rates of family violence, alcoholism, health problems and criminal behaviour.

What is particularly useful about this study is that it shows how accurate peer evaluation can be and why it should be relied on more than self-evaluation, said MartinStorey.

Martin-Storey said she hopes the study will serve as an impetus “to get people to intervene.”

“There are a lot of programs that can help children and their families, that help reduce aggression and encourage pro-social behaviour,” she said.