The Impact of Gossip on Children's Feelings of Belongingness

八卦对儿童归属感的影响

• 批准号: 10600279
• 负责人: Nazli Meltem Yucel
• 金额: $ 6.91万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10600279
• 关键词: 7 year old; Acute; Address; Adolescent; Adult; Affect; Age; Anxiety; Child; Childhood; Chronic; Clinical Psychology; Code; Communication; Data; Data Set; Development; Distress; Drug usage; Experimental Designs; Feeling; Friends; Friendships; Genetic Transcription; Goals; Lead; Link; Literature; Long-Term Effects; Maps; Measures; Mental Health; Methods; Moral Development; Pathway Analysis; Peer Group; Play; Policies; Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Schools; Social Development; Social Network; Social Psychology; Testing; Training; Video Recording; Well in self; Work; age group; boys; career; depressive symptoms; developmental psychology; early childhood; experience; experimental study; member; novel; peer; programs; skills; social; social observations; statistics

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Having a sense of belonging is vital to children’s and adults’ psychological health. In fact, lack of belonging is detrimental to children’s psychological health, causing acute and chronic distress and increasing risk for later anxiety/depressive symptoms and drug use. This fundamental need to belong can be undermined or strengthened by social experiences, such as gossiping (i.e., negative or positive talk about others). The effects of gossiping are well-studied in both adults and adolescents; members of both age groups who are associated with negative gossip feel less connected in their friend groups than those who are associated with positive gossip. Yet, no study to date has investigated the immediate and long-term effects of gossip on feelings of belonging at younger ages. The present proposal aims to address this gap. To understand the link between early childhood gossip and children’s social and psychological well-being, we aim to identify how spreading gossip or being the target of gossip impacts children’s feelings of belonging. The overall objectives will be achieved through two lab studies (Studies 1 and 2) and one naturalistic study (Study 3). Study 1 will use a novel experimental paradigm to identify the immediate effects of spreading gossip on children’s belonging and distress by testing the hypotheses that 1a) Children will feel closer to their conversation partners and feel less distressed if they gossip with them, and 1b) Children will feel closer to the peers who were the targets of positive gossip than peers who were the targets of negative gossip. Study 2 will use a similar experimental design to identify the immediate effects of being the target of gossip on children’s belonging and distress, by testing the hypothesis that 2) Children who are the targets of negative gossip will experience lower belonging and feel more distressed than the children who are the targets of positive gossip. In a novel analysis of an already collected observational social network dataset from classrooms, Study 3 will map long-term social network implications of children’s gossip over the course of an entire school year. Study 3 will test the hypotheses that 3a) Children who have higher connectedness (i.e., belonging) among friends will be less involved in spreading negative gossip and have lower likelihood of being a target of negative gossip, and 3b) Children who are more centrally connected to the friend group will be more involved in spreading positive gossip and have higher likelihood of being a target of positive gossip. The proposed research and training aims will identify the functions and impact of gossip on children’s feelings of belonging and distress and help the Candidate in furthering their career goals to lead their own lab as an independent PI. The findings can contribute to programs and policies to support healthy social development by increasing children’s feelings of belonging.

项目总结/摘要 拥有归属感对儿童和成人的心理健康至关重要。事实上，缺乏归属感是 有害于儿童的心理健康，造成急性和慢性痛苦，并增加日后的风险 焦虑/抑郁症状和药物使用。这种基本的归属感可能会被削弱， 通过社会经验，如闲聊（即，对他人的正面或负面评价）。的影响 在成年人和青少年中都有很好的研究;这两个年龄组的成员都与 与那些与积极八卦相关的人相比，那些与消极八卦相关的人在朋友群体中的联系更少 八卦然而，迄今为止还没有研究调查八卦对感情的直接和长期影响 在年轻时的归属感。本提案旨在弥补这一差距。为了理解 幼儿期八卦与儿童的社会和心理健康之间的关系，我们的目标是确定 传播流言或成为流言的目标如何影响孩子的归属感。 总体目标将通过两项实验室研究（研究1和2）和一项自然研究实现 （研究3）。研究1将使用一种新颖的实验范式来确定传播八卦的直接影响 通过检验以下假设，儿童的归属感和痛苦：1a）儿童会感到更接近他们的 如果他们和他们闲聊，孩子们会感到更亲近， 被正面八卦的同龄人比被负面八卦的同龄人更容易受到影响。研究2将 使用类似的实验设计，以确定成为八卦的目标对儿童的直接影响。 归属感和痛苦，通过测试假设2）儿童谁是负面八卦的目标， 与那些成为正面八卦对象的孩子相比，他们的归属感更低，感到更痛苦。 在对已经从教室收集的观察性社交网络数据集的新分析中，研究3将 在整个学年的课程中，绘制儿童八卦的长期社会网络影响。研究 3将检验假设3a）具有较高连通性的儿童（即，朋友之间， 更少地参与传播负面八卦，更少地成为负面八卦的目标， 和3b）与朋友群体联系更集中的儿童将更多地参与传播 积极的八卦，并有更高的可能性成为积极八卦的目标。拟议的研究和 培训目标是确定八卦对儿童归属感和痛苦感的作用和影响 并帮助候选人实现其职业目标，以独立PI的身份领导自己的实验室。这些发现 可以通过增加儿童的感受，为支持健康社会发展的计划和政策做出贡献 归属感