8-Early Adolescents’ Achievement and Peer Relationships.pdfVIP

Psychological Bulletin Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association 2008, Vol. 134, No. 2, 223–246 0033-2909/08/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0033-29023 Promoting Early Adolescents’ Achievement and Peer Relationships: The Effects of Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Goal Structures Cary J. Roseth, David W. Johnson, and Roger T. Johnson University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Emphasizing the developmental need for positive peer relationships, in this study the authors tested a social-contextual view of the mechanisms and processes by which early adolescents’ achievement and peer relationships may be promoted simultaneously. Meta-analysis was used to review 148 independent studies comparing the relative effectiveness of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal struc- tures in promoting early adolescents’ achievement and positive peer relationships. These studies repre- sented over 8 decades of research on over 17,000 early adolescents from 11 countries and 4 multinational samples. As predicted by social interdependence theory, results indicate that higher achievement and more positive peer relationships were associated with cooperative rather than competitive or individu- alistic goal structures. Also as predicted, results show that cooperative goal structures were associated with a positive relation between achievement and positive peer relationships. Implications for the