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Social goals: Relationship to adolescent adjustment and to social problem solving

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Abstract

Examined the relations between adolescent boys' social goals of dominance, revenge, avoidance, and affiliation and (1) self-reported negative adolescent outcomes; (2) subjective sense of self-esteem; and (3) externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors, as rated by peers and teachers. Results indicated that social goal values were related to diverse aspects of self-, teacher-, and peer-reported social and behavioral functioning, with a consistent association found between a range of delinquent, substance-using, and behavioral difficulties, and endorsement of high goal values for dominance and revenge and low goal values for affiliation. Results also indicated that teacher-identified aggressive boys differed from nonaggressive boys in the value they placed on social goals, with aggressive boys placing a higher value on goals of dominance and revenge, and lower value on goals for affiliation. Finally social goal choice had a clear relation to the social problem-solving differences of aggressive and nonaggressive boys.

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This study was funded by a research grant for the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 39989). Acknowledgment is made for the administrative support provided by the Durham County Schools and The Durham Community Guidance Clinic of the Duke University Medical Center.

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Lochman, J.E., Wayland, K.K. & White, K.J. Social goals: Relationship to adolescent adjustment and to social problem solving. J Abnorm Child Psychol 21, 135–151 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00911312

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00911312

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