Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

When the wheels on the bus go round: social interactions on the school bus

  • Published:
Social Psychology of Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Children’s social interactions are often dependent upon the setting or context in which they occur. The current study explored the school bus as a unique context for social interaction. One hundred and fifty-seven elementary school students (78 males and 79 females), in grades 3, 4, and 5, completed a questionnaire concerning the rate and types of prosocial and aggressive behaviors that occur on the school bus ride. Overall, findings indicated that students were prosocial more often on the school bus than they were aggressive. Regarding the types of social behaviors, differences found in the current study were distinctive. Participants mentioned non-traditionally studied prosocial behaviors (e.g., companionship and benevolence) more often than traditionally studied behaviors (e.g., sharing and helping). In addition, participants mentioned physical aggression more often among their female peers than among their male peers. This study reveals the importance of context in understanding children’s social behaviors. It is concluded that the present results have important implications for the school bus context and for future research on children’s social interactions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahmed E., Braithwaite V. (2004) Bullying and victimization: Cause for concern for both families and schools. Social Psychology of Education 7: 35–54. doi:10.1023/B:SPOE.0000010668.43236.60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bandura A. (1973) Aggression: A social learning analysis. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Tal D., Raviv A., Goldberg M. (1982) Helping behavior among preschool children: An observational study. Child Development 53: 396–402. doi:10.2307/1128982

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Begin C., Talley S., Hamer L. (2002) Prosocial behaviors of young adolescents: A focus group study. Journal of Adolescence 26: 13–32. doi:10.1016/S0140-1971(02)00112-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjorkqvist K., Lagerspetz K.M.J., Kaukiainen A. (1992) Do girls manipulate and boys fight? Developmental trends in regard to direct and indirect aggression. Aggressive Behavior 18: 117–127 doi:10.1002/1098-2337(1992)18:2<117::AID-AB2480180205>3.0.CO;2-3

    Google Scholar 

  • Boxer P., Tisak M.S., Goldstein S.E. (2004) Is it bad to be good? An exploration of aggressive and prosocial behavior subtypes in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 33: 91–100. doi:10.1023/B:JOYO.0000013421.02015.ef

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brame B., Nagin D.S., Tremblay R.E. (2001) Developmental trajectories of physical aggression from school entry to late adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines 42: 503–512. doi:10.1017/S0021963001007120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brody L.R. (1985) Gender differences in emotional development: A review of theories and research. Journal of Personality 53: 102–149. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1985.tb00361.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner U. (1979) The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner U., Ceci S. (1994) Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: A bioecological model. Psychological Review 101: 568–586. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.101.4.568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryan J. (1975) Children’s cooperation and helping behaviors. In: Hetherington E.M. (eds) Child development research. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, pp 127–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Buhrmester D., Furman W. (1987) The development of companionship and intimacy. Child Development 58: 1101–1113. doi:10.2307/1130550

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini R., Kenrick D., Bauman D. (1976) Effects of mood on prosocial behavior in children and adults. In: Eisenberg N. (eds) The development of prosocial behavior. Academic Press, New York, pp 339–356

    Google Scholar 

  • Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1998). Aggression and antisocial behavior. In W. Damon (Series Ed.), N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 779–862). New York: Wiley.

  • Crick N.R. (1996) The role of overt aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior in the prediction of children’s future social adjustment. Child Development 67: 2317–2327. doi:10.2307/1131625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crick N.R., Bigbee M.A. (1998) Relational and overt forms of peer victimization: A multiinformant approach. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 66: 337–347. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.66.2.337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crick N.R., Casas J.F., Ku H. (1999) Relational and physical forms of peer victimization in preschool. Developmental Psychology 35: 376–385. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.35.2.376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crick N.R., Casas J.F., Mosher M. (1997) Relational and overt aggression in preschool. Developmental Psychology 33: 579–588. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.4.579

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crick N.R., Grotpeter J.K. (1995) Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development 66: 710–722. doi:10.2307/1131945

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies B. (1984) Life in the classroom and playground. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg N. (1987) Self-attributions, social interaction, and moral development. In: Kurtines W.M., Gewirtz J.L. (eds) Moral development through social interaction. Wiley, New York, pp 20–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. (1998). Prosocial development. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), W. Damon (Series Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 701–778). New York: Wiley.

  • Eisenberg N., Mussen P. (1989) The roots of prosocial behavior in children. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg-Berg N., Lennon R. (1980) Altruism and the assessment of empathy in the preschool years. Child Development 51: 552–557. doi:10.2307/1129290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eron L.D., Huesmann L.R. (1984) The relation of prosocial behavior to the development of aggression and psychopathology. Aggressive Behavior 10: 201–211 doi:10.1002/1098-2337(1984)10:3<201::AID-AB2480100304>3.0.CO;2-S

  • Feshbach N.D. (1982) Sex differences in empathy and social behavior in children. In: Eisenberg N. (eds) The development of prosocial behavior. Academic Press, New York, pp 315–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox M. (1996) Rural school transportation as a daily constraint in students’ lives. Rural Educator 17: 22–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Galen B.R., Underwood M.K. (1997) A developmental investigation of social aggression among children. Developmental Psychology 33: 589–600. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.4.589

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gelfand D.M., Hartmann D.P. (1980) The development of prosocial behavior. In: Ault R.L. (eds) Developmental perspectives. Goodyear, Santa Monica, pp 216–266

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein S.E., Tisak M.S. (2004) Adolescents’ outcome expectancies about relational aggression within acquaintanceships, friendships, and dating relationships. Journal of Adolescence 27: 283–302. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.11.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottheil N., Dubow E. (2001) The interrelationships of behavioral indices of bully and victim behavior. Bullying Behavior: Current Issues, Research, and Interventions 1: 75–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Greener S., Crick N.R. (1999) Normative beliefs about prosocial behavior in middle childhood: What does it mean to be nice?. Social Development 8: 349–363. doi:10.1111/1467-9507.00100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamburg D.A., Hamburg B.A. (2004) Learning to live together. Oxford University Press, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen D.M., Larson R.W., Dworkin J.B. (2003) What adolescents learn in organized youth activities: A survey of self-reported developmental experiences. Journal of Research on Adolescence 13: 25–55. doi:10.1111/1532-7795.1301006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman M. (1977) Sex differences in empathy and related behaviors. Psychological Bulletin 54: 712–722. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.84.4.712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holub, S. C. (2005). Young children’s perceived competence: Validation of a new instrument and ecological influences on overly positive self-perceptions in preschoolers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, OH.

  • Howley C.B., Howley A.A., Shamblen S. (2001) Riding the school bus: A comparison of the rural and suburban experience in five states. Journal of Research in Rural Education 17: 41–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson M., Tisak M.S. (2001) Is prosocial behavior a good thing? Developmental changes in children’s evaluations of helping, sharing, cooperating, and comforting. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology 19: 349–367. doi:10.1348/026151001166146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karniol R. (1982) Settings, scripts, and self-schemata: A cognitive analysis of the development of prosocial behavior. In: Eisenberg N. (eds) The development of prosocial behavior. Academic Press, New York, pp 251–274

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiesner J., Poulin F., Nicotra E. (2003) Peer relations across contexts: Individual-network homophily and network inclusion in and after school. Child Development 74: 1328–1343. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kochenderfer B.J., Ladd G.W. (1996) Peer victimization: Cause or consequence of school maladjustment?. Child Development 67: 1305–1317. doi:10.2307/1131701

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kranz, C. (2000, August 25). Back to school: Foil those bullies on the bus. Cincinnati Enquirer. http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/08/25/loc_back_to_school_foil.html. Retrieved 4 September 2003.

  • Ladd G.W., Kochenderfer B.J., Coleman C.C. (1996) Friendship quality as a predictor of young children’s early school adjustment. Child Development 67: 1103–0017. doi:10.2307/1131882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ladd G.W., Kochenderfer B.J., Coleman C.C. (1997) Classroom peer acceptance, friendship, and victimization: Distant relational systems that contribute uniquely to children’s school adjustment. Child Development 68: 1181–1197

    Google Scholar 

  • Leober R., Hay D. (1997) Key issues in the development of aggression and violence from childhood to early adulthood. Annual Review of Psychology 48: 371–410. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner R.M., Fisher C.B. (1994) From applied developmental psychology to applied developmental science: Community coalitions and collaborative careers. In: Fisher C., Lerner R. (eds) Applied developmental psychology. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 505–522

    Google Scholar 

  • National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. (1999). School bus safety: Safe passage for America’s children. http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/buses/schbus/schbussum.html. Retrieved 4 September 2003.

  • Park J., Essex M.J., Zahn-Waxler C., Armstrong J.M., Klein M.H., Goldsmith H.H. (2005) Relational and overt aggression in middle childhood: Early child and family risk factors. Early Education and Development 16: 233–257

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker J.G., Asher S.R. (1987) Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children at risk. Psychological Bulletin 102: 357–389. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.102.3.357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker J.G., Rubin K.H., Price J.M., DeRosier M.E. (1995) Peer relationships, child development and adjustment: A developmental psychopathology perspective. In: Cicchetti D., Cohen D.J. (eds) Developmental psychopathology Vol. 2: Risk, disorder and adaptation. Wiley, New York, pp 65–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Persson G.E.B. (2005) Developmental perspectives on prosocial and aggressive motives in preschoolers’ peer interactions. International Journal of Behavioral Development 29: 80–91. doi:10.1080/01650250444000423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, P. (2002). The bus bully project: Third and fifth graders take action on a school-wide problem. Responsive Classroom Newsletter, 14(2). http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/newsletter/14_2NL_3.html. Retrieved 4 September 2003.

  • Romano E., Tremblay R.E., Boulerice B., Swisher R. (2005) Multilevel correlates of childhood physical aggression and prosoical behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 33: 565–578. doi:10.1007/s10802-005-6738-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salmivalli C., Kaukianen A. (2004) “Female aggression” revisited: Variable- and person-centered approaches to studying gender differences in different types of aggression. Aggressive Behavior 30: 158–163. doi:10.1002/ab.20012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snyder J., Brooker M., Patrick R.M., Snyder A., Schrepferman L., Stoolmiller M. (2003) Observed peer victimization during early elementary school: Continuity, growth, and relation to risk for child antisocial and depressive behavior. Child Development 74: 1881–1898. doi:10.1046/j.1467-8624.2003.00644.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spence, B. (2000). Long school bus rides: Their efforts on school budgets, family life, and student achievement. Rural Education Issue Digest. http://www.ael.org/rel/rural/index.htm. Retrieved 18 September 2003.

  • Staub E. (1978) Positive social behavior and morality: Socialization and development (Vol. 2). Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Thibeault R.J., Zetler A.G., Wilson A.P. (1997) The achievement of bus transported pupils. Journal of Teaching and Learning 2(3): 17–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Tisak M.S., Block J.H. (1990) Preschool children’s evolving conceptions of badness: A longitudinal study. Early Education and Development 1: 300–307. doi:10.1207/s15566935eed0104_4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tisak M.S., Crane-Ross D., Tisak J., Maynard A.M. (2000) Mothers’ and teachers’ home and school rules: Young children’s conceptions of authority in context. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 46: 168–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Tisak M.S., Ford M. (1986) Children’s conceptions of interpersonal events. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 32: 291–306

    Google Scholar 

  • Tisak M.S., Holub S.C., Tisak J. (2007) What nice things do boys and girls do? Preschoolers’ perspective of peer’s behaviors at school and at home. Early Education and Development 18: 183–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Tisak M.S., Nucci L.P., Jankowski A.M. (1996) Preschool children’s social interactions involving moral and prudential transgressions: An observational study. Early Education and Development 7: 138–148. doi:10.1207/s15566935eed0702_3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tisak M.S., Tisak J. (1996a) My sibling’s but not my friend’s keeper: Reasoning about responses to aggressive acts. The Journal of Early Adolescence 16: 324–339. doi:10.1177/0272431696016003004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tisak M.S., Tisak J. (1996) Expectations and judgments regarding bystanders’ and victims’ responses to peer aggression among early adolescents. Journal of Adolescence 19: 383–392. doi:10.1006/jado.1996.0036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tisak, M. S., & Tisak, J. (2007). An instrument to assess children’s views of who is nice and not nice. Register of Copyrights, United States of America (#-TXu1-354-863).

  • Tisak, M. S., Tisak, J., & Galliger, C. C. (2008). What are nice and not nice behaviors: The perspective of children (submitted).

  • Tisak M.S., Tisak J., Goldstein S.E. (2001) How do young children misbehave in the grocery store and in the school? The preschoolers’ perspective. Early Education and Development 12: 487–498. doi:10.1207/s15566935eed1204_1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomada G., Schneider B.H. (1997) Relational aggression, gender, and peer acceptance: Invariance across culture, stability over time, and concordance among informants. Developmental Psychology 12: 487–498

    Google Scholar 

  • Underwood M.K. (2003) Social aggression among girls. Guilford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Underwood M.K., Galen B.R., Paquette J.A. (2001) Top ten challenges for understanding gender and aggression in children: Why can’t we all just get along? Social Development 10: 248–266. doi:10.1111/1467-9507.00162

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss R.S. (1974) The provisions of social relationships. In: Rubin Z. (eds) Doing unto others. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahn-Waxler C., Radke-Yarrow M., Wagner E., Chapman M. (1992) Development of concern for others. Developmental Psychology 28: 126–136. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.28.1.126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahn-Waxler, C., Robinson, J. A. L., & Emde, R. N. (1991). The development and heritability of empathy. Poster presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

  • Zars, B. (1998). Long rides, tough hides: Enduring long school bus rides. The Rural School and Community Trust. http://www.ruraledu.org/docs/zars_busing.htm. Retrieved 18 September 2003.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, 43403, USA

    Courtney C. Galliger, Marie S. Tisak & John Tisak

Authors
  1. Courtney C. Galliger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marie S. Tisak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. John Tisak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Courtney C. Galliger.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Galliger, C.C., Tisak, M.S. & Tisak, J. When the wheels on the bus go round: social interactions on the school bus. Soc Psychol Educ 12, 43–62 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-008-9072-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-008-9072-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation