Contextual Variations in Associations Between Measures of Aggression and Withdrawal and Functioning With Peers: A Replication Study

Data from 790 older school-age (Mage = 10.2 years, SD = 1.2 years) girls (N = 427) and boys from Barranquilla, Colombia (N = 449) and Montréal, Canada (N = 331) were used to replicate findings reported by Valdivia et al. (2005). This prior study revealed contextual variations in the association between two measures of social behavior, specifically aggression and withdrawal, and two measures of effective functioning with peers, specifically sociometric preference and friendship. The Montréal participants were primarily from families with European backgrounds. The ethnicity of the participants from Barranquilla can be described as Latinx/Caribbean. Multilevel analyses provided evidence of replication of place differences only for the associations between measures of aggression and sociometric preference. Stronger negative associations were observed between (a) measures of aggression and sociometric preference, (b) measures of withdrawal and sociometric preference, and (c) withdrawal and friendship in peer groups that were high in collectivism. These findings are interpreted as largely replicating the deep structure of the findings from the Valdivia et al. study.