Social functioning and adjustment in Chinese children: A longitudinal study.

A sample of Chinese children in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, initially 8 and 10 years of age, participated in a 2-year longitudinal project. Information on social behavior and indexes of social and school adjustment was collected from multiple sources. Consistent with Western literature, sociability-leadership was associated with and predictive of indexes of adjustment. Aggression was associated with and predictive of indexes of maladjustment. Finally, inconsistent with the Western literature (e.g., K. H. Rubin Rubin & Asendorpf, 1993, for reviews). The data extant suggest, therefore, that prosocial and cooperative behaviors are socially adaptive and that aggression and social inhibition, which have been conceptualized as reflecting externalizing and internalizing problems, respectively (e.g., Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981), are maladaptive. Researchers who study adaptive and maladaptive behaviors from a cross-cultural perspective believe that the meanings of