Philip Rodkin

Activities & Honors

• Distinguished Senior Scholar, College Research Committee, 2013-2014
• Distinguished Research Award, AERA Division E, 2013-
• 2008 Journal of School Psychology Article of the Year Award, Estell, D. B., Farmer, T. W., Pearl, R., Van Acker, R., & Rodkin, P. C. (2008). Social status and aggressive and disruptive behavior in girls: Individual, group, and classroom influences. Journal of School Psychology, 46, 193-212, Society for the Study of School Psychology, 2009-

Research Statement

My work examines aggressive elementary school children who are well-accepted by their peers at school. Doctoral students whom I advise and collaborate with are fully funded and have the opportunity to work on thee completed investigations and one ongoing research project in the schools:

(1) Classroom Quality Study. This project, funded by the William T. Grant and Spencer Foundations, responds to a call to improve how classroom quality is measured by child development researchers. Beginning in Fall 2008 and extending into Spring 2010, we are assessing how features of classroom peer ecologies relate to youth aggression, achievement, and school relatedness. We aim to determine how teacher practices can best shape classroom peer ecologies to be quality learning environments. This new investigation is being conducted in collaboration with Profs. Scott Gest and Thomas Farmer at the Pennsylvania State University, and will include at least six schools and 36 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade classrooms throughout east central Illinois.

(2) Popularity of Bullying Study. In this project we are examining peer, teacher, and self reports of bullying and aggression, social status, and social relationships among 600 3rd and 4th grade children sampled from diverse and multicultural Central Illinois schools. We have three assessments of children, their teachers, and selected school record information over the 4th and 5th grades. This project is funded by small grants from the Spencer Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

(3) School Friendship Study. This project tracked two cohorts of 350 children (700 total) biannually from the spring of 3rd grade to the fall of 6th grade with peer, teacher, and self reports of social status, aggression, and other social-personality characteristics. We are analyzing these data collaboratively with investigative teams led by Ruth Pearl and Richard Van Acker at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Tom Farmer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and myself. I am particularly interested in whether the status-aggression connection grows stronger over development. This project was funded by the US Department of Education from 1997-2001.

(4) Status and Aggression Study. This project features 500 4th-5th grade children from suburban elementary schools in Central Illinois for whom behavioral and affiliative reports were obtained in fall and spring. We are examining differences in social status between boys who bully male versus female victims. We are also comparing different techniques and methodologies for revealing the social structure of children's peer relationships at school.

The goal of my work is to understand the socialization and development of aggressive behavior, and eventually to devise interventions that use children's existing social networks to reduce problem behavior in schools.

Grants

• Principal Investigator, A Longitudinal Study of Teaching Practices, Classroom Peer Ecologies, and Youth Outcomes, Institute of Education Sciences, 2010-2014
• Principal Investigator, Teaching Practices, Classroom Peer Networks and Youth Outcomes, William T. Grant Foundation (Pennsylvania State University), 2008-2011
• Principal Investigator, Can Bullies be Popular? Developmental Insights, National Institutes of Health, 2004-2007
• Principal Investigator, The Popularity of Elementary School Bullies in Gender and Racial Context, The Spencer Foundation, 2004-2005

Publications

• Wilson, T., & Rodkin, P. C. (2013). Children’s cross-ethnic relations in elementary schools: Concurrent and prospective associations between segregation and social status. Child Development, 84, 1081-1097.
• Rodkin, P. C., & Ryan, A. M. (2012). Child and adolescent peer relations in educational context. In K. R. Harris, S. Graham, & T. Urdan (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology: Individual differences, cultural variations, and contextual factors (vol. 2, pp. 363-389). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Rodkin, P. C., Ryan, A. M., Jamison, R., & Wilson, T. (in press). Social goals, social behavior, and social status in middle childhood. Developmental Psychology.
• Garandeau, C. F., Ahn, H-J., & Rodkin, P. C. (2011). The social status of aggressive students across contexts: The role of classroom peer status hierarchy, academic achievement, and grade. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1699-1710.
• Wilson, T., & Rodkin, P. C. (2011). African American and European American children in diverse elementary classrooms: Social integration, social status, and social behavior. Child Development, 82, 1454-1469.
• Rodkin, P. C. (2011). The White House Report: Bullying—and the power of peers. Educational Leadership, 69, 16-21.
• Rodkin, P. C., & Roisman, G. I. (2010). Antecedents and correlates of the popular-aggressive phenomenon in elementary school. Child Development, 81, 837-850.
• Rodkin, P. C., & Ahn, H-J. (2009). Social networks derived from affiliations and friendships, multi-informant and self-reports: Stability, concordance, placement of aggressive and unpopular children, and centrality. Social Development, 18, 556-576.
• Rodkin, P. C., & Berger, C. (2008). Who bullies whom? Social status asymmetries by victim gender. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 32, 473-485.
• Rodkin, P. C., & Karimpour, R. (2008). What’s a hidden bully? In S. Hymel, S. Swearer, & P. Gillette (Eds.), Bullying at school and online. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_What_s_Hidden_Bully/
• Rodkin, P. C., Wilson, T., & Ahn, H-J. (2007). Social integration between African American and European American children in majority Black, majority White, and multicultural elementary classrooms. In P. C. Rodkin & L. D. Hanish (Eds.), Social network analysis and children’s peer relationships (pp. 25-42). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Rodkin, P. C., & Fischer, K. (2003). Sexual harassment and the cultures of childhood: Psychological and legal perspectives. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 19, 177-196.
• Rodkin, P. C., & Hodges, E. V. E. (2003). Bullies and victims in the peer ecology: Four questions for psychologists and school professionals. School Psychology Review, 32, 384-400.
• Farmer, T. W., Leung, M.-C., Pearl, R., Rodkin, P. C., Cadwallader, T. W., & Van Acker, R. (2002). Deviant or diverse peer groups? The peer affiliations of aggressive elementary students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94 , 611-620.
• Rodkin, P. C., Farmer, T. W., Pearl, R., & Van Acker, R. (2000). Heterogeneity of popular boys: Antisocial and prosocial configurations. Developmental Psychology, 36,14-24.