Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 4, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Traits and relationship status: stranger versus peer group inhibition and test intelligence versus peer group
1Max-Planck-Institut für psychologische Forschung, München, Germany.
Abstract:
A 9-year longitudinal study of 99 children observed from ages 4 through 12 showed that inhibition toward strangers was strongly related to inhibition with peers, and test intelligence to social competence with peers, only in the first months of preschool socialization. These correlations decreased later on. Stranger inhibition and test intelligence were not predictive of social self-esteem in middle childhood. However, high inhibition and low competence in the peer group after 1 and 2 years of group socialization did predict low social self-esteem up to age 10. Discussion focuses on the processes that might mediate these correlative relations and on the role of relationship-unspecific traits and relationship-specific individual attributes for later social-emotional developmental outcomes.
Related Concept Videos
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Erikson's Theory on Socioemotional Development during Adolescence
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth. This guiding role...
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Sources of Self-Esteem I: Family Experience
Sources of Self-Esteem III: Social Comparison

