Situation-specificity of children's social goals: Changing goals according to changing situations?

Children's agentic and communal goals were examined in hypothetical conflict, group entry, victimization, and positive situations ( N = 310, 11—13 years). Multilevel modeling was used to separate the variation in goals to the between- and within- (i.e., situation-specific) individual levels. About half of the variation in goals was due to individual differences. Boys endorsed more agentic goals than girls. A positive perception of self was associated with more agentic goals, whereas a positive perception of peers was associated with high degrees of communal goals. In addition, agentic goals were associated with rejection, whereas communal goals were related to peer acceptance. Children aim…