Peers als Quelle aktueller Motivation? Wie Jugendliche mit heterogenen Verhaltensweisen Peerinteraktionen in Abhängigkeit des behavioralen Klassenumfeldes erleben

The relevance of peers for adolescents' development has already been confirmed in various studies. Among other things, adolescents indicated higher situational motivation and joy as well as less feelings of stress during social interactions with classmates compared to indi- vidual work settings. However, it turned out that adolescents with behavioural problems have difficulties in making and maintaining social contacts and friendships. While in previous studies behaviour was investigated as dichotomous variable, this study chose a dimensional, person-centered approach to identify adolescents with heterogeneous behaviour. Therefore, this paper aims at analysing effects of social inter- actions at school on emotional experiences of adolescents with heterogeneous behavioural profiles. In addition, a potential moderating effect of the classroom environment regarding behaviour will be tested. The sample comprised N = 719 students of grade five and six. Data were collected using the experience sampling method. In detail, the students completed a short questionnaire concerning their momentary emo- tional experience and their social context two to three times a day on five consecutive days at school. Thus, 8870 snapshots of the adolescents' emotional experiences and situations in class were available. Using teacher ratings regarding the students' behaviour, latent profile analyses were calculated and three different profiles within the sample were identified: students with adaptive, with internalising and with externalising behaviour. Findings of multilevel structural equation models show, first, that students are more motivated and less stressed while interacting with others during lessons (e.g. in partner or group activities) compared to individual working situations. This effect is more pronounced for students with internalising and externalising behavioural profiles. Second, the small differential moderating, but not significant effects indi- cate that the relation between adolescents' emotional experiences and peer interactions is not moderated by the classroom environment regarding prosocial or problem behaviour. The results will be discussed from methodological and content-related perspectives.