ABSTRACT
The peer relationships of students with and at risk for emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) are discussed from a person-in-context perspective in which the focus is on understanding and promoting classroom contexts to elicit, reframe, and maintain more adaptive behaviors, roles, and relationships for all students, rather than fixing the competencies of students with or at risk for EBD. Core aspects of this perspective are that classroom social dynamics include peer ecologies and peer cultures that are both shaped by and influence the behaviors, roles, and relationships of students with and at risk for EBD. Aspects of classroom social dynamics function as setting events that influence how students respond to daily classroom interactions. A key concept is that teachers maintain an invisible hand that guides the peer ecologies and cultures that develop in their classrooms. Recognizing leverage points within classroom social dynamics enables teachers to use social dynamics as setting events to reorganize and realign support for healthy peer ecologies and cultures for all students. Universal and targeted interventions are reviewed, which teachers can implement to promote positive social trajectories for students with and at risk for EBD across K–12 schooling experiences.
