Previous studies have clearly established that isolated children display less social behaviors than popular ones and that poorly accepted as well as isolated children are at risk for future adjustment problems. These findings prompt the author to predict that children of the various sociometric statuses should display differential rates of social interaction with peers. Predictions were tested by administering during the second term to 99 kindergarten children a sociometric measure and by videotaping each child for 1 hr. during free play. Whether or not the child was in social interaction with peers was subsequently coded at 5-sec. intervals by two observers. Sociometric scores and inter- and intraobserver agreements were high. Popular children were the most socially active, followed by the average, the rejected, and then the neglected children, which confirmed all hypotheses. These results give strong support for the validity of the difference between the neglect and rejected vs the popular and the average children and suggested that such work must include the child's rate of social interaction with peers as a covariable in the analyses to identify differences between statuses.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenK. E.HartJ. S.BuellF. R.HarrisF. R.WolfM. M. (1964) Effect of social reinforcement on isolate behavior of a nursery school child. Child Development, 35, 511–518.
2.
AmidonE. J.HoffmanC. (1965) Can teachers help the socially rejected?Elementary School Journal, 66, 149–154.
3.
BéginG. (in press) Statuts sociométriques et perceptions des pairs à la maternelle. Enfance.
4.
BéginG.MarquisD. (in press) La perception comportementale des pairs en fonction des statuts sociométriques chez des enfants de maternelle. Revue Canadienne de Psycho-Education.
5.
BoivinM.BéginG. (1986) Temporal reliability and validity of three sociometric status assessments with young children. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 18, 167–172.
6.
BonneyM. E. (1955) Social behavior differences between second grade children of high and low sociometric status. Journal of Educational Research, 48, 481–495.
7.
BonneyM. E.PowellJ. (1953) Differences in social behavior between sociometrically high and sociometrically low children. Journal of Educational Research, 46, 481–495.
8.
BuellJ. P.StoddardP.HarrisF. R.BaerD. M. (1968) Collateral social development accompanying reinforcement of outdoor play in children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 167–173.
9.
BukowskiW. M.NewcombA. F. (1984) Stability and determinants of sociometric status and friendship choice: a longitudinal perspective. Developmental Psychology, 20, 941–952.
10.
BukowskiW. M.NewcombA. F. (1985) Variability in peer group perceptions: support for the controversial sociometric classification group. Developmental Psychology, 21, 1032–1038.
11.
CoieJ. D.DodgeK. A. (1983) Continuities and changes in children's social status: a five-year longitudinal study. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 20, 261–282.
12.
CoieJ. D.DodgeK. A.CoppotelliH. (1982) Dimensions and types of social status: a cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 557–570.
13.
CoieJ. D.KupersmidtJ. B. (1983) A behavioral analysis of emerging social status in boy's groups. Child Development, 54, 1400–1416.
14.
CowenE. L.PedersonA.BabijianH.IzzoL. D.TrostP. M. A. (1973) Long-term follow-up of early detected vulnerable children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41, 438–446.
15.
DodgeK. A. (1983) Behavioral antecedents of peer social status. Child Development, 54, 1386–1399.
16.
DodgeK. A. (in press) A social information processing model of social competence in children. In PerlmutterM. (Ed.), Minnesota symposia on child development. Vol. 18. Cognitive perspectives on children's social and behavioral development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
17.
DodgeK. A.RichardsB. A. (1985) Peer perceptions, aggression, and the development of peer relations. In PryorJ. B.HayJ. D. (Eds.), The development of social cognition. New York: Springer-Verlag. Pp. 35–50.
18.
GoldmanJ. A.CorsiniD. A.De UriosteR. (1980) Implications of positive and negative sociometric status for assessing the social competence of young children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1, 209–220.
19.
GottmanJ. (1977a) The effects of a modeling film on social isolation in preschool children: a methodological investigation. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 5, 69–78.
20.
GottmanJ. (1977b) Toward a definition of social isolation in children. Child Development, 48, 513–517.
21.
GottmanJ.GonsoJ.RasmussenB. (1975) Social interaction, social competence, and friendship in children. Child Development, 46, 709–718.
HopsH.GreenwoodC. R. (1981) Social skills deficits. In MashE. J.TerdalL. G. (Eds.), Behavioral assessment of childhood disorders. New York: Guilford Press.
24.
JenningsK. D. (1975) People versus object orientation, social behavior, and intellectual abilities in children. Developmental Psychology, 11, 511–519.
25.
MarshallH. R.McCandlessB. R. (1957) A study in prediction of social behavior of preschool children. Child Development, 28, 149–159.
26.
McCandlessB. R.MarshallH. R. (1957) A picture-sociometric technique for preschool children and its relation to teachersapos; judgments of friendship. Child Development, 28, 138–149.
27.
NewcombA.BukowskiW. N. (1983) Social impact and social preference as determinants of children's peer group status. Developmental Psychology, 19, 856–867.
28.
NorthwayM. (1943) Social relationships among school children: abstracts and interpretations of three studies. Sociometry, 6, 429–433.
29.
O'ConnorR. D. (1969) Modification of social withdrawal through symbolic modeling. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2, 15–22.
30.
O'ConnorR. D. (1972) Relative efficacy of modeling, shaping, and the combined procedures for modification of social withdrawal. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 79, 327–334.
31.
PeeryJ. C. (1979) Popular, amiable, isolated, rejected: a reconceptualization of sociometric status in preschool children. Child Development, 50, 1231–1234.
32.
PritchardM.GrahamP. (1966) An investigation of a group of patients who have attended both the child and adult departments of the same psychiatric hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 603–612.
33.
RobinsL. N. (1968) Deviant children grown up. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.
34.
RobinsL. N. (1972) Follow-up studies of behavior disorders in children. In QuayH. C.WeeryJ. S. (Eds.). Psychopathological disorders of childhood. New York: Wiley. Pp. 415–450.
35.
RoffM.SellsS. B. (1968) Juvenile delinquency in relation to peer acceptance-rejection and sociometric status. Psychology in the Schools, 5, 3–18.
36.
RoffM.SellsS. B.GoldenM. M. (1972) Social adjustment and personality development in children. Minneapolis, MN: univer. of Minnesota Press.
37.
RossD. M.RossS. A.EvansT. A. (1971) The modification of extreme social withdrawal by modeling with guided participation. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2, 273–279.
38.
StrainP. S. (1977) An experimental analysis of peer social initiation on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children: some training and generalization effects. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 5, 445–455.
39.
UllmanC. A. (1957) Teachers, peers and tests as predictors of adjustment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 48, 257–267.
40.
WalkerH. M.HopsH. (1973) The use of group and individual reinforcement contingencies in the modification of social withdrawal. In HammerlynkL. A.HandyL. C.MashE. J. (Eds.), Behavior change: methodology, concepts, and practice. Champaign, IL: Research Press. Pp. 269–307.
41.
WanlassR. L.PrinzR. J. (1982) Methodological issues in conceptualizing and treating childhood social isolation. Psychological Bulletin, 92, 39–55.
42.
WattN. F.LubenskyA. (1976) Childhood roots of schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 363–375.
