A multimethod comparison of popular and unpopular children.

Abstract

Children who have peer relationship problems have numerous adjustment difficulties in later life. This study compared popular and unpopular children in a multimethod comparison procedure to identify differences between these two populations. Children were identified as being in popular and unpopular groups by two sociometric instruments. Subsequently, differences between the two groups were assessed by teacher reports, classroom observations, an achievement test, and ratings on role-play situations. In addition, experimenters conducted interviews in which knowledge of social skills, responses to hypothetical situations, and a depression self-report measure were collected. Unpopular children were perceived as being more unpopular, depressed, and deviant by teachers than were popular children. Classroom observations indicated that unpopular children spent significantly less time on-task than popular children and engaged in significantly more negative interactions. There was a trend for popular children to perform at a higher academic level than unpopular children, and the latter children were more depressed than children in the former group. No differences were found on measures of knowledge of socially appropriate behavior or in ability to respond appropriately to hypothetical social situations. Similarly, there were no differences in the responses of the two groups in the role-play situations.

Perception of emotions by accepted and rejected children

“…Most research focusing on social competence of children has examined behavioral differences among children who vary on their sociometric status (e.g., Vosk et al, 1982). The identification of differences in social perception abilities indicates that simply teaching socially deficit children appropriate behavior will not be sufficient (Morrison and Bellack, 1981).…”

Resilience is not a unidimensional construct: Insights from a prospective study of inner-city adolescents

“…For example, research has shown that as compared to children low on peer popularity, popular children show less variability across different adjustment domains. As a group, these children have been found to be less diverse in their ratings on measures of teacherrated and self-rated depression, conduct problems, and negative interactions with peers (Vosk, Forehand, Parker, & Rickard, 1982). Thus, it is possible that resilient teenagers do, in fact, show relatively high stability across adjustment domains and that the low interdomain correlations previously achieved with overall samples arise from high variability among the "average" or nonresilient children.…”

A contextual approach to the assessment of social skills: Identifying meaningful behaviors for social competence

“…Children who lack important social skills often are rejected by their peers, have trouble interacting with their teachers and families, and have emotional diffi culties (Coie & Dodge, 1988;Dodge, 1983;Parker & Asher, 1987;Vosk, Forehand, Parker, & Rickard, 1982). Furthermore, social skills defi cits are frequently associated with children exhibiting externalizing disorders such as delinquency and conduct disorder, as well as those with internalizing disorders like depression and anxiety (Mash & Barkley, 1996).…”