Behavioural and emotional strengths of sociometrically popular, rejected, controversial, neglected, and average children

Abstract

Behavioural and Emotional Strengths of Sociometrically Popular, Rejected, Controversial, Neglected, and Average ChildrenMany behavioural and emotional characteristics are associated with children's peer relationships. The purpose of this study is to examine behavioural and emotional strengths of sociometrically popular, rejected, controversial, neglected, and average children. 773 third-grade children (51% girls) are assessed with a sociometric questionnaire and self-evaluations of their behavioural and emotional strengths and difficulties. Teacher evaluations are also used to assess the children's academic competencies and behaviour. Univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to analyse the data. Results indicate that children in the popular status group assess their behavioural and emotional strengths as being better than children in the rejected status group. The behavioural profile of the controversial status group is similar to that of the rejected status group. Children in the neglected status group differ from other sociometric status groups in some behavioural and emotional strengths. Issues pertaining to gender differences are also discussed.

Internalizing Behavior of Sociometrically Neglected Students in Inclusive Primary Classrooms – A Methodological Issue?

“…This difference also appears as a function of the type of behavior (internalizing vs. externalizing) for social inclusion (Rytioja et al, 2019). The results of the study by Rytioja et al (2019) imply that externalizing problems are most strongly associated with the controversial sociometric status (students both liked and disliked by many peers) followed by the rejected sociometric status (students liked by few and disliked by many peers), while for students with internalizing problems, the opposite is the case. Thus, internalizing problems are most strongly related to the rejected sociometric status, followed by the controversial status.…”

“…As far as the popular sociometric status (students liked by many and disliked by few peers) is concerned, externalizing behavior for this group tends to be higher than internalizing behavior, whereas externalizing and internalizing problems are equally pronounced for sociometrically neglected students (neither liked nor disliked by their peers). Overall, the study by Rytioja et al (2019) shows that internalizing and externalizing problems are related to different qualities of social inclusion (different sociometric groups). However, as research results on the social inclusion of children with internalizing problems are far from clear, especially when the sociometric neglect is used as an indicator of social inclusion, the present study focuses on the group of students with internalizing problems.…”

“…More recent studies show an increased level of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and withdrawal in neglected children (DeRosier and Thomas, 2003;Friedman, 2004;Kaya, 2007;Woodhouse et al, 2012) while other studies show no increased association between sociometric neglect and anxiety or withdrawal (Delgado et al, 2016;García Bacete and Cillessen, 2017). The latest study (Rytioja et al, 2019) shows that rejected children exhibit the strongest internalizing behavior.…”

“…A variety of different sociometric status classification methods is still widely used in research on the social inclusion of children with disabilities and behavioral difficulties (Krull et al, 2014;Avramidis et al, 2017;Garrote, 2017;Rytioja et al, 2019). According to Rubin et al (1989), the diversity of applied sociometric classification rules can be seen as a reason for the equivocal evidence on the behavior of neglected children.…”

“…In many cases, broadband scales of behavior are a subsumption of narrowband scales of behavior (Goodman et al, 2010). In earlier sociometric studies, both broadband (e.g., Rytioja et al, 2019) and narrowband scales of behavior (e.g., Tani and Schneider, 1997) were used to asses internalizing behavior. Studies that examine narrowband dimensions of internalizing problems provide an indication that only certain dimensions of internalizing behavior are related to sociometric neglect (differentiated effects).…”