Despite its omnipresence, quantitative research examining both the nature and the function of adolescent gossip has been limited. The present study aimed to address this limitation in the literature by examining the nature and function of adolescent gossip; in particular, it aimed to explore observed differences between the gossip of those popular…

This paper aims to shed light on the level of social acceptance among students with learning disabilities (LD) in various secondary school vocational programs in comparison with their peers without disabilities. Our findings are based on an empirical study that comprised 417 students, of whom 85 were students with LD. Based on sociometric analyses…

Children's peer relationships are frequently assessed with peer nominations. An important methodological issue is whether to collect unlimited or limited nominations. Some researchers have argued that the psychometric differences between both methods are negligible, while others have claimed that one is superior over the other. The current study…

Research Findings: Two forms of exercise play (toy mediated and non-mediated) and 2 forms of rough-and-tumble (R&T) play (chase and fighting) were examined in relation to preschoolers' peer competence. A total of 148 preschoolers (78 boys, 89 Euro-Americans) were observed during free play at their university-sponsored child care center. The…

The number of pupils with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) attending mainstream schools is increasing, but there is evidence that their needs may not be fully met. Previous research has suggested that such pupils are at an increased risk of social exclusion. In light of this, the aim of the current study was to examine the sociometric status,…

This study compared the effects of social intelligence and cognitive intelligence, as measured by academic achievement, on adolescent popularity in two school contexts. A distinction was made between sociometric popularity, a measure of acceptance, and perceived popularity, a measure of social dominance. Participants were 512, 14-15 year-old…

Examined relations between children's and their friends' perceptions of friendship features as a function of children's sociometric status. Found rejected children's perceptions showed considerably lower correlations with friends' perceptions than did average and popular children's perceptions; rejected children's friends perceived their…

A modern clustering technique was applied to age-10 and age-13 sociometric data with the purpose of identifying longitudinally stable peer status clusters. The study included 445 girls from a Swedish longitudinal study. The identified temporally stable clusters of rejected, popular, and average girls were essentially larger than corresponding…

Examined cross-informant concordance, temporal stability, and reliability of sociometrics in 84 preschoolers. Found that parallel forms of teacher and peer sociometrics measured overlapping and unique aspects of popularity. Teacher-measured popularity was highly stable over 8 weeks; peer-measured popularity showed lower stability. Both teacher and…

This study analyzed what kind of role sociometric status has in non-real time computer conversations. Computer-supported conversations were investigated by using two local area networks. Participants were 52 9 to 10-year-old schoolchildren selected from three sociometric strata: rejected, average, and popular. Children's preferred friends, school…

The authors' goals in the study were to investigate the possible gains made by including multiple assessments of status in the prediction of change in psychosocial adjustment and to compare the effectiveness of continuous and categorical measures of peer status in predicting adjustment. The authors obtained continuous and categorical measures of…

This study compared the sociometric status of boys and girls and investigated the role of various social behaviors in determining the peer status of boys and girls. Participants were 835 fourth graders from eight elementary schools serving a lower- to lower middle-class population. An unlimited nominations procedure was used in the fall and…

The dyadic interaction of popular and unpopular children was compared. Analysis revealed that unpopular children were more disagreeable and less likely to provide a general reason or rule for their disagreement or to suggest a constructive alternative when criticizing a peer. (Author/MP)

Social perceptual skill deficit theory was used to explain low peer acceptance of 30 children with learning disabilities (LD) as well as measure the quality of tests measuring social perception. Results showed LD children getting both lower peer acceptance and social perception scores with some variations a function of task. (Author/PB)

Compared sociometric ratings, friendship nominations, and social behavior nominations of mutual friends to peer-nominated aggression for third- through six-graders. Found that aggression was negatively related to friendship and passive/solitary behavior nominations. Indicated that peers may support gender-normative aggression while rejecting…