Research Findings: Traditional peer sociometric nominations, even at early ages, are not replaceable by teachers' classifications of children's sociometric popularity. The association between reports from the two sources, although not independent, was weak, with teachers perceiving more children as popular and fewer children as rejected. Teacher…

Sociometric-oriented approaches have been applied the last years in numerous cases and domains, targeting at the improvement of social groups' characteristics for achieving personal and team-based objectives. Considering the existing approaches and the published results, in the current study, a set of emotional intervention activities based on a…

Being physically active and doing sports in adolescence is significant during regular education, as well as in free time. It contributes the most to socialization, development of cooperation and a healthy competitive spirit. The aim of this research is to determine the existence of a mutual connection between social status of adolescents and sport…

Objective: Social and academic functioning are linked in elementary school, and both are frequently impaired in children with elevated symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study evaluated the Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC) program, a classroom intervention to support children's social and…

Establishing a positive peer climate in elementary school classrooms is an important goal for educators because peer dynamics are thought to affect academic learning. Thus, it is important to: (1) understand the relationship between children's peer dynamics and academic functioning; and (2) identify teacher practices that influence both peer…

This study tested whether and how methods called 'Play Time/Social Time' and 'I Can Problem Solve' contribute to the improvement of social skills and the development of theory of mind (ToM) in children. The participants in the experiment were nearly 200 (N = 196) preschool children with low social functioning, with and without disabilities. The…

Playing with peers is one of the most important contexts for the acquisition of social competencies in early childhood. This study examined the relation between children's play behavior, social acceptance in the peer group, and number of reciprocal friendships. One hundred and twenty eight children, aged between three and five years, participated…

A growing, sizable proportion of school children do not live in conventional family environments. Among these, internationally adopted children have gained increasing visibility in recent years. While other areas of their behavior have been widely explored, little is known about adopted children's social competence and their integration into peer…

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…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating role of child-teacher relationship quality (i.e., closeness, conflict, and dependence) in the association between children's shyness and indices of socio-emotional adjustment and maladjustment. The participants were Italian preschool children (63 boys; 66 girls) and two lead teachers…

The goal of this study was to determine whether peer social competence (SC), defined as the capacity to use behavioral, cognitive, and emotional resources in the service of achieving personal goals within preschool peer groups, was related to the type of affiliative subgroups to which children belonged. Two hundred forty Portuguese preschool…

This study examines the temporal stability (over 3 years) of individual differences in 3 domains relevant to preschool children's social competence: social engagement/motivation, profiles of behavior and personality attributes characteristic of socially competent young children, and peer acceptance. Each domain was measured with multiple…

This study investigated the differences in peer preference, gender and temperamental characteristics of children aged five to six in relation to their social competence (SC) and behavioural adaptation. The data were collected through the use of "Picture Sociometry Scale", "SC and Behaviour Evaluation Scale" and "Short…

This article reports results of an analysis of the relationship of young people in school, and their individual and group attitudes based on sociometric theory. This study adopted a mixed methodological approach with an intervention conducted with 60 youths over 3 years in Portugal and was based on the question "Is sociometry capable of…

A considerable amount of research has examined the link between children's peer acceptance, which refers to the degree of likability within the peer group, social functioning and emotional wellbeing, at a same age and in a long term perspective, pointing out to the contribution of peer acceptance for mental wellbeing. Our study proposes a…