SOCIAL INTERACTION BEHAVIORS IN CHILDREN'S PLAY GROUPS (SOCIAL SKILLS, SOCIOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS)

JUDITH ANN DYGDON, Purdue University

Abstract

This project studied the relationship between children's participation in behaviors other children identified as important to social acceptance, rejection, and neglect, and their scores on peer-based social status assessments. Thirty-six first, second, and third grade children participated in play groups run for the purposes of this study. Children were assigned to groups such that no child had had significant prior contact with any other child in his/her group. Play groups were structured to provide a variety of opportunities for social contact and group sessions were videotaped to allow for the later collection of observational data. The predictability of these observational data for three classes of social status scores (direct nominations to accepted, rejected, and isolated dimensions; social preference and social impact scores derived from accepted and rejected nominations; and favored workmate and favored playmate ratings) was tested. Results indicate that direct acceptance nominations are not predictable by observations on the set of behaviors selected for study in the project. Rejection nominations are predicted by: (1) non-compliance with the teacher in structured situations; (2) physical aggression in free play situations; and (3) physical aggression and off-task behavior with an absence of rough play or non-normative behaviors when structured and free situations were studied together. Isolation nominations are predicted by: (1) being alone and uninvolved, engaging in solitary play, onlooking behaviors, and inattentiveness to the teacher's speech in the free time situation; and (2) being alone and uninvolved and engaged in solitary play, inattentiveness to peer and teacher speech, and non-normative behaviors but with little to no off-task behavior or absence from the group when free and structured time situations are considered together. Beyond these findings for direct nominations, results indicate that members of the derived scores and ratings classes are somewhat redundant with one another and not as clearly predictable as rejection and isolation scores. Implications for children's social behavior assessment and intervention are discussed.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Psychotherapy

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