| Previous developmental and clinical research has highlighted the importance of poor peer relationships as a risk factor for later academic, emotional, and psychological dysfunction. Peer acceptance has been found to be associated cross-sectionally with a wide range of social skill, psychological and behavioral characteristics. Recently, researchers have recognized the need to identify the extent to which these characteristics contribute to or result from rejection by peers. The purpose of the current study was to utilize a natural transition during childhood, entrance to first grade; to examine the prediction of emerging social status and peer acceptance by a variety of measures attainable at the onset of the school year.; Participants were 87 children entering first grade at two rural elementary schools in western Oregon. Initial assessments included teacher and parent ratings of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; perceived levels of children's competence and social acceptance; and children's knowledge of strategies to use in initiating peer interactions, maintaining friendships, and resolving conflicts. Peer acceptance measures, completed five months later, included sociometric ratings, nominations, and status group classifications.; Peer sociometric ratings were found to be fairly stable from the initial weeks of first grade to the second assessment period five months later. In addition, results generally indicated that teacher and parent reports of child behavior were associated with later peer acceptance measures. Parent ratings of attentional difficulties were particularly useful in predicting later peer relations above and beyond initial peer ratings of acceptance. Results also suggested that although children who will be rejected may not possess global deficits in social knowledge, specific biases, especially in how to handle conflict with peers, may in fact contribute to a lack of acceptance. Surprisingly, child and parent perceptions of children's competence at academic and physical tasks were not related to any sociometric measures. |
