Social Status Profiles Among First Grade Children

Abstract

The focus of our study is social status among first graders. In particular, we will consider the relationship between acceptance and rejection, and how these are connected to three social behavioral traits: bullying, victimization, and social withdrawal. The data set is from peer nominations of 748 children from 49 classrooms in the southwest of Finland, collected by interviews. A Social Network Analysis technique was used to analyze the data. The results indicated a negative correlation between acceptance and rejection, bullying, and social withdrawal, but did not correlate victimization. Positive correlations, however, were observed between rejection and all social behavioral traits. Based on cluster analysis, the first graders can be divided into Liked Children (N = 447), Popular Bullies (N = 68), Unpopular Bullies (N = 28), Marginalized Children (N = 135) and High Risk Children (N = 21). All Unpopular Bullies and almost all High Risk children were boys. Boys were also nominated more often than girls as Popular Bullies, whilst girls were more often reported as marginalized or as Liked Children.

Keywords:

• social status
• social network analysis
• behavior
• middle childhood