Differences Between Non-Aggressive, Rejected Children and Popular Children During Peer Collaboration

Abstract

This study examined the communication of non-aggressive, rejected (NAR) children and popular children during peer interaction. The participants were 80 fifth and sixth graders recruited from a larger sociometric sample (40 boys and 40 girls; 20 NAR children and 60 non-aggressive, popular children). Participants were assigned to 40 same-gender dyads: 20 NAR-Popular dyads and 20 Popular-Popular dyads, and each dyad was asked to collaborate on a social reasoning task. Results showed that when placed in a collaborative context with a popular peer, NAR children displayed a distinct pattern of social goals and self-efficacy, self-focused and disruptive patterns of communication, and emotional responses to the collaborative interaction. Differences between boys and girls were found for communication patterns, and a social status and gender interaction was found for emotional experience.

KEYWORDS:

• children's communication
• peer-collaboration
• peer-nomination
• peer-rejection
• popular children

Acknowledgments

This article is based on the doctoral dissertation of Kimberly A. Crosby, which was completed under the supervision of Gary D. Fireman and James R. Clopton. The other committee members, Joaquin Borrego, Jr., and Steven Richards, provided helpful suggestions and much encouragement. The authors thank April Adkins for her practical assistance; Lisa Coyne, Ioana Fineberg, Sheila Fireman, and Gary Kose for their valuable comments on the manuscript; and these individuals who helped transcribe the audiotapes: Sandy Soenning, Stewart Spendlove, David Keithly, Jacqueline McNeil, and Cleo Mejia.

Notes

Note. ^a These five coding categories and definitions were taken from Jones (2002).

^b The “Asking a question” category from Jones (2002) was divided into two categories in the current study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kimberly A. Crosby

Kimberly A. Crosby is now at the FOCUS Program, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, California.