Effectiveness of Motor, Intellectual, and Personality Domains in Predicting Group Status in Disadvantaged High School Pupils

Abstract

Data were collected on 30 variables representing five domains of development from 91 disadvantaged high school pupils with high intelligence. Multiple correlation analyses were performed on the total group as well as each race and sex in an effort to determine if peer group status in these groups could be predicted by the individual fitness, coordination, intellectual, and personality domains, and to determine which of these domains or combinations of domains has the greatest power in predicting peer status. An analysis of the data on the total group indicated that the coordination and personality domains were the most important in the prediction scheme. However, peer status can probably be predicted more economically in terms of testing time from the 6 item coordination domain as compared with the 14 item personality domain. In contrast the multiple correlations between peer acceptance and the fitness and intellectual domains treated separately were nonsignificant. The multiple correlations computed on the negro, white, male, and female subgroups revealed that peer acceptance could be predicted to a greater degree in the negro and female groups than in the male or white students. The coordination and fitness domains were the most important contributors in predicting negro pupils' peer acceptance; whereas, the personality, fitness, and coordination domains were important predictors for female students. Students in this population who scored high in motor performance and needed group identification were likely to be the most popular with their peers.