Validity of Teacher Nomination in Identifying Aggressive, Withdrawn, and Popular Children

Abstract

Sought to examine the validity of a teacher-nomination procedure for identifying "at risk" children. Specifically, teachers nominated 152 children as popular (n = 49), aggressive (n = 60), or socially withdrawn (n = 43); these were drawn from a total of 780 children enrolled in regular fourth-grade classes. Self-report, peer sociometric nominations and ratings, and behavioral observation measures were collected. Results indicated that the nominated aggressive and withdrawn children differed significantly from the nominated popular children on most of the measures. Further, the aggressive children differed significantly from the withdrawn children on several conceptually relevant dimensions. Finally, discriminant-function analyses revealed reasonably accurate classifications of all the children. Results are discussed in terms of the cost-effective use of this nomination procedure.