Emotional disturbance and social position within the non-graded classroom
✍ Scribed by Bruce Thomas Saunders
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1970
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 232 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0033-3085
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
University of Maine
PROBLEM
The literature in the area of social acceptance and emotional disturbance typically has not been considered in the development of programs for the emotionally disturbed public school child. Vacc (1968) suggested that "The theoretical research on peer acceptance should be considered in the preparations and evaluations of programs for the emotionally handicapped [p. 1981." In reviewing the literature on sociometry and mental health, Glidewell et al. (1966) concluded "Position in the classroom social structure is significantly related to mental health [p. 2451." Similarly, McCandless et al. (1956) reported the relationship between scores on the Children's Form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale and sociometric status to be significantly negative; that is, more anxious children were found to be less popular.
Horowitz (1962) administered the Children's Form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale, the Children's Self-Concept Scale, and an informal sociometric to 111 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children and reported a significant positive relationship between anxiety and social rejection within the sample studied.
Trent (1957) studied the relationship between social status and anxiety within a population of institutionalized delinquent boys and reported that more anxious boys tended to be rejected by their peers, while less anxious boys tended to be accepted by their peers.
Bonney (1943), in investigating some of the factors related to social acceptance, discovered that children are more accepted for what they do and what they are rather than for what they refrain from doing. Bonney also emphasized that positive values and traits are emphasized more strongly than negative values and traits. In a later study, Bonney (1955) reported a high relationship between pupil status and verbal behavior. In the same study, Bonney confirmed his earlier findings (Bonney, 1943) and reported that high peer status is related more to possession of positive traits than to absence of negative traits. Further, highly accepted children show considerably better personality balance than do highly rejected children. Apparently, children value social-emotional values and properties quite highly both in themselves and in other children (Gold, 1958).
In the most recent study concerning the relationship between emotional disturbance and social factors within the classroom, Vacc (1968) reported that (1) the percentage of stars was greatest among the normal group; (2) the percentage of rejectees was greatest among the emotionally disturbed group; and (3) the percentage of isolates was also greatest among the emotionally disturbed group. Vacc's study is consistent with previous findings, namely, that mental health and emotional stability are significantly and positively related to peer status within the classroom; children who are emotionally disturbed are also socially rejected.
Generally, previous research relating social status and emotional disturbance has been directed toward the self-contained classroom. Deitrich (1964) report,ed,