Sociometric status

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Sociometric status is a measurement that reflects the degree to which someone is liked or disliked by their peers as a group. While there are some studies that have looked at sociometric status among adults, the measure is primarily used with children and adolescents to make inferences about peer relations and social competence. [1] [2]

Contents

Developmental psychology

In developmental psychology, this system has been used to examine children's status in peer groups, its stability over time, the characteristics that determine it, and the long-term implications of one's popularity or rejection by peers.

The methodology

Generally, sociometric status is assessed through asking peers to rate an individual's status in the peer group. Two of the most widely used methods that are used for this are peer nomination and peer ratings. [3] [4] The peer ratings method asks the participants to assess, in numerical terms, how much they like the other peers in the group. [3] The sociometric status is then calculated by taking an average of the ratings. The peer nomination technique, on the other hand, asks children to choose who they like and dislike most from the group. Then, the liked-most and liked-least ratings are interpreted to categorize children into sociometric variables. At first, researchers used only 2 categories: accepted and rejected children. [5] [6] However, Coie, Dodge and Coppotelli (1982) argued that such grouping doesn't capture the true complexity of sociometric status, as it fails to distinguish between two low-status groups – actively rejected children and socially neglected ones. [5] [6] They proposed that children be classified into 5 groups:

While peer ratings/nominations are the most commonly used method to assess sociometric status, they are often accompanied by teacher assessment, observations, or even self-assessment. [7]

Descriptions of specific sociometric groups

Popular children tend to display higher social skills than other groups, and they are often described as cooperators or leaders. [6] They can easily think of effective ways to start interactions or resolve conflicts with their peers, and they can recognise other people's emotions better. [8] [9] Most studies find that they display less aggressive and disruptive behaviours than rejected or controversial children, but it has been suggested that this isn't an inherent characteristic. Some popular children have aggressive or antisocial traits but are still liked or even looked up to. [10]

Rejected children

Rejected children score worse on social competence than popular children. While they approach their peers just as much, or even more than popular ones, their initiations of contact are usually turned down. [5] Most studies show that they display more aggressive behaviours than other groups of children, and they tend to have lower communicative skills. [5] [11] They also perform worse academically, struggling to stay focused on their assigned academic tasks. [5] Lastly, rejected children experience higher rates of anxiety and depression than other sociometric groups. [11] [12]

Neglected children

Neglected children are generally the least prosocial group, frequently described as shy. [5] Because of this, they aren't particularly liked nor disliked by their peers. However, this doesn't translate into them being more lonely than average children. [13] Furthermore, despite their low social skills, they manage to outperform others in academic achievements, having higher levels of motivation and independence. [14]

Controversial children

Controversial children, combining characteristics of popular and rejected profiles, are very liked by some peers, but actively disliked by others. They are visible, active, assertive, and extremely sociable, often perceived as leaders. [6] At the same time, they are frequently described as aggressive and disruptive (mostly boys) or arrogant (mostly girls). [7] The evidence behind their academic performance is inconclusive – some studies describe them as “slow at school”, [6] while others assess their performance as good. [7]

Stability of sociometric status

Whether the sociometric status stays stable across time is important because it indicates the stability of actual peer relations and liking/disliking mechanisms in a group.

As a recent meta-analysis study found, the stability of sociometric status depends on age, gender, the interval between measuring times, and the publication year of the study. [4]

The older the children, the more solidified the structure in their peer group, and so, the more stable their sociometric ratings. [4] Bukowski and Newcomb (1985) found that sociometric status remained stable in school-aged children even when there were changes in the size and composition of the group due to transitioning from elementary to middle school. [15] Preschool children, on the other hand, tend to be more unreliable in their results, especially when using the peer nominations technique. [4] [16] However, when the rating-scale measure is used, the stability improves; though, this may only be a result of a statistical artifact. [4] [16]

When it comes to gender, a larger proportion of boys in the group is correlated with lower stability, but the exact mechanism for this association is unknown. [4]

Stability also decreases as the interval between measuring points increases. [4]

Lastly, as the publication year increases, the children's liking preferences become less stable, while their disliking patterns become more stable, at least in the US. [4] A possible explanation of this phenomenon is that over the recent decades, there has been an increase in anxiety levels of American children. It may be that as the children become more anxious over time, they start focusing on who they dislike more than who they like. [4]

Long-term implications

Whether the emotional or behavioural consequences of a child's sociometric status follow the child into adolescence or even adulthood is a question of great importance.

As it turns out, the children's aggressive tendencies can translate into their later life, as both rejected and controversial boys (the most aggressive groups) have a higher chance of committing violent or non-violent offendings in adolescence. [6] [17] Notably, this does not seem to be the pattern for aggressive girls. [17]

Furthermore, the symptoms of anxiety and depression that rejected children often face can be prolonged into the future, as it has been found that socially isolated children have a greater risk of developing mental health problems in adolescence or adulthood. [18] [19] It is argued that it is not only that peer rejection plays a role in eliciting depression, but depressive symptoms can also lead to rejection. [20]

It seems, therefore, that social acceptance plays a vital role in one's social and emotional adaptation. Low social status children may lack the opportunity to develop their social skills, which leads to them being even more isolated in future interactions, and this positive feedback loop is difficult to break. [21] Hence, social skills training programs are often implemented to help children to adapt to their social environments and prevent these future consequences. The sociometric status is an especially useful measure there, as it is used to both identify the children in need, and assess the effectiveness of those programs. [5] [21]

Positive psychology

While socioeconomic measures of status do not correspond to greater happiness, measures of sociometric status (status compared to people encountered face-to-face on a daily basis) do correlate to increased subjective well-being, above and beyond the effects of extroversion and other factors. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popularity</span> Concept in sociology

In sociology, popularity is how much a person, idea, place, item or other concept is either liked or accorded status by other people. Liking can be due to reciprocal liking, interpersonal attraction, and similar factors. Social status can be due to dominance, superiority, and similar factors. For example, a kind person may be considered likable and therefore more popular than another person, and a wealthy person may be considered superior and therefore more popular than another person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peer group</span> Primary group of people with similar interests, age, background, or social status

In sociology, a peer group is both a social group and a primary group of people who have similar interests (homophily), age, background, or social status. The members of this group are likely to influence the person's beliefs and behaviour.

In the psychology of self, one's self-concept is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to the question "Who am I?".

Adolescent cliques are cliques that develop amongst adolescents. In the social sciences, the word "clique" is used to describe a group of 3 to 12 "who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting". Cliques are distinguished from "crowds" in that their members socially interact with one another more than the typical crowd. Crowds, on the other hand, are defined by reputation. Although the word 'clique' or 'cliquey' is often used in day-to-day conversation to describe relational aggression or snarky, gossipy behaviors of groups of socially dominant teenage girls, that is not always accurate. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and in educational settings, they can exist in all age groups and settings.

Relational aggression, alternative aggression, or relational bullying is a type of aggression in which harm is caused by damaging someone's relationships or social status.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social rejection</span> Deliberate exclusion of an individual from social relationship or social interaction

Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes interpersonal rejection, romantic rejection and familial estrangement. A person can be rejected or shunned by individuals or an entire group of people. Furthermore, rejection can be either active, by bullying, teasing, or ridiculing, or passive, by ignoring a person, or giving the "silent treatment". The experience of being rejected is subjective for the recipient, and it can be perceived when it is not actually present. The word "ostracism" is also commonly used to denote a process of social exclusion.

Social inhibition is a conscious or subconscious avoidance of a situation or social interaction. With a high level of social inhibition, situations are avoided because of the possibility of others disapproving of their feelings or expressions. Social inhibition is related to behavior, appearance, social interactions, or a subject matter for discussion. Related processes that deal with social inhibition are social evaluation concerns, anxiety in social interaction, social avoidance, and withdrawal. Also related are components such as cognitive brain patterns, anxious apprehension during social interactions, and internalizing problems. It also describes those who suppress anger, restrict social behavior, withdraw in the face of novelty, and have a long latency to interact with strangers. Individuals can also have a low level of social inhibition, but certain situations may generally cause people to be more or less inhibited. Social inhibition can sometimes be reduced by the short-term use of drugs including alcohol or benzodiazepines. Major signs of social inhibition in children are cessation of play, long latencies to approaching the unfamiliar person, signs of fear and negative affect, and security seeking. Also in high level cases of social inhibition, other social disorders can emerge through development, such as social anxiety disorder and social phobia.

Agreeableness is a personality trait that manifests as behavior that is perceived as kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm, frank, and considerate. In contemporary personality psychology, agreeableness is one of the five major dimensions of personality structure, reflecting individual differences in cooperation and social harmony.

Sibling abuse includes the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. More often than not, the younger sibling is abused by the older sibling. Sibling abuse is the most common of family violence in the US, but the least reported. As opposed to sibling rivalry, sibling abuse is characterized by the one-sided treatment of one sibling to another.

The behavioral analysis of child development originates from John B. Watson's behaviorism.

Unpopularity is the opposite of popularity. Therefore, it is the quality of lacking acceptance or approval by one's peers or society as a whole.

Victimization refers to a person being made into a victim by someone else and can take on psychological as well as physical forms, both of which are damaging to victims. Forms of victimization include bullying or peer victimization, physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, robbery, and assault. Some of these forms of victimization are commonly associated with certain populations, but they can happen to others as well. For example, bullying or peer victimization is most commonly studied in children and adolescents but also takes place between adults. Although anyone may be victimized, particular groups may be more susceptible to certain types of victimization and as a result to the symptoms and consequences that follow. Individuals respond to victimization in a wide variety of ways, so noticeable symptoms of victimization will vary from person to person. These symptoms may take on several different forms, be associated with specific forms of victimization, and be moderated by individual characteristics of the victim and/or experiences after victimization.

Social competence consists of social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral skills needed for successful social adaptation. Social competence also reflects having the ability to take another's perspective concerning a situation, learn from past experiences, and apply that learning to the changes in social interactions.

Role-taking theory is the social-psychological concept that one of the most important factors in facilitating social cognition in children is the growing ability to understand others’ feelings and perspectives, an ability that emerges as a result of general cognitive growth. Part of this process requires that children come to realize that others’ views may differ from their own. Role-taking ability involves understanding the cognitive and affective aspects of another person's point of view, and differs from perceptual perspective taking, which is the ability to recognize another person's visual point of view of the environment. Furthermore, albeit some mixed evidence on the issue, role taking and perceptual perspective taking seem to be functionally and developmentally independent of each other.

Nicki Rae Crick was a psychologist and professor of child development and family studies known internationally for her research on relational aggression, defined as the use of relationships as agents of harm. At the time of her death, she held the position of Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychology at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota.

Debra Pepler is a Canadian psychologist known for her research and advocacy within the field of childhood aggression and bullying. She is currently a distinguished research professor at York University in Toronto, Ontario.

Deborah M. Capaldi is a developmental psychologist known for her research on at-risk male youth and the intergenerational transmission of substance use, antisocial behavior, intimate partner violence, and child abuse. She is a senior scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Her current projects focus on child exposure to family violence and parenting practices of at-risk parents.

Social emotional development represents a specific domain of child development. It is a gradual, integrative process through which children acquire the capacity to understand, experience, express, and manage emotions and to develop meaningful relationships with others. As such, social emotional development encompasses a large range of skills and constructs, including, but not limited to: self-awareness, joint attention, play, theory of mind, self-esteem, emotion regulation, friendships, and identity development.

Mary Louise Northway was a Canadian psychologist, recognized for her work in the area of sociometry. She was a faculty member at the University of Toronto.

Daniel Messinger is an American interdisciplinary developmental psychologist, and academic. His research works span the field of developmental psychology with a focus on emotional and social development of children and infants, and the interactive behavior of children in preschool inclusive classroom.

References

  1. ↑ Eronen, S., & Nurmi, J. (2001). Sociometric status of young adults: Behavioural correlates, And cognitive-motivational antecedents and consequences. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25(3), 203–213. doi : 10.1080/01650250042000212
  2. ↑ Bot, S. M., Engels, R. C., Knibbe, R. A., & Meeus, W. H. (2007). Sociometric status and Social drinking: Observations of modelling and persuasion in young adult peer groups. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35(6), 929–941. doi : 10.1007/s10802-007-9144-1
  3. 1 2 Terry, R., & Coie, J. D. (1991). A comparison of methods for defining sociometric status among children. Developmental Psychology, 27(5), 867–880. doi : 10.1037/0012-1649.27.5.867
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Jiang, X. L., & Cillessen, A. H. (2005). Stability of continuous measures of sociometric status: A meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 25(1), 1–25. doi : 10.1016/j.dr.2004.08.008
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dodge, K. A., Coie, J. D., & Brakke, N. P. (1982). Behavior patterns of socially rejected and neglected preadolescents: The roles of social approach and aggression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 10(3), 389–409. doi : 10.1007/bf00912329
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A., & Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18(4), 557–570. doi : 10.1037/0012-1649.18.4.557
  7. 1 2 3 Hatzichristou, C., & Hopf, D. (1996). A Multiperspective comparison of Peer Sociometric status groups in childhood and adolescence. Child Development, 67(3), 1085. doi : 10.2307/1131881
  8. ↑ Richard, B. A., & Dodge, K. A. (1982). Social maladjustment and problem solving in school-aged children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50(2), 226–233. doi : 10.1037/0022-006x.50.2.226
  9. ↑ Edwards, R., Manstead, A. S., & Macdonald, C. J. (1984). The relationship between children's sociometric status and ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. European Journal of Social Psychology, 14(2), 235–238. doi : 10.1002/ejsp.2420140212
  10. ↑ Rodkin, P. C., Farmer, T. W., Pearl, R., & Van Acker, R. (2000). Heterogeneity of popular boys: Antisocial and prosocial configurations. Developmental Psychology, 36(1), 14–24. doi : 10.1037/0012-1649.36.1.14
  11. 1 2 Van der Wilt, F., Van der Veen, C., Van Kruistum, C., & Van Oers, B. (2019). Why do children Become rejected by their peers? A review of studies into the relationship between Oral communicative competence and Sociometric status in childhood. Educational Psychology Review, 31(3), 699–724. doi : 10.1007/s10648-019-09479-z
  12. ↑ Reijntjes, A., Kamphuis, J. H., Prinzie, P., & Telch, M. J. (2010). Peer victimization and internalizing problems in children: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34(4), 244–252. doi : 10.1016/j.chiabu.2009.07.009
  13. ↑ Cassidy, J., & Asher, S. R. (1992). Loneliness and peer relations in young children. Child Development, 63(2), 350. doi : 10.2307/1131484
  14. ↑ Wentzel, K. R., & Asher, S. R. (1995). The academic lives of neglected, rejected, popular, and controversial children. Child Development, 66(3), 754. doi : 10.2307/1131948
  15. ↑ Bukowski, W. M., & Newcomb, A. F. (1984). Stability and determinants of sociometric status and friendship choice: A longitudinal perspective. Developmental Psychology, 20(5), 941–952. doi : 10.1037/0012-1649.20.5.941
  16. 1 2 Asher, S. R., Singleton, L. C., Tinsley, B. R., & Hymel, S. (1979). A reliable sociometric measure for preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 15(4), 443–444. doi : 10.1037/0012-1649.15.4.443
  17. 1 2 Broidy, L. M., Nagin, D. S., Tremblay, R. E., Bates, J. E., Brame, B., Dodge, K. A., Vitaro, F. (2003). Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and Adolescent delinquency: A six-site, cross-national study. Developmental Psychology, 39(2), 222–245. doi : 10.1037/0012-1649.39.2.222
  18. ↑ Prinstein, M. J., & La Greca, A. M. (2004). Childhood peer rejection and aggression as predictors of adolescent girls' externalizing and health risk behaviors: A 6-Year longitudinal study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72(1), 103–112. doi : 10.1037/0022-006x.72.1.103
  19. ↑ Prinstein, M. J., & Aikins, J. W. (2004). Cognitive moderators of the longitudinal association between peer rejection and adolescent depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32(2), 147–158. doi : 10.1023/b:jacp.0000019767.55592.63
  20. ↑ Platt, B., Kadosh, K. C., & Lau, J. Y. (2013). The role of peer rejection in adolescent depression. Depression and Anxiety, 30(9), 809–821. doi : 10.1002/da.22120
  21. 1 2 Oden, S., & Asher, S. R. (1977). Coaching children in social skills for friendship making. Child Development, 48(2), 495. doi : 10.2307/1128645
  22. ↑ Anderson, C.; Kraus, M. W.; Galinsky, A. D.; Keltner, D. (31 May 2012). "The Local-Ladder Effect: Social Status and Subjective Well-Being". Psychological Science. 23 (7): 764–771. doi:10.1177/0956797611434537. PMID   22653798. S2CID   8406753.
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