Social and social-cognitive correlates of sociometric status in preschool and kindergarten children.

Abstract

Researchers have long suggested that peers play a significant role in children's social, socialcognitive and cognitive growth and development. In this study, the correlates of sociometric status in early childhood were examined. Sociometric popularity was determined for 123 preschoolers and 111 kindergarteners. Each child was then observed during free play for six 10-second time samples, each day, over 30 days for preschoolers and 25 days for kindergarteners. The level of social and cognitive play observed was recorded, as well as the child's conversational partners, the initiator of the activity and the affective quality of each social interchange. Social competence (as rated by teachers) and social problem-solving ability were also assessed. Analyses revealed peer rejection to be consistently related to a agonistic behaviour. Second, unpopular children were observed to engage in less mature forms of play and to interact less with others than were their more popular agemates. In early studies of children's developing competencies, researchers centered generally on the assessment of cognition and intelligence. However, such measures of intellectual competence often bear little relation to children's abilities to deal adequately with their real-world problems, both within and outside of the academic milieu (Putallaz & Gottman, 1981). More recently, the assessment of social competence and its relation to academic and social skills have been subject to scrutiny. One current line of speculation is that children of average or above average intelligence who evidence poor peer relations in the early school years may begin to associate the educational milieu with their social problems. Consequently, their academic performance gradually declines, leading eventually to early school drop-out (Ullman, 1957) and other social and personality difficulties (see Hartup, in press, for a detailed presentation of this position). At the University of Waterloo, we have been concerned with children who experience difficulties in their relationships with peers. Rubin and his colleagues have examined the concurrent and predictive correlates of

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