Inadequate Social Acceptance and Disruptive Classroom Behavior

Abstract

A REVIEW of selected literature has indicated that: (1) Children of high social acceptance tend to possess desirable, positive personality charac teristics while those of low social acceptance tend to lack them.1'2?3?4 (2) Children of high social ac ceptance tend to actively participate and coop erate socially, with a tendency to conform, while those of low social acceptance do not.5? 6?7 (3) Children of low social acceptance tend to display undesirable characteristics, such as showing-off, annoying others, restlessness, feelings of inferi ority, nervousness, and emotional instability.8?9?10 With initial support drawn from the latter find ings, this investigation proposed to test the fol lowing hypothesis: Children socially unaccept able to their classmates tend to manifest poor behavior in the classroom characterized by dis ruptive, attention-seeking actions. Poor behavior was considered behavior incompatible with and undesirable in the best interest of the educa tional success and effective operation of a class. The investigation involved nine fifth and sixth grade classes, generally achieving below grade level, in a low socio-economic urban community. The incidence of children presenting classroom behavior problems was relatively high.