The social acceptance of the behaviorally disturbed foster boy in his classroom group

Abstract

A social reputation instrument, “The Class Play”, was refined for use in a three year longitudinal study of the social adjustment of a small group of behaviorally disturbed foster boys to their classroom group. A “median negative” and “median positive” child was selected from each classroom and t tests for paired observations computed. The results suggest that the subjects are both negatively and positively perceived, experiencing high visibility. The validity of the instrument is discussed.