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From: Why Do Children Become Rejected by Their Peers? A Review of Studies into the Relationship Between Oral Communicative Competence and Sociometric Status in Childhood
van der Wilt et al. (2016)/The Netherlands | To examine gender differences in the relation between oral communicative competence and peer rejection | Nijmegen Test for Pragmatics, assessing productive pragmatic skills individually in a standardized manner | N = 54 children (age range 3.83 to 6.25 years); correlation analyses; cross-sectional design | Oral communicative competence was associated with peer acceptance (although only for boys), but not with peer rejection. |
Peer nomination procedure: amount of received positive nominations indicated acceptance; amount of received negative nominations indicated rejection | ||||
van der Wilt et al. (2018a)/The Netherlands | To examine the relation between oral communicative competence and peer rejection, as well as gender differences in this relation | Nijmegen Test for Pragmatics, assessing productive pragmatic skills individually in a standardized manner | N = 447 children (age range 3.83 to 6.50 years); multiple regression analyses; cross-sectional design | After controlling for gender, age, and SES, oral communicative competence accounted for unique variance: children with poorer oral communicative competence experienced higher levels of peer rejection. |
Peer nomination procedure: amount of received negative nominations minus amount of received positive nominations indicated level of peer rejection | ||||
van der Wilt et al. (2018b)/The Netherlands | To examine whether children who differed in their sociometric status also differed in their level of oral communicative competence | Nijmegen Test for Pragmatics, assessing productive pragmatic skills individually in a standardized manner | N = 570 children (age range 3.99 to 7.08 years); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Children who were rejected or neglected by their peers exhibited lower levels of oral communicative competence than average children; popular and controversial children did not differ from average children in their level of oral communicative competence. |
Peer nomination procedure resulting in five groups: (1) popular, (2) rejected, (3) neglected, (4) controversial, and (5) average | ||||
Bierman and Furman (1984)/USA | To examine the effects of conversational skills training and peer involvement on the peer acceptance of disliked children | Observations of peer interactions and a written questionnaire measuring different aspects of communication | N = 56 children (fifth- and sixth graders); comparative analyses; quasi-experimental, longitudinal design | Conversational skills training promoted social skill acquisition and increased skillful social interaction in both dyadic and small-group interactions; peer involvement increased peer acceptance |
Rating scale resulting in a measure of peer acceptance | ||||
Black (1992)/USA | To examine the communication strategies that children use to negotiate episodes of social pretend play as a function of social status and sex | Observations of peer interactions in which one child enters the play of others | N = 68 children (age range 3.58 to 5.08 years); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Disliked children used higher proportions of suggestions and demands, were more likely to negotiate pretense in terms of their own activity, and were more likely to reject a theme or role; liked children provided explanations about ongoing play, requested clarifications, and included the ideas of peers in their negotiations. |
Peer nomination procedure resulting in three groups: (1) liked, (2) disliked, and (3) low-impact | ||||
Black and Hazen (1990)/USA | To examine the relation between social communication skills and sociometric status | Observations of peer interactions in which one child enters the play session of two peers he or she did or did not know | N = 66 children (age range 3.50 to 5.33 years); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | With unacquainted peers, disliked children were less responsive to peers and more likely to make irrelevant comments; with acquainted peers, disliked children were also less likely to clearly direct their communication. |
Peer nomination procedure resulting in three groups: (1) liked, (2) disliked, (3) low-impact | ||||
Black and Logan (1995)/USA | To examine links between specific aspects of communication in the family and peer system and children’s sociometric status | Observations of peer interactions in which one child enters the play session of two peers | N = 43 children (age range 2.00 to 5.00 years); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Rejected children demonstrated turn-taking styles that included irrelevant turns, interruptions, simultaneous talking, and non-contingent responding; popular children alternated turns, provided explanations to peers, and were more likely to display coherent discourse |
Teachers provided peer nominations, resulting in four groups: (1) popular, (2) rejected, (3) neglected, and (4) controversial | ||||
Burleson et al. (1992)/USA | To examine four of children’s socio-cognitive skills and three of their communication skills as potential predictors of peer acceptance | Coding of children’s responses to hypothetical situations, resulting in a general communication skill index | N = 51 children (first- and third graders); multiple regression analyses; longitudinal design (year 1 and year 2) | During year 1, persuasive communication predicted social preference; during year 2, persuasive communication and listener-adapted communication predicted social preference |
Peer nomination procedure: amount of received positive nominations minus amount of received negative nominations indicated social preference | ||||
Galejs et al. (1983)/USA | To examine the relation between popularity and communication skills | Dickson’s Notebook Communication Game, assessing listening and describing skills | N = 60 children (age range 3.20 to 6.60 years); correlation analyses; cross-sectional design | A significant and positive correlation was found between popularity and listening skills; a non-significant correlation was found between popularity and describing skills |
Teachers rank-ordered all children from most popular to least popular | ||||
Gottman et al. (1975) / USA | To examine the relations between social skills, social interaction, and popularity | Observations of peer interactions in the classroom | N = 198 children (third- and fourth graders); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | High-friend children received more positive reinforcement compared to low-friend children |
Peer nomination procedure (nominating unlimited amount of friends) resulting in two categories: low-friends children and high-friends children | ||||
Hazen and Black (1989)/USA | To examine the relation between social status and discourse skills | Observations of peer interactions in which one child enters the play session of two peers | N = 48 children (age range 3.58 to 5.50 years); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Liked children were more likely to direct their initiations clearly, speak to both interaction partners, respond contingently to others, acknowledge others, reinitiate when rejecting, and adapt to the differing social demands of different contexts than disliked children |
Peer nomination procedure resulting in three groups: (1) liked, (2) disliked, and (3) low-impact | ||||
Kemple et al. (Kemple et al. 1992)/USA | To examine relations between social status and communication behaviors contributing to cohesive discourse longitudinally | Observations of peer interactions in which one child enters the play session of others | N = 25 children (age range 3.50 to 4.50 years); correlation analyses; longitudinal design (two measurements: year 1 and year 2) | Acceptance of peers’ initiations during play at year 1 predicted social status at year 2; social status at year 1 predicted use of non-directed initiations and non-contingent responding at year 2 |
Peer nomination procedure; amount of received positive nominations indicated acceptance; amount of received negative nominations indicated rejection | ||||
Ladd (1981)/USA | To examine the effect of a social skills training on the behavior and acceptance of low-accepted children | Observations of children’s peer interactions during 30-min free-play periods | N = 36 low-accepted children (third graders); comparative analyses; quasi-experimental, longitudinal design | Trained children spent a significantly greater percentage of tune engagement in two of the three trained skills whereas control group children remained the same or declined; trained children also evidenced significant and lasting gains in classroom peer acceptance |
Rating scale resulting in a selection of low-accepted children | ||||
Markell and Asher (1984)/USA | To examine whether popular and unpopular children differ in their interaction style in a problem-solving situation | Observations of peer interactions during a problem-solving situation | N = 208 children (third- and fourth graders); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Pairs of unpopular and average children showed greater asymmetry in influence and less cohesiveness and comfort than pairs of popular-average children |
Peer nomination procedure and peer rating scale | ||||
Masters and Furman (1981)/USA | To examine the role of specific peer interactions in children’s sociometric status and friendship choices | Observations of peer interactions during free-play periods | N = 94 children (age range 4.00 to 5.00 years); correlation analyses and comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Popularity was associated with receiving and dispensing reinforcing and neutral acts; children’s interactions with disliked peers did not differ from those with peers who were neither liked nor disliked |
Peer nomination procedure; amount of received positive nominations indicates popularity and amount of received negative nominations indicates unpopularity | ||||
Murphy and Faulkner (2000)/UK | To examine whether pairing unpopular children with a popular peer would promote more effective communication | Observations of peer interaction while children were playing a collaborative game | N = 72 children (age range 4.00 to 6.00 years); comparative analyses; quasi-experimental design | Collaboration between popular children and popular peers was more successful and less disputational than collaboration between unpopular children and unpopular peers; unpopular children were more successful when collaborating with popular peers. |
Peer nomination procedure and peer rating scale | ||||
Murphy and Faulkner (2006)/UK | To examine gender differences in communication effectiveness between pairs of popular and unpopular children | Observations of peer interactions while children were playing a game | N = 48 children (age range 5.00 to 7.00 years); comparative analyses; quasi-experimental design | Popular girls used a greater incidence of speech forms associated with successful collaboration than unpopular girls; there was no difference between popular boys and unpopular boys. |
Peer nomination procedure and peer rating scale | ||||
Nærland (2011)/Norway | To examine the relation between social focus and pragmatic skills | Observations of peer interactions during free-play | N = 64 children (age range 0.91 to 5.08 years); correlation analyses and regression analyses; cross-sectional design | Pragmatic skills had an independent contribution to social focus when the variance of age was removed. |
Observations of the amount of positive and neutral contacts children received from their peers | ||||
Nærland and Martinsen (2011)/Norway | To examine the extent to which the social focus children receive from their peers can be explained by aspects of peer interaction | Observations of peer interactions during free-play resulting in a contact score (reflecting the content, manner and social function of the interactions) | N = 64 children (age range 0.92 to 5.08 years); correlation analyses and regression analyses; cross-sectional design | Twelve out of 16 contact categories were significantly correlated with social focus; combined, they predicted children’s social focus to a large extent |
Observations of the amount of positive and neutral contacts children received from their peers | ||||
Nowicki and Oxenford (1989)/USA | To examine the relation between communication styles and popularity | Observations of peer interactions while children were planning a daytrip together | N = 62 children (fifth- and sixth graders); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Compared with popular children, unpopular children had communication styles characterized by non-verbal visual hostility; no differences were found in verbal communication styles between popular and unpopular children. |
Peer nomination procedure: the number of times a child was chosen as most preferred minus the number of times a child was chosen as least preferred indicated popularity | ||||
Place and Becker (1991)/USA | To examine the impact of pragmatic skills on likeability | Audiotapes of a girl using four different pragmatic skills either appropriately or inappropriately in a conversation with a school librarian | N = 91 girls (third- and fourth graders); comparative analyses; experimental design | Children saw the girl of the audiotape as more likeable when she displayed pragmatic competence than when she requested inappropriately, interrupted and failed to maintain the logic of the conversation. |
Rating scale indicating how much children would like to play with the girl of the audiotape | ||||
Putallaz (1983)/USA | To examine the relation between children’s communicative behavior and their sociometric status | Observations of children’s entry behavior in serval game situations | N = 22 boys (first graders); multiple regression analyses; experimental design | The tendency of subjects to fit into the group they entered by contributing to relevant conversation was predictive of their sociometric status (after controlling for intelligence). |
Rating scale indicating how much children liked to play with a target child | ||||
Putallaz and Gottman (1981)/USA | To examine differences between the dyadic interactions of popular versus unpopular children | Videotaped observations of children’s peer interactions while they were playing a game | N = 60 children (second- and third graders); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Unpopular children were more disagreeable and less likely to provide a general reason or rule for their disagreement or to suggest a constructive alternative when criticizing a peer. |
Peer nomination procedure resulting in two groups: popular and unpopular children | ||||
Putallaz and Wasserman (1989)/USA | To examine the relation between children’s entry behavior and sociometric status | Observations of children’s naturalistic entry behavior over a 15-week period | N = 72 children (first- third-, and fifth graders); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Low-status children engaged in more passive entry attempts and less sustained group interaction than high-status children |
Combination of peer nomination procedure (only positive nominations) and rating scale resulting in three groups: high-status child, average-status child, low-status child | ||||
Rabiner and Gordon (1992)/USA | To examine differences between rejected and non-rejected boys in their social interaction strategies | Six short vignettes describing children in potentially conflictual interactions were used and children were asked to respond and tell what social interaction strategies they would use in the social dilemma | N = 58 boys (fourth- and fifth graders); comparative analyses; cross-sectional design | Aggressive rejected boys and residual rejected boys provided less integrated responses than non-rejected boys. |
Peer nomination procedure resulting in three groups: popular, average, and rejected |