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Social Competence and Peer Status: The Distinction Between Goals and Strategies

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Peer Relationships and Social Skills in Childhood

Abstract

Sociometric status in the peer group is a fairly stable phenomenon (Asher, Singleton, Tinsley, & Hymel, 1979; Roff, Sells, & Golden, 1972), and longitudinal research suggests that low status is predictive of later life adjustment (Cowen, Pederson, Babigian, Izzo, & Trost, 1973; Roff et al., 1972; Ullmann, 1957). However, the reasons for poor acceptance by the peer group are not well understood. Several explanations have been advanced since the 1930s to explain why certain children are unpopular. One group of researchers has focused on the characteristics of the group itself and examined how group roles and responsibilities are distributed (Jennings, 1959; Moreno, 1934). From this perspective, unpopular children are those who have been temporarily assigned, either formally or informally, to a marginal group role. In order to assist unpopular children, these researchers suggest that a new group structure be engineering by reassigning roles or creating new responsibilities for marginal group members (Jennings, 1959).

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Authors
  1. Peter D. Renshaw
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  2. Steven R. Asher
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Kenneth H. Rubin  & Hildy S. Ross  & 

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Renshaw, P.D., Asher, S.R. (1982). Social Competence and Peer Status: The Distinction Between Goals and Strategies. In: Rubin, K.H., Ross, H.S. (eds) Peer Relationships and Social Skills in Childhood. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8180-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8180-8_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-8182-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-8180-8

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