Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-103). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-56).

The problem in general is to investigate whether or not there is a relationship between certain specific health factors in the individual preschool child and his personal relationships with other children.

This study was conducted in order to extend the generalizability of a previous study CCappas et al., 1985) that examined the social acceptance of Type A children. One hundred and ninety-six 1 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children from two public schools were classified as Type A or Type B based on teacher ratings on the Matthews Youth Test for Health (Matthews & Angulo, 1980). Students and teachers then assessed the level of social acceptance of each child. Lastly, behavioral observations were conducted on ~0 of these students. Results indicated that, similar to the prior study, Type A children were socially accepted by their peers. In addition, Type A children received more leadership nominations, less withdrawn nominations, were found to be more active, and had a greater number of friends than Type B children. Contrary to previous findings, no differences were found in the number of peer aggressive nominations received by Type A and Type B children. However, teachers rated these children differently, with Type A's receiving more aggression and hostility ratings than Type B's. Sex differences were also examined. The major implications of this study suggest that the positive characteristics that Type A children exhibit may counterbalance the negative characteristics, thus explaining why aggression is not related to peer rejection in these children.

The U-shaped relationship between age and interpersonal distance was surprising. The human infant’s need for physical contact to ensure healthy development has been well established. Developmental studies indicate that by kindergarten age, children are playing cooperatively with each other. It was expected, then, that the younger children would maintain a close physical relationship with their peers, with this distance widening as a function of age and acculturation until adult norms were reached. This expectation has been supported by previous research. The main purpose of the present experiment was to investigate further the relationship between age and interpersonal distance. Secondary purposes were to extend the study to include twelfth grade subjects and to look at approaches made to opposite-sexed as well as same-sexed peers. If the sex differences that occurred at sixth and ninth grades were a function of the earlier adolescence of girls, then these differences might be more pronounced when sex of person to be approached is introduced as a variable. The Horowitz, et al. (1964) study was used as a model again, because it offers a simple method for accurate measurement of interpersonal distances in a controlled situation.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The problem of this study was to discover the relationship between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles and social behaviors during free-play of preschool children in a school setting. This study also compared the field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles and social behaviors during free-play between age-groups and sex-groups. Thirty-six children from a university child development laboratory were subjects. They were selected from a 3-year-old classroom and a 4-year-old classroom. The research instrument, the Preschool Embedded Figures Test, was utilized to measure field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles. The children's social behaviors were observed during free-play for four consecutive weeks. The nine categories of social behavior were solitary, parallel, and group play; .unoccupied, onlooker, transitional, and aggressive behaviors; and conversations with teachers and conversations with peers. Correlations between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles and social behaviors indicated that field-independence/field-dependence was related to social orientations in preschool children and also related to the choice of play activity. Field-dependent children tended to engage in conversations with teachers more often than field-independent children. Four-year-old children who were field-independent tended to spend more time in solitary play than 4-year-old children who were field-dependent. Four-year-old boys who were field-independent tended to play more often in the manipulative learning center than 4-year-old boys who were field-dependent. There were significant differences between age-groups but not significant differences between sex-groups in field-independence/field-dependence. Some social behaviors were significantly different between age-groups and sex-groups. Three-year-old children participated significantly more in physically aggressive behavior and less in conversations with peers than 4-year-old children. Boys engaged significantly more in aggressive behavior than girls.

This study explored the relationship between characteristics of children's families and their social adjustment and how extra-familial connections affect this relationship. According to human ecological theory, children who are in jeopardy through higher-risk family systems and other social forces were expected to be protected from sociocultural risks by social connections in such settings as school, church, kin groups, and neighborhood.

The purpose of this study was to compare the peer relationships of highly gifted and highly gifted-highly creative primary students in a gifted classroom of a public school. The study was conducted using thirty-one highly gifted first, second, and third graders who had scores of 140 or better on the WISC-R, WPPSI, or Otis-Lennon. At the beginning of the school year, the Creativity Assessment Packet was administered to the class. The top 20 percent scorers in the class (termed gifted-creative) and those who scored in the bottom 20 percent of the class (termed gifted) on the CAP were targeted for observation. In addition, a sociogram was administered to each student individually for the purpose of determining each child's social status. A bivariate correlation coefficient was employed to express the degree of any relationship between creativity scores and rankings on the class sociogram. Observational anecdotes were used in the discussion of the sociometric results. The following findings resulted from the study. The gifted-creative students, as a group, ranked higher on a class sociogram on measures of friendship and choice of academic work partners than did the gifted group. On sociometric measures of choice of creative work partners, there was no significant difference. During observations, the gifted students displayed approximately the same amount of positive verbal behaviors as the gifted-creative students. The gifted students did exhibit more isolated behavior, especially during academic tasks, than.did their gifted creative counterparts. The gifted-creative group displayed much more verbal and physical aggression than the gifted group. This report concludes that in the gifted classroom under investigation, gifted-creative and gifted pupils differ in their peer relationships thus supporting findings documented in past research. However, information from the sociogram seemed to suggest that the gifted-creative students, as a group, achieved higher social status within this gifted classroom than the gifted students.

This study examined the consequences of self-image failure among narcissistic children. It was hypothesized that narcissistic children who perceive themselves as falling short of their hoped-for grandiose self (e.g., whose self-esteem is low) would not only increase over time in general aggression and decrease prosocial behavior, but also increase in the tendency to direct aggression specifically toward more socially successful peers (i.e., their putative rivals for social status). Participants were 195 (101 boys) fourth through seventh-graders who were tested in both the fall and the spring of a school year. Results yielded some support for the hypotheses. Narcissism combined with low self-appraisals of the real self to predict decreases in prosocial behavior and increased aggression toward popular and attractive peers. These findings not only provide longitudinal evidence for the self-image failure hypothesis but also underscore the importance of a target-specific approach to investigating children's aggression. / by Rachel E. Pauletti. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.