This dissertation explores the lifeworlds of socially neglected high school students. Adolescents who are members of this peer social category are described in the literature as those who exhibit passive behavior; make few attempts to initiate social interaction; do not engage in anti-social or aggressive behavior; and appear to be the most isolated students in schools. Almost overlooked by the research on adolescent subcultures, these labeled “nobodies” go virtually unnoticed by their teachers and their peers. This study was designed to increase our understanding of how these adolescents perceive themselves and their peers, and develop their own accounts and motives for explaining their actions.
This six month ethnographic study utilized symbolic interactionist theory to shape the research questions on how socially neglected students experience, interpret, and construct their interactions with peers. Five grade 12 students and three grade 10 students were identified through a lengthy process of on-site behavior observation assessment and judgmental sampling. Once identified, participant observations, interviews, and conversations were ongoing throughout the study. The data consist of 63 transcribed separate participant interviews of 45 to 60 minutes; transcribed notes from participant observations and conversations; as well as transcribed notes from observations and conversations with peers, teachers, counselors, office staff members, and administrators.
This study, which appears to be the only qualitative inquiry to focus specifically on socially neglected high school students, contributes to the literature of this understudied peer social category. The emotional and behavioral risk factors for these children are relatively unknown because of the paucity of research and lack of longitudinal studies. The findings suggest that the majority of the participants were verbally and/or physically abused by their peers during elementary school. These early school experiences and the way parents and teachers handled them taught the participants not to trust their perceptions of people and to hide or deny their feelings. Their stories about their lifeworlds at high school present a bleak picture, which is confirmed by the observational data. Various descriptions of aloneness or alienation, such as “ghost,” “dead-like,” “loner,” “invisible,” and “phantom” are used by the students to convey the images that they have of themselves and of how their interactions with peers have affected them. They consciously utilize barriers, such as “zombie” face masks, a “look of death,” or “shyness” to keep their peers at bay. They describe layers that they have built up around themselves that separate them from other people, which are invisible to others but not to themselves. They do not focus on the present, they worry about their futures. The participants suggest ways that parents and teachers could have intervened when they were younger and ways they could assist them now. Many of these teenagers report finding their alienation increasingly difficult to bear. If they have not already harmed themselves or others, either emotionally or physically, the data gathered for this study sound a clear alarm that there is potential for this to happen if they continue to be ignored. Implicit in the literature is the view that socially neglected students are not as at-risk and in need of intervention as socially rejected students because their status is associated with a lack of social involvement but not with deviant behavior. The findings leave no doubt that this assumption needs to be re-addressed and reconsidered. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/9922 |
| Date | 16 August 2018 |
| Creators | FitzGibbon, Paula Ruth |
| Contributors | Preece, Alison, Gaskell, Jane |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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