Identifier

etd-04082009-113415

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Children who are neglected or rejected by their peers may require social skill interventions in order to develop the social competencies needed to establish satisfactory interpersonal relationships. One promising social skill intervention is Positive Peer Reporting, which has been shown to produce increases in positive social interaction and peer acceptance for these groups of children. As most previous investigations were conducted in residential or special education settings, further research is needed to support the use of this intervention in general education settings. Therefore, the present study examined the efficacy of Positive Peer Reporting with two neglected-status children in general education classrooms. Both participants demonstrated improvements in the quality of social interactions, assessed through classroom and recess observations, as well as increased peer acceptance. However, the participants displayed differing responses to the intervention. For the first participant, the major impact of the intervention was the reduction of negative interactions, while the second participant demonstrated dramatic increases in positive interactions. Overall, these findings support the use of Positive Peer Reporting for improving the acceptance and quality of interactions for students who are neglected by peers in general education classrooms.

Date

2009

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Frank Gresham

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.542

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS