ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL REJECTION IN CHILDHOOD

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The goal of this project is to identify the patterns of behavior that contribute directly to antisocial aggression and social rejection among urban black elementary school boys. Socially rejected boys in this population are known to be at risk for later psychopathology, behavior disorders, and delinquency. In order to design intervention programs aimed at enhancing social competence and preventing later maladaptive outcomes in this population, the behavioral paths leading to social rejection must be identified. Three strategies will be used to identify these paths. The first strategy will be observation by adults. In previous rsearch, the PIs have developed a novel methodology for studying the emergence of peer status, namely, the establishment of a play group of previously unacquainted peers who are observed by adults over time as peer status emerges. This methodology will be used in this project. Also, boys will be observed in their classroom peer groups, during the beginning of a school year as status develops. The focus of observation will also be novel, in that boys' responses to specific, naturally-occurring situations will be coded an evaluated through sequential analyses. Situations of interest include peer group entry episodes, resolution of peer conflicts, and attempts to persuade a peer. The second strategy will consist of interviews with boys who are in the play groups about their reactions to peers and the bases for their labelling and differential bahavior toward peers. The third strategy consists of having boys view videotapes of other boys (whom they have never met) and responding to questions about the bases for their acceptance or rejection of those boys. The hypothesis will be tested that there exist two distinct paths to social rejection, both involving aggression. For one group, the aggression is instrumental in that these boys use coercive strategies in order to gain dominance over peers. For the second group, aggression is a response to frustration which results from social ineffectiveness and the misconstrual of peers' intentions. If this conceptualization is supported empirically, distinct preventive intervention programs can be designed.