Peer Rejection and Children's School Adjustment: A Structural Model of the Mediating Processes of Negative Peer Treatment and Classroom Participation

92 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002.This longitudinal study is an examination of a structural model representing the effects of peer rejection on children's school adjustment, via the mediating processes of negative peer treatment and classroom participation. Using data collected from a sample of 378 fourth- and fifth-grade children, a structural model of these mediating pathways was estimated. This model was based on a model of peer rejection presented by Coie (1990) and hypothesized that peer rejection was likely to be independently linked to two types of negative peer treatment, victimization and exclusion by peers. These negative peer treatment forms were, in turn, hypothesized to predict children's change in two forms of participation within the school context, classroom participation and school avoidance. Children's participation patterns were expected to independently predict change in subsequent school adjustment. Results indicated that peer rejection was independently linked to both forms of negative peer treatment, and negative peer treatment predicted change in children's participation. However exclusion by peers was more strongly and consistently linked to the participation forms and to academic adjustment than was victimization. The results supported the general premise that multiple mediating processes are active in linking peer rejection to children' school adjustment.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD