The impact of poverty on the social exclusion of children in elementary school

Our graduation thesis addresses the issue of social exclusion because of poverty amongst peers in elementary school. In the theoretical part we focused on the analysis of the concepts of poverty and social exclusion. We presented approaches for studying poverty and the degree of poverty risk in Slovenia. We also discussed the impact and consequences of poverty in connection with the family environment and explained the connection/differences between poverty and social exclusion. We pointed out the importance of school in the social exclusion. We are also presented to the meaning of the peers and peer groups for an integrated development of children during the period of middle and late childhood. In the empirical part this graduation thesis is dealing with analysis of a concrete example of a social exclusion of a student amongst peers and his acceptance in the classroom community. We analyse the situation through a socigram and an interview with a socially excluded student and we also focus on the subjective aspect of the experience of the social exclusion and poverty. With survey questionnaires for his classmates, we explored the criteria on basis of which the children choose their friends in the middle and late childhood. We then compared the answers of the participants about the choice of their friends with the view of the excluded student on his situation and acceptance amongst his peers. We included the whole classroom in this research