Identifying Children's Peer Social Networks in School Classrooms: Links Between Peer Reports and Observed Interactions

Links between peer reports of social cluster membership and observed classroom interactions were examined in a sample of 72 children in 4th grade and 7th grade. All participating children in each classroom identified as many social clusters in the classroom as they could recall. Using the social‐cog...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social development (Oxford, England) England), 2003-01, Vol.12 (4), p.513-529
Main Authors: Gest, Scott D., Farmer, Thomas W., Cairns, Beverley D., Xie, Hongling
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
behavior observations
Classroom Environment
Classroom observation
Cognitive mapping
Elementary School Students
Junior High School Students
Membership
Peer Groups
Peer Relations
Peers
Social Networks
Young children
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Summary:Links between peer reports of social cluster membership and observed classroom interactions were examined in a sample of 72 children in 4th grade and 7th grade. All participating children in each classroom identified as many social clusters in the classroom as they could recall. Using the social‐cognitive map (SCM) procedure, these individual reports were aggregated to summarize the number of times a given child was nominated as being in the same social cluster as each of his or her classmates (i.e., a co‐nomination profile) and to identify the classmates in each child's social cluster. Extensive classroom observations allowed for a parallel summary of the number of times a given child was observed to interact with each of his or her classmates (i.e., an interaction profile). Results indicated that correlations between conomination profiles and interaction profiles were positive and statistically reliable. Children were observed to interact with members of their SCM‐identified social cluster at a rate four times higher than with other same‐sex classmates. These effects did not vary reliably by grade, sex or aggressive risk status.
ISSN:0961-205X
1467-9507
DOI:10.1111/1467-9507.00246