İnvestigating of peer-accepted and non-accepted elementary school students' perceptions about peer relations

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate of peer-accepted and non-accepted elementary school students’ perceptions about peer relations in grades 4 and 5. Participants were 270 elementary school students in İzmir. First of all participants were applied sociometric tecnique and they were categorized as accepted and non-accepted in terms of sociometric test total scores. Subsequently the researchers interviewed with totally 44 students who were categorized as accepted (22) and non-accepted (22) by using an structured interview technique. A content analysis was used during the data analysis. The results indicated that despite accepted and non accepted students’ perceptions about peer relations were similar in terms of categories, some of the answers were differentiated in terms of the quantity and the quality of the contents . Results showed that students who were accepted by their peers tend to demonstrate more competent behaviors in starting and maintaining friendships and conflict solution, than students who were non-accepted by their peers. The results were discussed in the light of peer relations and peer acceptance literature.