Assessment of Efforts to Aid Socially Isolated Elementary School Pupils

Abstract

This study was focused on an assessment of special efforts to aid pupils in the lowest fourth of social status with their classmates. During one semester in four classes the effects of seventeen different kinds of socializing experiences were assessed as compared with social status scores the preceding term and as compared with similar data collected in two control schools. All group differences were statistically insignificant, but a few individuals made marked gains. These largely negative findings are explained on the bases of concepts from sociometrics, social psychology, Gestalt principles, and the psychology of perception. School personnel are warned against assuming that most socially low pupils can be aided by socializing experiences.