Assessing children's perceptions of prosocial and antisocial peer behaviour

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How was the study designed?

Altogether, 321 nine and ten year old children (170 boys and 151 girls) and their teachers from fourteen primary schools in mixed socio-economic areas of west central Scotland took part in the study. The age group was chosen because of research evidence that their social roles are relatively stable by this stage.

Three versions of a specially developed questionnaire were given to collect information about the children's perceptions of their own and their peers’ behaviour, and the teachers' perceptions of the children's behaviour. The twenty-four item questionnaires included two examples of each of the following characteristics: helping, sharing, caring, inclusive behaviours, physical abuse, verbal abuse, delinquency and rejection. There were also eight filler items for non-social behaviours (such as, reading a comic and eating dinner).

For the self questionnaire, the researcher read out the questions and the child pointed to one of three cards to indicate whether s/he engaged in the behaviour often, sometimes or never. For the peer questionnaire, children were presented with cards which had the names of eight children in their class and the child pointed to the name of a classmate whom they had seen engaging in that particular behaviour. Each child's name in a class was made available for nomination eight times. Teachers were asked to indicate how often each child engaged in prosocial or antisocial behaviours, or was the victim of bullying, on a five-point scale ranging from never to often.

Each child's popularity and unpopularity was measured by asking children individually to name three children in their class they liked to play with and three they did not like to play with. The children were first asked practice questions concerning innocuous behaviours, such as playing with a yo yo.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What did the researchers want to find out? What categories of behaviour did the researchers identify? What judgements did the children make of their peers' behaviour? Did boys and girls differ in how they saw other children's behaviour? How was the study designed? What are the implications of the study? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Assessing children's perceptions of prosocial and antisocial peer behaviour This digest found in Gender Inclusion Pupil Voice Send to a friend Word doc 50KB Printer friendly Collate for later How was the study designed? Altogether, 321 nine and ten year old children (170 boys and 151 girls) and their teachers from fourteen primary schools in mixed socio-economic areas of west central Scotland took part in the study. The age group was chosen because of research evidence that their social roles are relatively stable by this stage. Three versions of a specially developed questionnaire were given to collect information about the children's perceptions of their own and their peers’ behaviour, and the teachers' perceptions of the children's behaviour. The twenty-four item questionnaires included two examples of each of the following characteristics: helping, sharing, caring, inclusive behaviours, physical abuse, verbal abuse, delinquency and rejection. There were also eight filler items for non-social behaviours (such as, reading a comic and eating dinner). For the self questionnaire, the researcher read out the questions and the child pointed to one of three cards to indicate whether s/he engaged in the behaviour often, sometimes or never. For the peer questionnaire, children were presented with cards which had the names of eight children in their class and the child pointed to the name of a classmate whom they had seen engaging in that particular behaviour. Each child's name in a class was made available for nomination eight times. Teachers were asked to indicate how often each child engaged in prosocial or antisocial behaviours, or was the victim of bullying, on a five-point scale ranging from never to often. Each child's popularity and unpopularity was measured by asking children individually to name three children in their class they liked to play with and three they did not like to play with. The children were first asked practice questions concerning innocuous behaviours, such as playing with a yo yo.