Abstract:

Children's histories of chronic and/or severe peer group rejection were used to predict changes in their school engagement trajectories. It was hypothesized that longer periods of sustained rejection, higher levels of rejection, or a combination of these two would predict declining school engagement, as reflected in children's classroom participation trajectories. Cooperative and independent participation were assessed in the spring of every year from kindergarten through ninth grade by teacher report.

Growth curve analyses were computed to test the hypotheses that children exposed to chronic rejection and those exposed to severe levels of rejection would evidence greater declines in engagement. It was also predicted that a combination of both chronic and severe rejection would predispose children to particularly poor participation trajectories.

Results indicated significant initial status differences and significant linear change for cooperative and independent participation. Findings revealed that (a)?children who were chronically rejected were at greater risk for lower classroom participation than children who were transiently rejected; (b)?severe rejection was more strongly correlated with concurrent participation than with later measures; and (c)?the joint contributions of chronic and severe rejection forecasted greater maladjustment in the classroom than did either of them alone. These observed linkages support the view that chronic and severe rejection are distinct contributors to children's participation in the classroom as well as the notion that these two features of rejection combine to predict more acute problems in school.