Implications of positive and negative sociometric status for assessing the social competence of young children

Positive and negative sociometric status were examined with reference to observed classroom behavior and performance on two laboratory measures of social skills: decoding emotion from facial expression and referential communication. Based on a sample of 38 preschool children, results indicated different patterns of correlations for liked (positive nomination) and disliked (negative nomination) scores. High-liked children were observed to spend more time in positive interaction with peers and less time in solitary play or alone with an adult. High-disliked children scored less well on both laboratory measures. Using median splits on the liked and disliked dimensions, results indicated that children who were rated by their peers as Low-Liked/High-Disliked were the most deviant with respect to both classroom behaviors and task scores. The importance of obtaining both positive and negative nominations in investigations of social competence is stressed. Implications of the results for the identification of preschool children with social problems and the planning of intervention strategies for these children are discussed.