Grade level and rater sex as factors influencing the social acceptance of resource students as compared to their regular classmates

The purpose of this study was threefold: to determine if any significant differences existed between the peer acceptance ratings for (1) mainstreamed, handicapped children and their regular classmates; (2) same-sex and opposite-sex children; and (3) primary (K-2); intermediate (3-5); and junior high (6-7) level students. It was hypothesized that regular-class children would be more accepting of each other than their resource classmates; same-sex children would receive higher ratings than opposite-sex classmates; and that primary level children would be the least accepting of differences while junior high pupils would be the most accepting of three grade levels.

The subjects were drawn from a small school located in a primarily rural area with a government installation located nearby. There were 122 regular-class only children who rated 25 resource students and 251 normal peers. The pupils rated only those students actually enrolled in their regular classes that year. Grade levels ranged from kindergarten through seventh grade level and ages ranged from 5 to 14 years. There were 110 girls and 141 boys in the subject groups.

The Peer Acceptance Scale (Bruininks, Rynders, and Gross: 1974) was the test instrument used. It is a modification of the Ohio Acceptance Scale. The raters were required to choose one of three responses to indicate their feelings toward all the other children in their class. The three choices were: (1) friendly, depicted by two stick figures playing ball together; (2) all right, shown by two students working together at a blackboard; and (3) don't like, illustrated by two children standing with their backs to each other. The Peer Acceptance Scale was individually administered in kindergarten through third grades and group administered in fourth through seventh grades.

Responses were scored on a 3 point scale, with friendly receiving 3 points, neutral getting a score of 2, and dislike with 1 point. A 3-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the results with scores grouped into 12 cells based on the two levels of sex, three grade levels, and two types of class placement. The null hypothesis stated that the 12 groups were actually drawn from the same population. Results showed that all three factors were highly significant (p < .001), while none of the interactions reached the level of significance. Scheffé's test was used to determine which cell mean differences were producing the significant results. The direction of the significant differences was graphically illustrated, indicating that two of the three hypotheses were confirmed. Regular-class only children were indeed more highly accepted than their resource-also classmates. Samesex children received higher social acceptance ratings than opposite-sex youngsters. With regard to the third hypothesis, primary level children were the least accepting of their handicapped classmates. However, intermediate, rather than junior high, level raters were the most accepting of individual differences.

The ramifications of these findings were discussed in the study with regard to the use of same-sex instead of both-sex ratings and programming for handicapped children. Suggestions for further study were delineated.