Identifying Children at Risk in Peer Relations: A Critique of the Rate-of-Interaction Approach to Assessment

Abstract

ASHER, STEVEN R.; MARKELL, RICHARD A.; and HYMEL, SHELLEY. Identifying Children at Risk in Peer Relations: A Critique of the Rate-of-Interaction Approach to Assessment. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 1239-1245. This paper critically evaluates a widely used method of identifying children as at risk in their peer relations. This method emphasizes children's total rate of peer interaction, regardless of the quality or skillfulness of the interaction. Children whose total rate is considerably below average for the group are referred to as socially withdrawn and efforts are then made to increase their total rate of interaction. The present paper evaluates this identification method, particularly in terms of the predictive and concurrent validity of the total-rate measure. Our conclusion is that validity evidence is lacking and that researchers are probably selecting children who do not differ in social skills or peer acceptance from those with higher interaction rates. Future efforts to identify children as at risk in peer relations should give greater attention to both the quality of children's interaction and to whether children are accepted by the peer group.