Question

Compare and contrast popular, rejected, controversial, and neglected children.

Answer 1

Based on social acceptance, rejection, preference, and impact, children are broadly categorized into 4 groups: Popular children(well-known and liked), Rejected(generally disliked), Neglected(low visibility and neither liked or disliked), and controversial(high visibility and both liked and disliked). Popular children generally show better social capabilities and social problem-solving skills. They also tend to have lower levels of aggression. Rejected children tend to have higher levels of aggression and show disruptive asocial behavioral traits. Although rejected children might be generally disliked, they are known to have considerable levels of social visibility.  Neglected children are known to be less sociable and also show low levels of aggression. They show low levels of social visibility. Controversial children tend to have higher levels of aggression and also show great sociability. Unlike neglected or rejected children, they do not exhibit the asocial characteristics that hinder their social capability. When it comes to oral communicative competence, popular children seem to show the highest degree of it, followed by controversial children. Neglected children show considerably less oral communicative competence, followed by rejected children, who show the least level of communicative competence. In general, children in younger age groups tend to have more individuals under the "neglected" category because of the lesser social exposure that they've received. Although there are no direct relations between gender and social categorization, there seems to be a strong correlation between a stable family system and higher rates of popular children in a given community.