Children with learning disabilities potentially have greater difficulty with the challenges of youth because of their difficulty acquiring, processing, and/or storing academic information. Children with learning disabilities also have difficulties that extend into the social realm. While the majority of research studies suggest that most children with learning disabilities have social deficits, few studies have examined those children with learning disabilities who are accepted by their peers. The present study sought to expand what we know about peer relationships and youth with learning disabilities by examining multiple variables associated with individual differences in peer acceptance among these youth. This study considered the relationship between multiple individual and social variables (behavior and self-concept) with variation in peer relations among youth with learning disabilities.
Peer ratings, social and self-image self-concept scores, and behavior ratings (externalizing behavior and hyperactivity) were obtained for eighty-five children with learning disabilities enrolled in inclusion classroom settings, grades 3-5. It was predicted that behavior factors (externalizing behavior and hyperactivity) and self-concept scores (social and self-image self-concept) would be related to peer ratings for children with learning disabilities.
The results from this study suggest that the variables of externalizing behavior and hyperactivity, as well as social and self-image self-concept, interact and are related to peer acceptance among youth with learning disabilities in inclusion classroom settings. Children with learning disabilities who exhibit externalizing behaviors are particularly at risk for decreased peer acceptance. Children who are hyperactive are also at-risk. However, these children seem to be more at risk when the hyperactivity is accompanied with externalizing behaviors. Children with learning disabilities in inclusion classroom settings who also have externalizing behaviors seem to be particularly vulnerable to the negative outcome of decreased peer acceptance. In addition, children who have high self-image self-concept are more likely to be accepted by their peers, particularly if those same children have high social self-concept. If a child believes that he or she is not a good friend to others, or does not have friends, then how he or she feels about himself or herself as a person is increasingly important.
