Classroom Status and Teacher Approval and Disapproval-Study of Children's Perceptions

A sociometric/guess-who instrument designed to measure acceptance, competence, power, teacher-approval, and disapproval was completed by 334 elementary school children. The intercorrelations between variables support the notion of a "g" factor in peer group status. However, this factor may account for more of the variance in status for girls than for boys. Correlations between teacher approval and status were significant; however, those between disapproval and status were not. One might expect significant correlations between those variables and status to the extent that there is overlap between the behaviors reinforced by the teacher and the peer group.