Why don't you accept me?: Looking through the relationship of peer rejection and aggressiveness among orphans

• Main Authors: Herrera, Madonni C., Padua, Erika Lorraine A., Pascual, Ayza Marie D.G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2005
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/10879
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study was designed to determine the relationship between peer rejection and aggressiveness behavior among orphaned children. It also looks into difference between the way male and female orphans display aggressiveness. There were 24 male and 23 female orphans, aged 9 to 12, who participated in the current research. Peer rejection was defined as the ratings given by the orphan's peers and classmates on the Sociometric Rating Measure designed by Asher & Dodge (1986) to find out which child is socially rejected. On the other hand, aggression was measured using the Children's Social Behavior Scale-Teacher Report by Crick (1996). The caregivers and the teachers of the orphans assessed the participants overt aggression (harms through physical damage) and relational aggression (manipulation of peer relationships or feelings of exclusion in a social group). Results of the t-test analysis revealed that there was a significant difference in the display of overt aggression among males and females (wherein males receive higher ratings than females). This indicated that females, usually, exhibit relational forms, while, males, generally, display both types of aggression as observed by the caregivers and teachers. Correlational analysis, on the other hand, showed significant results at alpha level of a = .05. Findings resulted to a moderate correlation between overt and relational aggression and peer rejection among male orphans. In contrast, the correlation between peer rejection and overt and relational aggression among females was not statistically significant. Implications on interventions that can be done on institutionalized orphans were discussed.