Children Who are Rejected by Their Peers

Abstract

The term ‘rejected’ as used in this Unit refers to those children who are actively disliked and rejected by their class and school peers. Their problem is two-fold, then, in that they not only lack normal friendly relationships with other children, but other children explicitly or implicitly reject them. It is this criterion of rejection which distinguishes them from other children who may be viewed as isolated, such as the ‘self-sufficient’ child who deliberately withdraws from relationships with other children because he does not need them (Grunland, 1979), or the ‘friendless child’ who elicits neither friendly nor hostile feelings from his peers, but is simply ignored or at least not considered. The rejected child will often be the last to be chosen for any group or game and even then he will only be selected with reluctance. He may be rejected to the extent of not even being teased by the other children (for children who are teased, you should refer to the Units TEASING (Individual) or TEASING (Group) although you may have overheard the other children being highly critical of the child among themselves.