In the past three years, we have conducted a programmatic research effort designed to improve our understanding of the social acceptance of mentally retarded children in different school settings. It is our intent to continue and to expand upon the line of research we have begun. Our primary aims will be: 1) To determine how the social acceptability of mentally retarded children among their nonretarded and retarded peers is affected in laboratory and natural situations by their own characteristics, those of their nonretarded peers, and background variables; and 2) To determine if these factors can impeded or reverse the stigmatization of mentally retarded children in laboratory and natural situations. We propose to extend our research in four ways. (1) We will investigate the role that mentally retarded children's conversational skills play (in combination with their other personal characteristics and background variables) in determining their acceptability to nonretarded peers. This investigation of he interactive effects of these characteristics and variables will take place in a laboratory situation. (2) We will attempt to determine whether there is a direct relationship between the attitudes children express in the laboratory and the attitudes and behaviors the same children direct toward mentally retarded peers integrated into their regular classrooms. (3) We will examine the relationship of mentally retarded children's characteristics to their social acceptance in regular classrooms. (4) We will study the behavioral antecedents of mentally retarded children's social acceptance by observing their interactions with nonretarded peers in classroom analog situations. These approaches will help establish the generalizability and ecological validity of our findings.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award (R37)
Project #
5R37HD014772-07
Application #
3485067
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 1 (HUD)
Project Start
1982-09-01
Project End
1990-11-30
Budget Start
1988-12-01
Budget End
1989-11-30
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
1989
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Massachusetts Boston
Department
Type
Other Specialized Schools
DUNS #
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02125
Siperstein, G N; Leffert, J S (1997) Comparison of socially accepted and rejected children with mental retardation. Am J Ment Retard 101:339-51
Siperstein, G N; Leffert, J S; Wenz-Gross, M (1997) The quality of friendships between children with and without learning problems. Am J Ment Retard 102:111-25
Leffert, J S; Siperstein, G N (1996) Assessment of social-cognitive processes in children with mental retardation. Am J Ment Retard 100:441-55
MacMillan, D L; Gresham, F M; Siperstein, G N (1995) Heightened concerns over the 1992 AAMR definition: advocacy versus precision. Am J Ment Retard 100:87-95
MacMillan, D L; Gresham, F M; Siperstein, G N (1993) Conceptual and psychometric concerns about the 1992 AAMR definition of mental retardation. Am J Ment Retard 98:325-35
Siperstein, G N; Bak, J J (1989) Social relationships of adolescents with moderate mental retardation. Ment Retard 27:5-10
Siperstein, G N; Bak, J J; O'Keefe, P (1988) Relationship between children's attitudes toward and their social acceptance of mentally retarded peers. Am J Ment Retard 93:24-7
Bak, J J; Cooper, E M; Dobroth, K M et al. (1987) Special class placements as labels: effects on children's attitudes toward learning handicapped peers. Except Child 54:151-5
Bak, J J; Siperstein, G N (1987) Similarity as a factor effecting change in children's attitudes toward mentally retarded peers. Am J Ment Defic 91:524-31
Bak, J J; Siperstein, G N (1987) Effects of mentally retarded children's behavioral competence on nonretarded peers' behaviors and attitudes: toward establishing ecological validity in attitude research. Am J Ment Defic 92:31-9

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