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T H E IMPACT OF RESOURCE PROGRAMS UPON T H E SELF-CONCEPT AND PEER ACCEPTANCE O F LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN

JOSEPH B. SHEARE

Fairfax County Public Schools

The purpose of the study was to measure the impact of resource interventions upon the level of peer acceptance and self-concept. Subjects were 82 children from 5 elementary schools in central Pennsylvania. The Experimental group ( N = 41) consisted of learning disabled children in regular classes with resource room interventions. The Control group ( N = 41) consisted of nonlearning disabled children stratified by sex and classrooms. All subjects were group administered a self-concept measure and a peer acceptance measure early in the school year and again at the end of the school year. Separate 3-way analysis ( i f variances with repeated measures revealed that the LL) children were sig- nificantly lower in self-concept scores and peer acceptance ratings at both testing occasions than were the nonLD children. The resource based program did not result in significant changes in either self-concept or peer acceptance after one year for the LD group.

Resource based programs for handicapped learners have been mainly devoted to academic needs, perceptual-motor training, and diagnostic prescriptive teaching. However, these primarily academic programs also have an impact on social and emotional factors. Two closely related factors that appear to play an important role in providing opportunities for healthy development are peer acceptance and self-concept (Lapp, 1957; Sells, Roff, & Cox, 1967; Sheare, 1975; Stevens, 1971; Zimmerman & Allebrand, 1965).

Requests for reprints should be sent to Joseph B. Sheare, Staff Development Institute, Fairfax County Public Schools, 6421 Merriwet.her Lane, Springfield, VA 22150.

The Impact of Resource Programs 407

Researchers have found significant positive correlations between self-esteem and patterns of parent-child relationships, interactions with peers and significant others, academic achievement, and environmental interactions (Bledsoe, 1967; Campbell, 1965; Coopersmith, 1967; Piers & Harris, 1964; Purkey, 1970; Sears, Macoby, & Levin, 1957).

A number of researchers (Ashcroft, 1963; Newell, 1931; Potter, 1968; Preston, 1940; Stravrianos, 1970; Zimmerman & Allebrand, 1965) have demonstrated that problems of emotional adjustment appear to be closely related to reading disabilities, with the implication that emotional upset may be the result of the failure exper- ienced by reading disabled children (Blanchard, 1928; Coleman & Sandhu, 1967; Fernald, 1943; Krippner, 1968; Missildyne, 1946; Raines & Tait, 1951; Sarvis, 1965; Sylvester & Kunst, 1943). Gates (1954) points out that all of the symptoms or signs of emotional disturbances appear among cases in which the maladjustment is the cause, the effect, or the concomitant of reading disability. Based upon these findings, one can support the view that a strong relationship exists between school failure and emotional maladjustment.

Sociometric status, like Self-esteem, is positively correlated with academic performance. Sells, et al., (1967) studied children in grades 4 through 7. They found an overall significant correlation of .33 between school grades and peer acceptance and a .27 correlation with peer rejection. Feinberg (1958) and Muma (1965) found similar results. Goodlad (1954) determined that children who fail in school are less well liked than those who do not fail. Stevens (1971) studied children in remedial reading programs and found that remedial readers received significantly lower ratings on sociometric instruments than nonremedial readers.

The literature appears to indicate that popular children are likely to be bright, get better grades, and be sociable. In addition, they exhibit fewer behavioral and emotional problems. Purkey (1970) concluded that students’ failure in basic sub- jects is in large measure the consequence of faulty perceptions of themselves. Fitts (1972) asserts that self-concept is related to many factors associated with failure in school and in motivation. It would appear that the child’s self-esteem is in jeopardy when he suffers from school failures and peer rejection or isolation.

Based upon relevant personality theory and the research reviewed, certain questions can be raised concerning the social acceptance and personality adjust- ment of children with learning disabilities which cause them to fail in school. These questions also apply to all children who experience failure in school. The data suggest that success and failure experiences, both academically and socially, are important determinants of personality development and mental health. Learning disabled children often experience failures and have been reported frequently in the literature to demonstrate maladaptive, erratic behavior patterns. (Beck, 1961 ; Clark, 1968; Clements, 1966; Kirk, 1966; McCarthy & McCarthy, 1969).

While there is some evidence which suggests that academic deficit gains are closely related to increased emotional adjustment (Fitts, 1972; Schwyhart, 19671, few researchers have concerned themselves with peer acceptance and the self- esteem of learning disabled children. Intervention strategies to enhance the learning effectiveness of LD children, however, have been developed prolifically. Most of these efforts have focused upon perceptual-motor functioning, information pro-

408 Psychology in the Schools, July , 1978, Vol. 15, No. 3.

cessing, linguistic processes, neurophysiological development, etc. (Frierson & Barbe, 1967; Johnson & Myklebust, 1967; McCarthy & AlcCarthy, 1969).

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children with specific learning disabilities who participated in a resource based special educat,ion program would experience significant gains in peer acceptance and self-concept. Two hypoth- eses were tested :

Participation of LD children in a resource based special education program will result in increased self-concept scores.

Participation of LD children in a resource based special education program will result in increased peer acceptance ratings by their peers.

1.

2.

METHOD Sample

The sample consisted of 82 children from grades 3, 4, and 5 attending regular classes in 5 elementary schools located in central Pennsylvania. The experimental group were children identified as learning disabled ( N = 41), randomly selected from a total of 97 identified children. The learning disabled students were identified for resource interventions based upon the following criteria: (a) evidence of a t least average intellectual functioning ; (b) significant, academic deficits in reading, writing, arithmetic, and/or language functions; (c) evidence of significant perceptual, motor, and/or language difficulties. Students were referred to the LD staff by their regular classroom teachers. Each student was administered a battery of tests (Pictorial Test of Intelligence, Raven’s Progressive Matrix Test, Peabody Indivi- dual Achievement Test, Bender Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration, Test of Auditory Perception, Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test, and Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities) by specially trained teachers. Students who scored below 85 on the Pictorial Test of Intelligence were referred for an individual evaluation by a school psychologist. Students who did not meet the criteria speci- fied above were disqualified for services in the LD program and were referred for other more appropriate services. The control group consisted of nonlearning dis- abled children ( N = 41) stratified by sex and classroom. Each nonLD child was chosen randomly by sex from the same classrooms as the LD children.

Instruments Self-concept was measured by the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-concept Scale.

(Piers & Harris, 1964). This scale consists of 80 self-reference statements designed for children over a wide age range. Corrected odd-even reliability coefficients of .90 (Grade 6) and .87 (Grade lo), test-retest reliability of .77 (Grade 5 after 4 months), and Kuder-Richardson 21 coefficients ranging from .78 to .93 have been reported in the manual and literature.

Peer acceptance was measured using The Peer Acceptance Rating Scale (Sheare, 1975). The basic form of the instrument is as follows: Each child in every classroom receives a list containing the names of all class members. Each child then rates his peers individually using the following categories :

1. 2. I like this person.

I like this person a lot.

The Impact of Resource Programs 409

3. Don’t know very well. 4. 5.

Don’t care for this person. Don’t like this person a t all.

The scale was scored by assigning a numerical value to each response, summing each child’s ratings received, and dividing by the number of raters. The assigned values ranged from 5 (“I like this person a lot”) to 1 (“Don’t like this person a t all”). Test-retest reliability after 2 months with a sample of 177 children (Grades 3, 4, and 5) yielded a correlation coefficient of 39 .

Procedure Both instruments were administered twice to entire intact classrooms (18) and

read aloud in class (to avoid problems with those children who had limited reading skills). The instruments were administered several days apart, first in November and again a t the end of the school year. The first administration was delayed from the beginning of school in September because it was felt that sufficient time should be allowed to permit the children in each class to become acquainted and form pat- terns of acceptance and interactions. During the school year, the LD children remained in their regular classes but also participated in a resource based special education program for 45-minute periods, 3 to 5 times weekly. The resource room program was diagnostic-prescriptive in nature and was geared towards specific skill development (Sabatino & Boeck, 1973). All the special resource teachers were trained to teach LD children and had a minimum of one year’s previous teaching experience.

RESULTS Self-Concept

The hypotheses were tested by a three-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (ANOVR). The pretest means for self-concept of the learning disabled (LD) group were 49.5 (males, N = 32) and 56.1 (females, N = 9), while the pre- test means for the nonlearning disabled (NLD) group were 61.5 (males, N = 32) , and 63.3 (females, N = 9). The posttest means for L D self-concept were 48.6 (males, N = 32) and 58.6 (females, N = 9). The NLD self-concept means were 57.7 (males, N = 32) and 62.2 (females, N = 9). With respect to self-concept, the main effect for LD and NLD groups was significant, F = 12.1, p <.01, while all other main effects and interactions were nonsignificant (Sex, F = 31; Tests, F = 1.6; Groups x Sex, F = 0.6; Groups x Tests, F = 1.4; Sex x Tests, F = 0.9; Groups x Sex x Tests, F = 0.01). The results indicate that the learning disabled and non- learning disabled groups differed significantly in self-concept, with the LD group obtaining lower scores. There were no sex differences and no change in self-concept for either group a t the end of the year.

Peer Acceptance Hypothesis 2 was tested by a three-way analysis of variance with repeated

measures (ANOVR). The pretest mean scores for peer acceptance of the LD group were 3.4 (males, N = 32) and 3.3 (females, N = 9), and the pretest means for the NLD group were 3.7 (males, N = 32) , and 3.9 (females, N = 9). Posttest means

410 Psychology in the Schools, July , 1978, Vol. 16, No. 3.

for the LD group were 3.5 (males, N = 32) and 3.4 (females, N = 9), while the NLD groups were 3.8 (males, N = 32) and 3.9 (females, N = 9). With respect to peer acceptance, the main effects of groups (LD and NLD) and repeated measures (pre and posttests) were significant (Groups, F = 10.9, p <.01 and Tests, F = 4.8, p <.01), while all other main effects and interactions were nonsignificant (Sex, F = 0.2; Groups x Sex, F = 0.7; Tests x Groups, F = 0.09; Tests x Sex, F = 0.06; Groups x Sex x Tests, F = 0.2). These results indicate that there was a significant difference in the level of peer acceptance between the learning disabled and nonlearning disabled groups, with the learning disabled children receiving lower ratings than the nonlearning disabled children. The post peer acceptance scores were s,ignificantly higher than the pre scores, indicating that both groups received higher acceptance ratings a t the end of the year than in November. The absence of a significant interaction (groups x repeated measure) indicated that the LD group did not make more of a gain in acceptance than the nonLD group.

DISCUSSION The results of this investigatiorl supported previous research showing that

significant differences with respect to self-concept and peer acceptance exist be- tween children with learning disabilities and children not exhibiting learning prob- lems. In all cases, the LD group received lower self-concept scores and peer ac- ceptance ratings.

The results did not support the hypothesis that participation in a resource based program would result in increased peer acceptance and self-concept scores on the part of the LD students. Rather, i t was found that there was no appreciable effect as the result of the special education resource program on self-concept and peer acceptance, even though significant academic gains were reported for the same LD group by Sabatino (1974).

The results of this study lend credence to the hypothesis that while goals often stress “individual needs” and much discussion is conducted about educating the “whole child,” it may be that we have and are continuing to neglect some very important aspects of the LD child’s development : the social and emotional. Special education resource programs designed to develop academic skills, train sensory modalities, and supplement the LD child’s regular education program do not appear to have significant impact on his social acceptance and self-esteem.

While the literature supports the fact that school failure and learning prob- lems are closely related to maladaptive emotional reactions and social isolation and/or rejection, there is little research or educational programs designed to re- mediate these problems. Social relationships and personality factors develop into patterns of behavior after years of experience and reinforcement. There is ample evidence to demonstrate that once formed, patterns of peer interactions and per- sonality characteristics including self-attitudes remain relatively stable over time. Therefore, special educators may be placing too much faith in programs geared towards academic remediation with the expectations that social and emotional development will automatically be a by-product.

This study encompassed only one year out of the LD children’s school life. It may be that continuing in such a program for an extended period of time would lead to the success experiences necessary for positive changes in self-attitudes and

The Impact of Resource Programs 411

peer acceptance to take place. One wonders, however, if it might not be more appropriate to build into these auxiliary programs social and emotional develop- mental components or to establish other programs geared toward this end.

The literature and the findings of this study indicate that there is a need for extensive research and program development or expansion involving the social and emotional development of children who exhibit school related learning disabilities. It also reinforces the need for early identification and intervention before long-term negative patterns of social and emotional behaviors develop. Resource based pro- grams may be effective for academic remediation, but the results of this study raise doubt as to their effectiveness within the realm of social and emotional de- velopment.

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