The Relationship of Anxiety to Popularity and Rejection Among Institutionalized Delinquent Boys

The major purpose of this inquiry was to examine the relationship between anxiety and sociometric status within two groups of institutionalized delinquent boys. Anxiety was operationally defined in terms of boys' performance on a questionnaire (3) relating to manifest anxiety. Sociometric status was defined in two ways: choice, an expressed desire on the part of a boy to interact with another boy; and, rejection, an expressed desire on the part of a boy to avoid interaction with another boy. That there is a positive relationship between and sociometric status within child populations has been supported by numerous studies (2, 4, 6, 7, 9). Thorpe's (14) recent investigation of 980 British children, for example, reported that more neurotic children, as measured by a composite index of neuroses, were significantly less popular than the less neurotic children. A study by McCandless (8) and his associates showed that the more anxious youngsters among Iowa elementary school children were also the less popular. Apparently, poor adjustment, high anxiety and neuroticism in a child tends to distort his perceptions of himself and of others (II, 12, 15). Distortions of perception may lead to inappropriate behavior towards others and, hence, to rejection (5). However, in examining the relationship between adjustment and sociometric status, most investigators (I, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14) studied children who were described as functioning within the range of normal adjustment. An additional question might be asked: In child groups characterized by high anxiety, are the more anxious youngsters also less popular?