Correlates of social status among mainstreamed mentally retarded children

Explored the relative contributions of misbehavior, academic incompetence, and exposure to nonretarded children to the explanation of retarded children's sociometric status. Teachers and peers rated retarded children on the dimensions of misbehavior and academic performance. The results indicate that perceived academic incompetence was associated with educable mentally retarded children's level of social acceptance, whereas perceived misbehavior was associated with retarded children's social rejection by peers. Amount of exposure to nonretarded children did not relate significantly to retarded children's social status. The data are discussed in terms of the assumptions underlying the mainstreaming of retarded children into regular classes. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).