Peer sociometric assessment

Sociometry is the measurement of the social standing of individuals within a group. It is used to study intergroup relationships, mostly involving children in school settings. In those settings, social relations among intact social cohorts of children are assessed through the use of nomination or rating scale sociometric procedures. This chapter discusses three aspects of peer sociometric assessment-procedures, psychometrics, and prospects. Peer sociometric assessments have been described as one of the most valid and useful sources of data regarding children's social adjustment as they are perceived by their peers. This is a significant endorsement of their worth as an approach to understanding peer social status in children. While sociometric assessment techniques are usually not norm referenced or commercially published, they do have a long history of use and provide a rich source of data that have commendable degrees of reliability and validity for the purposes for which they are used-determining peer social status for screening, classification, and social-enhancement intervention. Sociometric assessment translates quite readily to the school environment where they are commonly used; however, these techniques cannot be applied to the classroom setting without administrative and parental/guardian consent, which can be difficult to gain. © 2006