NO EXIT - PROCESSES OF SOCIAL-ISOLATION IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL

Many adolescents experience feelings of social rejection and anxiety w hen they are not accepted by a particular peer group. However, the pro blems that social isolates encounter are much greater. Although the bu lk of research has assumed that peer rejection is primarily due to the rejected student's poor social skills, some researchers have recently turned their attention to situational and environmental factors In th is study, ethnographic data were used to look at a range of factors th at contributed to the social isolation of middle school students. All of the isolated students were found to have at least one characteristi c that was viewed negatively by their peers and was partially responsi ble for their rejection. However, once a student was rejected on the b asis of one characteristic she was assumed to have other negative char acteristics as well. The rejected student was especially likely to be labeled as sexually deviant. This label contributed to further rejecti on and ridicule. Once a student became isolated, she experienced extra ordinary difficulty as she attempted to shed her stigmatized status. T he researchers discuss a variety of social processes that contributed to the cycle of isolation, only some of which were related to the beha vior of the rejected individual.