RELATIVE DIFFERENCES IN ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AND PEER ACCEPTANCE AMONG STUDENTS IN INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS

This study provides data on the social and affective functioning of 2, 011 students in second to eighth grade who were receiving instruction in inclusive general education class rooms. Students were identified a s being at risk for school failure, having a disability, using English as a second language, or noncategorized. The academic sell-concept an d social integration of the students were assessed using two instrumen ts: The Perception of Ability Scale for Students (PASS) and the Percep tion of Social Closeness Scale (PSCS). On the PASS, the noncategorized group scored significantly higher than each of the three identified g roups, but the means of the three categorized groups did not differ si gnificantly. Peer acceptance was again significantly higher for the no ncategorized children than it was for each of the three identified gro ups. However, the group of students with disabilities differed signifi cantly from the group who were at risk. with those children scoring lo west on this measure. Relative differences between academic self-conce pt and social integration were explored in a series of convergent anal yses, Children with disabilities and children who were at risk display ed particularly large (but opposite) discrepancies: Those who were at risk were relatively accepted by their peers but had low perceptions o f their own academic abilities. The children with disabilities, howeve r, rated relatively higher in academic self-concept than in social clo seness, These relative discrepancies have implications for practice.