Date of Award

1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Art

First Advisor

Pamela Nickels

Second Advisor

Richard A. Boyle

Third Advisor

Jill S. Mueth

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of geographic mobility among American families today. little research has focused on the possible consequences of such moves upon children. The possible impact of geographic mobility upon children's social, emotional, and academic development has been investigated although not currently. Previous studies have also neglected to focus on a common concern among mobile adolescents in particular; peer acceptance. To address this need for further research. this study examines the effects of geographic mobility upon early adolescents' perceived level of peer acceptance following a move as compared to a group of nonmobile students. Peer Acceptance was determined by using the Index of Peer Relations (IPR). Subjects for tl1is study were chosen from a list of newly enrolled students to a middle school in the 98-99 school year while the control group was selected from a list of 954 students from the entire middle school during the same school year. No significant differences were found between these two groups in terms of their perceived level of peer acceptance suggesting that feelings of acceptance by peers during the early adolescent period may not be affected by mobility. Other possible factors were investigated that may have contributed to the lack of significance between mobile versus nonrnobile adolescents.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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