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"NO EXIT"

Processes of Social Isolation in the Middle School

DONNA EDER

Many adolescents experience feelings of social rejection and anxiety when they are not accepted by a particular peer group. However, the problems that social isolates encounter are much greater. Although the bulk 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 this study, ethnographic data were used to look at a range of factors that contributed to the social isolation of middle school students. All of the isolated students were found to have at least one characteristic that was viewed negatively by their peers and was partially responsible for their rejection. However, once a student was rejected on the basis of one characteristic she was assumed to have other negative characteristics as well. The rejected student was especially likely to be labeled as sexually deviant. This label contributed to further rejection and ridicule. Once a student became isolated, she experienced extraordinary difficulty as she attempted to shed her stigmatized status. The researchers discuss a variety of social processes that contributed to the cycle of isolation, only some of which were related to the behavior of the rejected individual.

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 22, No. 2, 139-170 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/089124193022002001


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