Peer rejection and negative teacher feedback: a person-centred approach for identifying students at risk in Swiss elementary classrooms

A person-centred approach was used to identify subgroups of students at risk of negative social interactions. Eighteen teachers and their 358 first- to third-grade elementary students in Switzerland were studied. Three subgroups were identified based on student social and language skills, peer rejection, and teacher feedback. Most of the students had high social skills, low peer rejection levels, and average language skills. One subgroup had the lowest levels of language skills and high levels of peer rejection. The smallest subgroup was characterised by having the lowest level of social skills, more negative teacher feedback and peer rejection.