Reciprocal nominations, reciprocal rejections and loneliness among students with learning disorders

The study examined the relations between reciprocal nominations, reciprocal rejections and loneliness among children with learning disorders. The sample consisted of 238 Israeli students: 110 students with learning disorders (LD) and 128 students with no LD (NLD) drawn from 2nd to 6th Grades (ages: M = 9.83 years, SD = 1.35). Participants were assessed on: loneliness, sense of coherence, friendship quality, reciprocal friendship and reciprocal rejection nominations. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that loneliness experience was significantly predicted by sense of coherence, peer reciprocal rejection and conception of friendship qualities. Students with LD who had at least one reciprocal rejection with a classmate felt more lonely and less coherent than did their NLD peers. Within the LD group, those children who had at least one reciprocal rejection with a classmate felt more lonely and less coherent than did LD children who had no reciprocal rejection. Such significant within-group differences were not found in the NLD group. The discussion emphasises the importance of the examination of intra- and interpersonal variables in the understanding the loneliness experience among LD children, with special focus on the role of reciprocal negative nominations.