Sociometric assessment can be defined as the measurement of interpersonal relationships in a social group. Sociomet-ric measurement or assessment methods provide information about an individual's social competence and standing within a peer group. School-based sociometric assessment often focuses on a child's relationships with regard to social popularity, peer acceptance, peer rejection, and reputation. Some sociometric assessment methods derive information on social relationships by assessing children's positive and negative social perceptions of one another, whereas other methods involve adult (teacher, parent) and self perceptions of children's social competencies or standing.

There are a variety of what can be referred to as classic sociometric assessment techniques derived from the work of the 1930s, including peer nomination, peer rankings, and sociometric rankings. In the peer nomination technique, children in a social group or school classroom anonymously identify social preferences for their classmates. For example, children may be asked to provide a list of the three classmates with whom they would most like to play and the three with whom they would least like to play. Another peer nomination technique is to provide a list of the names of the children in a classroom along with social acceptance items (e.g., “Who do you like to play with?” “Who is most likely to be alone during recess?” “Who gets into trouble the most?”). The children are asked to identify perhaps one to three classmates who they perceive best fit the item description.

An alternative peer nomination method for early readers is to use photographs with an adult reading the items aloud in either an individual or classroom setting while the children provide a