Human relations are extremely strained nowadays as economic and social life is changing rapidly. The young generation outlives all this especially responsively, as in order to successfully get involved into the active rhythm of life, they have to comprehend the social environment they get into while living and functioning in the society. They have to be able to communicate, deal with conflicts, and understand the impact of the assumed or granted social role on their behaviour.

Scientific resources discuss the capability of  the contemporary  individual to create and interchange ideas, be open to the ideas of other individuals and different cultures, think critically and creatively, have a vision and adapt oneself to new conditions, cooperate, work in teams, and manage his/her own behaviour as well as that of others.

The best way to meet the challenges of the change is education and learning. However, various foreign scientific resources cite a lot of researches that reveal increasing social insularity and analyse the problematic concept of social withdrawal (Rubin, 1982; Colpan, Rubin, Fox, Calkins, & Stewart, 1994; Harrist, Zaia, Bates, Dodge, & Pettit, 1997; Coplan & Rubin, 1998; Nelson, Hart, Robinson, Olsen, & Rubin, 2000; Hart et al., 2000; Rubin & Coplan, 2004).

The analysis of scientific resources manifests that the relevance of researches investigating schoolchildren’s social problems and ways of providing them with the assistance is still high. Investigations conducted by foreign scientists show a growing interest in the issues of schoolchildren’s social withdrawal. However, in Lithuania researches investigating the problem of dissociation and ways of solving the issue in the classroom are scarce.  Most researchers concentrate on the issues of providing general social assistance and separate aspects of providing it; as well as external problematic behaviour expressed by disobedience, hyper activeness impeding concentration, and aggressiveness.

However, in the papers of Lithuanian scientists, scientific investigations that analyse the phenomenon of socially withdrawn schoolchildren and the possibilities of involving them into active learning in the classroom as well as social class activities were not found.

Obviously, the schoolchildren who unconsciously use social withdrawal as a method of social adaptation at school do not learn to be active members of the society in the future.

The object of the research is the expression of the socially withdrawn children’s sociometric status and behaviour in the classroom

The aim of the research is to reveal the expression of the socially withdrawn children’s sociometric status and behaviour in the classroom.

The objectives of the research are as follows:

1.                  Substantiate the concept of children’s social withdrawal.

2.                  Identify the status of the children who tend to socially withdraw in the classroom.

3.                  Determine the behaviour that is characteristic to schoolchildren who tend to socially withdraw.

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