| The purpose of this study was to explore class clowns behavior profiles and creativity in the context of various sociometric status groups. The intent was to find the characteristics of class clowns.; Participants filled out social status questionnaire and class clown nomination. Teachers evaluated class clowns and non-class clowns by School Social Behavior Scales. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Figural form was the creativity index to measure class clowns' creativity. A total of 269 students in eleven classes, 151 female students and 118 male students, were included in the sociometric measurement and data analysis.; Thirty-nine students in third, fourth, fifth grade were identified as class clowns. Six class clowns were members of the popular sociometric status group, while sixteen class clowns fell into the rejected sociometric status group. Four class clowns ranked in the neglected sociometric status group, and seven class clowns were in the controversial sociometric status group. One class clown qualified in the average sociometric status group. Still, five class clowns could not be classified.; When class clowns were treated as a whole group compared with non-class clowns, class clowns showed higher demand and disruptive behavior than non-class clowns. Among different sociometric status groups, class clowns in popular, neglected, controversial, and unclassified sociometric status groups did not act differently. Only the rejected class clowns showed more hostile and irritable behavior than the popular class clowns did. Also, the rejected class clowns had more aggressive and antisocial behavior than the popular class clowns. Furthermore, the rejected class clowns had less self management skill and more hostile and irritable behavior than the rejected non-class clowns had.; There was no significant relationship between class clowns' creativity and their sociomtric status. Also, the popular class clowns did not have higher creative ability than did the class clowns in other sociometric status groups.; Three implications were discussed: definitions of class clowns, classification systems for class clowns, and intervention programs for class clowns. Last, three recommendations were provided for future researchers. |
