Social ratings of children with cleft lip by school peers.

A group of 78 students from the second, third, and fourth grades rated color slides of 3 children with bilateral cleft lip, 3 children with unilateral cleft lip and 3 children with normal facial features on 15 independent semantic differential variables. Results indicated that children with cleft lip were viewed more negatively than the nonclefted children. The bilateral cleft lip group was rated more negatively than the unilateral cleft lip group on approximately half of the adjectival scales. The older judges rated the treatment groups higher than the younger judges on all except one of the variables. Implications for these findings are discussed.