The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mentally retarded children's social status and their social behavior as perceived by their peers in the mainstream classroom. For purposes of comparison, the relationship between nonretarded children's social status and their perceived behavior was also assessed. Sociometric surveys were conducted in 51 third though sixth grade mainstream classrooms in order to identify accepted and rejected mentally retarded and nonretarded children. Peer assessments of social behavior were also obtained, and the results were used to classify subjects into groups (sociable, sensitive/isolated, aggressive/disruptive, or some combination). Results revealed that rejected, mentally retarded children were perceived by their nonretarded peers as engaging in aggressive/disruptive and or sensitive/isolated behavior. In contrast, accepted mentally retarded children were perceived as sociable. The same relationships were found for nonretarded accepted and rejected children. Factor analyses of the peer assessments revealed that nonretarded children used similar dimensions in assessing the social behavior of their mentally retarded and nonretarded peers. (Author)