Twenty behavioral attributes which predict social distance were examined among mainstreamed developmentally handicapped (n=8) and normal (n=93) junior high school students. The sample consisted of a predominantly white, middle-class, suburban, midwestern school district. The developmentally handicapped students were mainstreamed into each of six normal classrooms for at least one period of each day. A sociometric nomination measure was used to obtain behavioral attribute profiles of the students which were then used to predict a psychometric measure of social distance. Mainstreamed handicapped students were not found to be more socially distant than their normal peers (p>.05). Factors analysis of the 20 behavioral attributes obtained four significant factors, three of which were found to be significant predictors of classroom social distance, accounting for better than half the variance in social distance (R2=.54, P<.01). The three factors were described as (1) incompetent and unassertive, (2) positive active and assertive, and (3) passive and unassertive. The study concludes that social rejection in mainstreamed classrooms is more a function of perceived behavioral attribute factors rather than the developmentally handicapped label as such. (Author)