Playing with peers is one of the most important contexts for the acquisition of social competencies in early childhood. This study examined the relation between children's play behavior, social acceptance in the peer group, and number of reciprocal friendships. One hundred and twenty eight children, aged between three and five years, participated…

A growing, sizable proportion of school children do not live in conventional family environments. Among these, internationally adopted children have gained increasing visibility in recent years. While other areas of their behavior have been widely explored, little is known about adopted children's social competence and their integration into peer…

This study examines the temporal stability (over 3 years) of individual differences in 3 domains relevant to preschool children's social competence: social engagement/motivation, profiles of behavior and personality attributes characteristic of socially competent young children, and peer acceptance. Each domain was measured with multiple…

This study examined the effects of two social skills interventions, Sociodramatic Affective Relational Intervention (SDARI) and Skillstreaming, to compare their treatment mechanisms, social performance- and knowledge-training. A total of 13 youth with autism spectrum disorders were randomly assigned to 4 weeks of 1-day/week SDARI or…

In this study, the authors examined the relations of Indonesian adolescents' socioemotional functioning to their majority-minority status and the presence of cross-religion friendships and whether sex moderated these relations. At Time 1, 1,254 7th graders and their peers in Bandung, Indonesia, reported on their friendships, prosocial behavior,…

Grounding their efforts on results of previous research, investigators have sought to improve peer relationships of unpopular children through direct instruction in social skills. Generally, such interventions have been effective in promoting specific outcomes. For example, skill-training programs improve children's ability to form colleague…

Studied the associations between measures of friendship and popularity derived from nomination and rating scales procedures with a sample of school-age and early adolescent boys and girls. Found that each of these techniques can provide parallel measures of popularity (sociometric preference) and friendship (whether the child is participating in a…

In this study, each of 33 middle class children from grades 3 and 4 was administered one of three experimental conditions designed to test in what ways coaching in social play skills improves the sociometric status of the children with their peers. The subjects were selected because of their low ratings on sociometric questionnaires. Condition 1…

This paper examines sex differences in the exclusiveness of children's dyadic friendships by comparing differences in the choice or nonchoice by dyad members of a third person at a given point in time as well as change in these triadic choices over time. (Author)

A total of 881 third through fifth graders completed sociometric measures of acceptance and friendship, a measure of loneliness, a questionnaire on their best friends, and a measure of friendship satisfaction. Results indicated that, although many low-accepted children had satisfying friendships, they were less satisfying than the friendships of…

Examined preschoolers' peer acceptance, aggression, and peer competence. Found that children with at least one mutual friend were better liked by peers and were rated by teachers as being more competent than children with no mutual friend. Children with at least one mutual friend were better liked by peers a year later than children with no mutual…

In a review of research on children without friends, the author notes the serious implications of growing up friendless. Issues covered include the process of identifying these children, their sociometric status and behaviors, the relation between children's status and dropping out of school, and considerations for teachers. (LB)

Assessed similarities between 192 target children and their friends and nonfriends. Found that children and friends were more similar to one another than nonfriends across the dataset. Friendship similarities were greater in antisocial behavior than in other domains. Similarities between friends in sociometric status and size of the friendship…

Conceptually distinct dimensions of classroom social position (number of mutual friendships, social network centrality, sociometric status) were examined in relation to each other and to peer-nominated behavioral reputation. Findings showed that number of friendships associated with prosocial skills; network centrality associated with prosocial…

This article reviews literature on peer acceptance of children and briefly discusses a study of the social skill correlates of peer acceptance. The importance of being able to form friendships for the child's later development and the importance of programs which maximize this ability are noted. There is a review of literature on programs which…