Examines how boys and girls use features of stories to accomplish and restructure social identities within encounters. Finds that boys use stories to continue an ongoing argument while reshaping the domain of dispute. Finds that girls use stories to restructure alignments of participants in the current interaction and at some future time. (RS)

Analyzes conflict talk among three-year-old friends playing in same-sex triads at their day care center. Interprets the gendered aspects of two disputes in terms of an anthropological linguistic model and a psychological framework. Demonstrates the gendered nature of children's peer talk at as young as three years of age. (RS)