Findings indicated that as the proportion of nominators declines, sociometric classifications become less accurate. Of the groups usually compared in studies of children's social adjustment, the average and neglected groups appear least resistant, and the rejected group most resistant, to classification errors due to nominator attrition. (RH)

Examined relations between children's and their friends' perceptions of friendship features as a function of children's sociometric status. Found rejected children's perceptions showed considerably lower correlations with friends' perceptions than did average and popular children's perceptions; rejected children's friends perceived their…

Eight girls and 8 boys, 4 years of age, were individually administered two measures of role-taking skill (empathy and spatial egocentrism), a measure of classification ability and a measure of sociometric popularity. Activity during free play was also observed. Results support Smilansky's (1968) beliefs concerning the ontogenesis of play in young…

Examined stability and behavioral correlates of peer acceptance from kindergarten through second grade. Found that social acceptance and peer competence were relatively stable. Stably rejected children showed poorer peer and teacher ratings of social behavior than others; transiently rejected children were rated moderate in social skill. Changes…

Refers to articles within this issue of the Quarterly on the correlates of sociometric status, especially the views of Blyth. Agrees that maps of the child's social network need to be expanded to include nonschool contexts but argues that this effort should be guided by the potential contributions of these systems to social development. (CB)

Elementary students completed daily diaries indicating peer encounters and participated in sociometric surveys. Findings indicated negative peer experiences related to their reputations as assessed by sociometric nominations. Children who were poorly liked or viewed as exhibiting undesirable characteristics encountered more peer mistreatment than…

Social strategies, sociometric patterns, and teacher ratings of social competency were compared among middle and low socioeconomic status preschool children. (PCB)

Examined cross-informant concordance, temporal stability, and reliability of sociometrics in 84 preschoolers. Found that parallel forms of teacher and peer sociometrics measured overlapping and unique aspects of popularity. Teacher-measured popularity was highly stable over 8 weeks; peer-measured popularity showed lower stability. Both teacher and…

Examined communication strategies that 68 preschoolers used to negotiate themes and roles in social pretend play. A major finding was that children in the disliked group used higher proportions of suggestions and demands than did children in the liked and low-impact groups. Disliked girls used the highest proportion of suggestions. (LB)

The effects of naturally-occuring within-group variations in social density were assessed via observations of children in an extremely crowded township nursery in South Africa. The nursery class consisted of 83 children who ranged in age from 32 to 64 months. Levels of crowding at home appeared to exert only a small effect on sensitivity to…

This study examined fourth- and fifth-grade girls' cognitions of their relationally aggressive peers as a function of their own relationally aggressive and sociometric status. Findings indicated that relationally aggressive girls tended to display a relatively cautious and wary social cognitive style in relationally provocative social situations.…

Examined the role of fourth graders' social self-perceptions in their social development. Found significant relationships among self-perception measures, and they were moderately stable over the school year. Found significant sociometric status and gender effects for generalized and dyadic perceptions. Inaccurate social self-perceptions predicted…