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This study examined the relationship among children's thoughts about friendship, their observed friendship behavior, and their attachment to their parents. The attachment of 73 children to their mothers was assessed in the Strange Situation procedure when the children were 12 months of age, and to their fathers when they were 13 months of age. At the age of 5, children were observed in play with a close or best friend during a 2-hour laboratory session. As part of the laboratory visit, the children and their friends were interviewed about each other. Results indicated connections between children's attachment classification and the conception of friendship held by the children's friends, and between conceptions of friendship and behavior in friendship. (PM)

The goal of this investigation was to explore the role social competence plays in peer group relations. Social competence, as based on exchange theory, was "operationalized" as including high levels of interpersonal positiveness, and accuracy in perceiving one's social status. Also explored was the extent to which satisfaction is a consequence of competence and social status. A total of 50 fifth-graders were interviewed, providing data in four domains: (1) sociometric status; (2) perceived sociometric status; (3) loneliness and social dissatisfaction; and (4) interpersonal positiveness in different social situations. Results indicated that unpopular children were more dissatisfied and lonely, and less interpersonally positive, than average or popular classmates. Further, even though all the children were fairly accurate perceivers of their social standing, unpopular children overestimated it, while average and popular children underestimated their peer group status. When path analysis was used to test an exchange theory model of social competence and peer relationships, findings indicated that social competence significantly predicted social status which, in turn, significantly predicted social satisfaction. (Author/RH)

Examined individual differences in 50 preschool children's pretend play with their mothers and siblings. Results indicated individual differences in the amount and sophistication of preschoolers' social pretend play and suggested that these individual differences are related to experiences in preschoolers' relationships with their mothers and siblings. (MDM)