Abstract
Peer acceptance or popularity refers to the degree to which a child’s peers wish to have some form of associative contact with him or her. Peer acceptance is commonly assessed using sociometric techniques. These procedures require children to evaluate other children in terms of their likability or general competence. Research has shown that children identified by these procedures as having poor relationships are at risk for both concurrent and subsequent adjustment problems. Since the identification of these children has very important consequences in terms of their future it is imperative that we be able to identify these children accurately. It has been argued that peers are the best source for identifying these children because they have frequent opportunities to observe their peers and they operate from a child’s frame of reference. However, little is known about the frame of reference that children utilize when making judgments about the social status of their peers. Although sociometric procedures are highly favored and frequently used to study children’s social relationships, little consideration has been given to the variables that influence children’s sociometric choices. This chapter examines the influence of gender on the frame of reference children use in making sociometric decisions.
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Daniels-Beirness, T. (1989). Measuring Peer Status in Boys and Girls: A Problem of Apples and Oranges?. In: Schneider, B.H., Attili, G., Nadel, J., Weissberg, R.P. (eds) Social Competence in Developmental Perspective. NATO ASI Series, vol 51. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2442-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2442-0_7
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