Social Perceptions of Self and Others in Dyadic Peer Relationships

Julie A. Hubbard

Duke University

Sociometric data and interviews assessing social behavioral perceptions of self and others were used with third-grade boys to examine the relation between similarity and attraction in children, as well as the existence and quality of friendship in rejected children. The relation found between similarity and attraction in children was weaker than that reported for adults. The existence of mutual liking dyads including rejected children was substantiated. Additionally, rejected children were more often members of asymmetrical dyads, in which they liked a child who disliked them. The members of friendship dyads including rejected children were found to be less similar than the members of other friendship dyads. However, the friends of rejected children did not differ from the friends of nonrejected children in the positive nature of their perceptions of their friends.