Two-dimensional sociometric models have had a critical role in the investigation of children's peer relations in the past decade. In a meta-analysis, fitting categorical models (Hedges, 1982), sociometric group differences on behavioral and information source typologies were assessed. The broad-band behavioral analysis showed that popular children's array of competencies makes them likely recipients of positive peer nominations, whereas high levels of aggression and withdrawal and low levels of sociability and cognitive abilities are associated with rejected peer status. A consistent profile marked by less sociability and aggression emerged for neglected status. Controversial children had higher aggressive behavior than rejected children but compensated for it with significantly better cognitive and social abilities. The moderator effects of narrow-band behavioral categories and information source were also examined.

Children's friendships represent mutual dyadic relationships that differ from peer relations, which have lesser affective ties. This meta-analytic review fit categorical models (L. V. Hedges, 1982) to examine the behavioral and affective manifestations of children's friendships as evinced by comparisons of friends and nonfriends. Analysis of our broadband categories revealed that friendships, compared with nonfriend relations, are characterized by more intense social activity, more frequent conflict resolution, and more effective task performance. Also, relationships between friends are marked by reciprocal and intimate properties of affiliation. At the level of narrowband categories, friendship relations afford a context for social and emotional growth. These behavioral and affective manifestations of friendship are moderated by the age level of participants, the strength of the relationship, and the methodology of the study.

Three sociometric procedures, which utilize a two-dimensional social-impact and social-preference framework, were evaluated on three independent samples of fourthand fifth-grade children (N = 334, 173, 89). The stability and distribution of classification, the relationship between dimensions, the validation of dimensions, and the validation of classification groups were considered. Overall, the Peery (1979) method appeared most problematic, due to both conceptual and practical drawbacks. The Coie, Dodge, and Coppotelli (1982) procedure was found to have nonexhaustive groups and had the potential of misrepresenting children's social networks when standardized scores were used. Furthermore, little support was found for the proposed controversial group in the Coie et al. classification system. An alternative two-dimensional sociometric model based on probability theory was proposed and was found to have excellent performance characteristics while still providing a constant frame of reference across social networks. The social reputational correlates of the impact and preference dimensions and the sociometric groups proposed by each model were also investigated. Although social impact and social preference are found to be reliable and valid determinants of peer group status, the need for alternative indicators of children's social standing in the peer group is discussed.

Although peer-rejected children appear to be at risk for later difficulties, the contribution of preadolescent friendship to adaptive adjustment lacks an empirical foundation. In this 12 year follow-up investigation, 30 young adults who had a stable, reciprocal best friend in fifth grade and 30 who had been chumless completed measures of adjustment in multiple domains. Friendship and peer rejection were found to have unique implications for adaptive development. Lower levels of preadolescent peer rejection uniquely predicted overall life status adjustment, whereas friended preadolescents had higher levels of general self-worth in adulthood even after controlling for perceived competence in preadolescence. In contrast, peer rejection and the absence of friendship were both associated with psychopathological symptoms in adulthood, although neither was uniquely predictive of symptomatology.

Differences in attraction to same- and other-sex peers as a function of sex, age, individual characteristics (i.e., aggression), and context were examined in a longitudinal study of early adolescent boys and girls (N = 217) that covered the transition from elementary school (Time 1) to middle school (Times 2 and 3). Consistent with T. Moffitt's (1993) concept of the "maturity gap," attraction to aggressive peers, especially attraction to aggressive boys among girls, increased with age and upon entry to middle school, as did attraction to peers who stood out in the peer group in easily observable ways. Attraction to peers who presented features associated with good classroom-based behavior decreased. These patterns are discussed in terms of the developmental needs served by associating with particular peers.