Ecological Contributions to Gender Differences in Intimacy among Peers

Children's relationships with their peers become more intimate as they grow older, with girls tending to experience intimacy in their friendships at an earlier age than their male counterparts. The size, friendship composition, and activity of elementary school children's play groups were recorded in an attempt to identify probable environmental causes of gender differences in the development of intimacy among peers. The study sample consisted of 25 children (18 girls) between the ages of 6 and 7, 23 children (11 girls) between 8 and 9, and 38 children (15 girls) between 10 and 11. The children were observed during recess for 4 months. Study findings included the following: (1) boys played in larger groups than girls; (2) fifth grade girls' tendency to play in groups of four or more suggeEts that group size is not a likely explanation for gender differences in intimacy; (3) boys engaged in competitive play and girls in socializing activity with increasing age, suggesting that intimacy development may be linked to activity; (4) the friendship composition of fifth grade children's play groups indicated that socializing occurred most often among reciprocal friends, whereas competitive and physical games occurred in mixtures of friends and non-friends; and (5) differences in composition suggested that different activities may provide varying opportunities for intimate exchanges. (AC) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** UAL DEPARTMENT oF Ewe-Arnow Dec. of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERC) )(This document has been reproduced as received from the demon or organization originating it 0 'Amor avows Aim Roan made to improve reproduction Quality Points of V14IW or opinions $tati Id Ii. ;Om document do not mustard), moresfent official OERI position or poky ECOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENDER DIFFERENCES IN INTIMACY AMONG PEERS Michelle Van Brunschot, Lynne Zarbatany, & Kim Strang C) University of Western Ontario,London, ON, Canada. C) Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, Louisiana UD el UJ Abstract The size, friendship composition, and activity of elementary school children's play groups were recorded in an attempt to identify probable environmental causes of gender differences in, the development of intimacy among peers. Twenty-fve 6-7 yearold (18 girls), 23 8-9 year-old (11 girls) and 38 10-11 year-old (15 girls) children were observed during recess for 4 months. Consistent with past research, boys played in larger groups than girls. However, fifth-grade girls' tendency to play in groups of four or more suggests that group size is not a likely explanation of gender differences in intimacy. In contrast, boys engaged in competitive play and girls in socializing activities with increasing age, suggesting that intimacy development may be linked to activity. The friendship composition of fifth-grade children's play groups indicated that socializing occurred moryt often among reciprocal friends, whereas competitive and physical ml) games occurred in mixtures of friends and non-friends. Differences in composition suggest that different activities may provide varying opportunities for intimate exchanges. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY fr tCk \ikkr\ si)NNI,ne5416t 2 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."