A peer refers to two or more people who are operating at similar levels of behavioural complexity (e.g. two toddlers). This means that children who differ in age can be considered peer as long as they adjust their behaviour to suit one another’s capabilities as they pursue common interests or goals.

Conflict among peers when resources (e.g. toys) are scarce can help children learn how to resolve their differences in a positive way. This fosters the growth of prosocial conflict resolution (e.g. sharing). Hostile exchanges could create dominance hierarchies which minimizes the likelihood of future aggression within the peer group. Peer interaction may promote the development of adaptive patterns of social conduct.

Equal-status contacts (i.e. same age interactions) with peers are likely to contribute to the development of social competencies. This is more difficult to obtain with parents as parents are the more powerful interaction partner and this is not the case with same-age peers.

A mixed-age peer interaction refers to interactions among children who differ in age by a year or more. The asymmetry in this interaction (i.e. one child having more social competencies) could help children acquire certain social competencies. The presence of younger peers may foster the development of compassion (1), caregiving (2), prosocial inclinations (3), assertiveness (4) and leadership skills (5). Younger peers learn a variety of new skills from this interaction. Mixed-age peer interaction does not have the same influence as sibling contact as sibling status is determined by order of birth whereas peer status is more flexible.

Children tend to spend more time in mixed-age interactions than with same-age peers. As a result of gender segregation in childhood, boys form packs where competition is central (e.g. team sports; competitive games) whereas girls form pairs where a cooperative relationship is central.

Parents and peers each contribute something essential but different to a child’s social development. Regular contact with sensitive, responsive parents permits infants to acquire basic interactive skills and provides them with a sense of security. Contact with peers may allow children to elaborate their basic interactive routines and develop competent and adaptive patterns of social behaviour with those who are similar to them (i.e. peers). Peer rejection is a risk factor for negative outcomes (e.g. delinquency).

Harris claims that peers are more important as socialization agents than parents because parental influence is mainly genetic while peer influence is mainly environmental (e.g. parents react to individual differences in the child due to genetic differences rather than create these differences using parenting). However, parenting behaviour does matter.

Sociability refers to one’s willingness to interact with others and seek their attention or approval. 6-7 month old babies smile, vocalize and gesture to other infants. 10-month-old infants show simple social preferences. By 1 year, they start to imitate peers and between 12 and 18 months they start to react more appropriately to each other’s behaviour (e.g. turn taking). By 18 months of age, infants begin to display coordinated interactions with playmates. They are very attentive to peers. By 20-24 month olds, toddler play often has a strong verbal component (e.g. describing play activity to one another).

Social and cognitive development contribute to the growth of peer sociability over the first two years. Social skills refer to thoughts, actions and emotional regulatory activities that enable children to achieve personal or social goals while maintaining harmony with their social partners. Intersubjectivity refers to the ability to share meaning, intentions and goals with a social partner is essential for pretend play.

4 to 5 year old children try to get the attention of peers as well as adults compared to 2 to 3 year olds who mainly want the attention of adults. Children become more peer oriented during the preschool years. Pre-schoolers’ play activities can be placed in four categories:

1. Non-social activity
   This refers to activity where one is either watching others or engaging in solitary play.
2. Parallel play
   This refers to children playing side by side with very little interaction.
3. Associative play
   This refers to play where toys and materials are shared but there are no cooperative efforts to obtain shared goals.
4. Cooperative play
   This refers to play with a shared goal and cooperative efforts to achieve this.

Solitary and parallel play decline with age whereas associative and cooperative play become more common. Passive, constructive solitary play (e.g. build tower of blocks) is positively associated with emotional adjustment and social competencies among kindergarten girls but not boys. Children whose play was more complex are more outgoing (1), pro-socially inclined (2), less aggressive (3) and less withdrawn (4). This means that the cognitive complexity of a child’s play is a predictor of future social competencies with peers.

The character of pre-schoolers’ play is influenced by cultural values. Pretend play may have three developmental functions:

1. It may help children master ways of sharing meaning with their peers.
2. It provides opportunities for young children to learn to compromise (e.g. during negotiation for the roles).
3. It permits children to display feelings that may bother them allowing for better emotional development.

This means that pretend play may be important in the development of communication skills (1), emotional understanding (2), social perspective-taking (3) and enhanced capacity for caring (4).

Peer interactions become increasingly complicated throughout grade-school years. Peer groups refer to a confederation of peers that interact regularly, define a sense of membership and formulate norms that specify how members are supposed to look, think and act. This becomes more common. In the peer group, children often discover the value of teamwork (1), develop a sense of loyalty (2) and develop commitment to shared goals (3).

A clique refers to a small group of friends that interacts frequently. This is more common in adolescence. It is often same-sex in early adolescence and mixed-sex in middle adolescence. It consists of 4-8 members who share similar values and activity preferences. By mid-adolescence, cliques with similar norms and values often become identifiable as a larger, more loosely organized crowd. This refers to a large, reputationally based peer group made up of individuals and cliques that share similar norms, interests and values. The crowds do not replace cliques. Identifying with a clique or crowd can be harmful if the norms and values in the group are harmful (e.g. positive of substance use). Cliques and crowds permit adolescents to try out new roles and express emerging values as they begin to forge an identity apart from their family.

Sociability is a basic component of temperament (i.e. some children are genetically predisposed to be more sociable and outgoing than others). If children cannot come into contact with peers by themselves (e.g. due to residency), then they rely on their parents to play the role of booking agent (i.e. arrange playdates). Children who attend preschool programmes that emphasize a social curriculum develop social skills at an earlier age than those who remain at home because guidance of the teachers and day care providers may have a positive influence (1), children become securely attached to the responsive teachers (2) and these children may become more sociable because they become more familiar with their classmates (3).

Children who are indirectly monitored are liked better by peers than children who are directly monitored by their parents. Positive coaching of the child by the parents leads to more positive peer relationships. Parents who fail to regulate their own negative emotions tend to have children who establish conflictual relationships with peers. Parents can foster the development of social skills and positive peer relationships by calmly discussing basic social courtesies and teaching their children prosocial strategies for initiating and maintaining social contact. Furthermore, they can indirectly monitor their children’s interactions and allow playmates freedom to structure their own play activities and resolve most minor disputes on their own.

Secure attachment promotes social competency. Parenting styles that foster good social skills are similar across cultures but the skills they foster differ from culture to culture (e.g. outgoing or reserved).

Peer acceptance refers to a measure of a person’s likability in the eyes of peers. Different groups value different attributes and those who are accepted possess the characteristics that are valued by their peer group. Sociometric techniques refer to procedures that ask children to identify those peers whom they like or dislike or to rate peers for their desirability as companions. This is used to measure children’s peer acceptance. There are several categories of children:

1. Popular children
   These children are liked by many and disliked by few.
2. Rejected children
   These children are disliked by many and liked by few.
3. Neglected children
   These children are liked by few and disliked by few (i.e. low social impact).
4. Controversial children
   These children are liked by many but also disliked by many.
5. Average
   These children are liked by some and disliked by some.

Controversial children are often described as arrogant or snobbish. They display mixed behavioural profiles (e.g. prosocial but also disruptive). The average and popular status are stable on the short term but not on the long-term. Rejection status tends to be more stable over time. This may be due to an unfavourable bias of peers towards the rejected child. The disliked behaviour is attributed to stable causes of the rejected child (e.g. she is mean) while the prosocial behaviour is attributed to dispositional causes. The opposite pattern occurs for liked children. Rejected children have the greatest risk of displaying deviant or antisocial behaviour and other adjustment problems in later life.

There are several factors that contribute to children’s acceptance by peers:

1. Parenting styles
   The parenting style influences a child’s social skills and this influences their acceptance.
2. Temperamental characteristics
   The temperament of a child can make one more liked or disliked (e.g. being impulsive and irritable).
3. Cognitive skills
   Cognitive and social-cognitive skills influence peer acceptance. The most popular children have the best developed role-taking skills and well-liked children tend to have a higher IQ than rejected children.

Peer rejection contributes to poor adjustment outcomes over and above the home issues. It is likely that peer acceptance and academic performance are reciprocally related.

Children that are relatively calm (1), outgoing (2), friendly (3), supportive (4), can initiate and maintain interactions (5) and resolve disputes amicably (6) are liked better. Liked children are more cooperative (1), warm (2) and compassionate (3). They display more prosocial behaviour and are rarely disruptive or aggressive.

Neglected children are somewhat passive and shy. They do not make a lot of attempts to enter play groups (1), feel that they receive little support from peers (2), seldom call attention to themselves (3) and are not very talkative (4). However, they are not less socially skilled than average children.

There are two types of rejected children:

1. Aggressive-rejected children
   This refers to children who display high levels of hostility and aggression in their interactions with peers. They often alienate peers by using physical force (1), tend to be disruptive (2), uncooperative (3), critical of peer group activities (4) and display low levels of prosocial behaviour (5). These children are prone to interpret others’ behaviour as hostile and favour retaliation. They overestimate their social standing and are at risk to maintain this status over time.
2. Withdrawn-rejected children
   This refers to children who are socially awkward who display many unusual and immature behaviours. They are insensitive to peer group expectations and are quick to anger in response to conflict and prefer retaliation. These children feel lonely and are at risk of internalizing disorders.

Changes in social status have behavioural implications (e.g. aggressive children that are accepted become less aggressive over time). Peer rejection has an independent effect on early aggression to predict behavioural problems in later life.

The determinants of peer status change with age. Heightened aggression becomes less important in adolescence. Adolescents view popularity as having prestige (1), being visible (2) and having a capacity to influence others (3). This means that popularity and likability are not the same thing. Likability appears to be more adaptive for adolescents.

Withdrawn behaviour becomes a more important predictor of peer rejection and internalizing disorders by middle to late elementary school years as abnormal behaviour begins to stand out more. The ability to establish close relationships with members of the other sex begins to enhance one’s social standing in adolescence whereas this ability can undermine status with peers during childhood.