DO MOTHERS PERCEPTIONS AND CONCERNS ABOUT PRESCHOOLERS PEER COMPETENCE PREDICT THEIR PEER-MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Although parents' management behaviors have been associated with child ren's competence with peers, relatively little is known about factors that may determine parents' management practices. In this study, measu res of mothers' perceptions and concerns, mothers' peer-related manage ment practices, and children's social competence were obtained with 62 preschool children and their mothers. Results indicated that mothers differentiated between prosocial behavior and peer sociability when as sessing children's progress relative to peers. Girls received higher p rogress ratings from their mothers than did boys, and mothers tended t o view their children's prosocial skills as less well developed than t heir sociability toward peers. Mothers who reported lower estimates of their children's sociability tended to have higher levels of concern and were less involved in the management of their informal peer relati ons. Conversely, mothers who managed children's social lives by facili tating informal peer activities and promoting children's social autono my tended to see their children as more sociable with peers.