SIMILARITIES BETWEEN FRIENDS AND NONFRIENDS IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Similarities were assessed between target children (mean age, 11.1 yea rs) and their friends and nonfriends, respectively. One target child o f each sex (N = 192), along with one same-sex friend and one nonfriend , were selected from 102 participating classrooms. ''Guess who'' nomin ations obtained within these classrooms were used to measure prosocial behavior, antisocial behavior, shyness/dependency, and sociometric st atus; self-reports were used to measure depressive symptoms. Children and their friends were more similar to one another than nonfriends acr oss the entire data set-as the participants were rated by their classm ates and as their classmates were rated by the participants. Friendshi p similarities varied from attribute to attribute, being greater in an tisocial behavior than in the other domains. Similarities between frie nds in sociometric status and size of the friendship network were also greater among socially accepted than nonaccepted children.