The present study examined whether children and adolescents develop mental models of peer relations that reflect observed gender differences in size and in density of friendship structures. A total of 278 children and adolescents, ranging from preschool level to CEGEP, participated in the study. Participants were given a questionnaire, consisting of schematic drawings of different forms of peer interactions, to assess their ideas about how friendships are organized for children of their age. Results indicated that both female and male participants at all grade levels judged typical boys to have a greater preference for group than dyadic interactions than did typical girls. Typical girls, however, were not judged to have preference for either dyadic or group interactions. Results also indicated that both female and male participants at all grades judged that the probability of mutual friends also being friends as higher for typical boys than for typical girls. Overall, the findings from the present study demonstrated that children and adolescents of both genders possess internal working models of peer interactions, beginning in early childhood, that are gender differentiated in a way that reflects patterns of behaviour.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33280 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Dolenszky, Eva. |
| Contributors | Benenson, Joyce (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001778529, proquestno: MQ70590, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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