Method Introduction Mixed groups ANOVAs were performed and then followed up using the LSD procedure (p =.05) to look at the relationship between gender, reciprocal friends (low, medium, or high), and number of times listed as most liked by peers (low, medium, or high) as they relate to getting others to do things my way, sticking up for others, and talking more than others. Table 2 shows the summary of the ANOVA analysis, Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics for get others to do things my way, and Table 5 shows the descriptive statistics for stick up for others. Getting Others to Do Things My Way: There was a significant interaction between gender, reciprocal friends, and number of times listed as most liked by peers as they relate to getting others to do things my way (F(4,1124) = 3.859, Mse = 1.506, p =.004). Follow-up analysis (LSD =.0427) showed that for males with a low number of people that listed them as most liked, those with low and high numbers of reciprocal friends were equal to each other in getting others to do things their way and were greater than the males with a medium number of reciprocal friends. For males with a medium number of peers listing them as most liked, those with a high number of reciprocal friends were least likely to get others to do things their way while those with low and medium numbers of reciprocal friends were equal to each other. There was no difference in getting others to do things their way among reciprocal friends for males with a high number of people listing them as most liked. For females with low and medium numbers of people listing them as most liked, there was no difference in getting others to do things their way among the different levels of reciprocal friends. However, for the females with a medium number of people listing them as most liked, those with a high number of reciprocal friends were more likely to get others to do things their way than those with either low or medium numbers of reciprocal friends, which were equal to each other. There was a significant main effect for gender (F(1,1124) = 4.110, Mse = 1.506, p =.043) such that males were more likely to get others to do things their way than females. There were no other significant main effects or two-way interactions. Sticking Up For Others: There was no significant three way interaction between gender, reciprocal friends, and number of times listed as most liked by peers as they relate to sticking up for others (F(4,1124) =.911, Mse = 1.277, p =.457). There was also no two-way interaction between times listed as most liked and reciprocal friends (F(4,1124) =.757, Mse = 1.277, p =.553). There was, however, a significant two-way interaction between gender and number of times listed as most liked as they relate to sticking up for others (F(2,1124) = 6.855, Mse = 1.277, p =.001). Follow-up analysis (LSD =.227) revealed that for those with low and high numbers of peers listing them as most liked, females were more likely to stick up for others than males, while for those with a medium number of peers listing them as most liked, males and females were equally likely to stick up for others. There was also a significant two-way interaction between gender and reciprocal friends (F(2,1124) = 10.11, Mse = 1.277, p <.001). Follow-up analysis (LSD =.227) showed that for those with low and medium numbers of reciprocal friends, males and females were equally likely to stick up for others, and for those with a high number of reciprocal friends females were more likely than males to stick up for others. There was no significant main effect for times listed as most liked F(2,1124) = 1.621, Mse = 1.277, p =.198) or for reciprocal friends (F(2,1124) = 2.532, Mse = 1.277, p =.080) and neither one was descriptive. There was, however, a significant main effect of gender as it relates to sticking up for others (F(1,1124) = , Mse = 1.277, p <.001) that was not descriptive. Discussion Gender Relations: Reciprocal Friendships as They Relate to Peer Interactions Krystal L. Hergott University of Nebraska-Lincoln Friendships are an integral part of adolescent development and behavior among peers. Friendship is defined as a close, reciprocal relationship between two peers (Bishop & Inderbitzen, 1995; George & Hartmann, 1996; Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). This, combined with sociometric status, which demonstrates how much a person is liked within a specific group, is a good start when investigating an adolescent’s interactions with peers (Preveaux, Ray, LoBello, & Mehta, 2004). Looking at how children rate liking others on a scale instead of having them choose distinct categories gives us a continuum of liking instead of two separate groups of either liked or rejected peers (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). This allows for a more accurate reflection of an adolescent’s feelings towards other students and also gives us a better idea of where each student fits into a group of accepted peers. From there, popularity and rejection can be looked at as well as positive and negative behaviors that may relate to acceptance or dislike among adolescent peer groups. The Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) was created to study whether or not liking someone is associated with their positive and negative social behaviors, and Inderbitzen and Foster (1992) found that both positive and negative scores based on the positive and negative behavior items are related to peer acceptance. Liking someone also seems to be related to positive social traits (Preveaux, Ray, LoBello, & Mehta, 2004). This means that adolescents who display positive social behaviors, like sticking up for others, are more likely to be accepted by their peers. Therefore, it is hypothesized that those listed more times as most liked will be more likely to stick up for others. Based on the usual significant positive correlation between friendship and popularity (Bukowski, Hoza, & Newcomb, 1994), it is hypothesized that reciprocal friends and times listed as most liked by peers will be positively correlated. It has been found that when gender is considered, females engaging in male-stereotyped behavior are more accepted by peers of both sexes while males are more rejected by peers of both sexes when they exhibit typically female behaviors (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). This could mean that females are more likely to exhibit these behaviors and are more likely to escape the harm to acceptance that comes with engaging in other negative behaviors as well. Overall, gender is expected to relate to all the social behaviors that are being tested. Participants A total of 1,142 ninth grade students from seven different public junior high schools in a mid-sized midwestern town participated in this study. Out of these, 557 (50.5%) were male and 565 (49.5%) were female. The mean age was Measures Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) (Inderbitzen & Foster, 1992): The TISS is a 40-item self-report questionnaire with items related to both peer acceptance and peer dislike. Respondents were asked to rate the descriptiveness of each of the 40 items along a 6-point continuum. Sociometric and Friendship Questionnaire (Coie et al., 1982): The SFQ was used in this study to determine a student’s number of reciprocal friendships and the number of times a student was listed as most liked. Reciprocal friendships were determined by mutual friendship nominations and the number of times listed as most liked was determined by the number of times a student received a rating of 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale. Procedure After being administered, the questionnaires were collected and the responses entered into a computer so that the appropriate analysis could be run. The number of reciprocal friends was divided into three categories: Low (lowest to 1), Medium (1 to 3), and High (3 to highest), as was number of times listed as most liked: Low (lowest to -.37), Medium (-.37 to.27), and High (.27 to highest). The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of gender, reciprocal friends, and number of times listed as most liked as they relate to various social behaviors. Inderbitzen and Foster found that students were ranked higher when they exhibited more positive behaviors and fewer negative behaviors (1992). Similarly, those that were more liked in our study were more likely to talk more than others and for males, to stick up for others. Bishop and Inderbitrzen found that, although they deal with similar issues, being liked and reciprocal friends were not significantly related when dealing with self esteem (1995). Contrary to the hypothesis, but similar to these findings, this was replicated for all three social behaviors in our study except when also considering gender. When taking all three variables into account as they relate to getting others to do things my way, there was a significant three way interaction. Although there is not an abundance of literature to support the gender hypothesis, it was found that the females were more likely than males to stick up for others and talk more than others while males were more likely than females to get others to do things their way. More research also needs to be done on how gender relates to reciprocal friends and most liked to find out whether gender contributes to the popularity of adolescents in a peer group, how many youth have reciprocal friends of the opposite sex, and whether overall positive or negative behaviors relate to gender. There are a few things that could improve the accuracy of research in this area. First of all, this study was limited to ninth grade students making it impossible to check for reciprocal friends outside of that grade level. Many students have friends that are younger, older, or outside the school system, so results concluded on reciprocal friends inside schools do not accurately reflect their true number of friends. Also, the most liked score could have been averaged with a least liked score to more accurately determine popularity and acceptance among peers (Coie, Dodge, & Coppotelli, 1982). While we know that these variables interact differently across these three specific behaviors, more knowledge could be gained by comparing them to the whole TISS to get an overall positive and an overall negative behavioral score. By finding this, we would be better able to see how behavior fluctuates throughout sociometric levels. It would also be interesting to see how self-esteem relates to these issues. It has been found that friendship and acceptance by peers support self-esteem (Bishop & Inderbitzen 1995), which suggests an interaction, but further research is needed to test this hypothesis and to test whether or not self-esteem is related to positive and negative social behaviors. Table 1 Summary of Gender, Reciprocal Friends, Number of times listed as most liked, Get Others to Do Things My Way, Talk More Than Others, and Stick Up for Others VariableUnivariate Statistic GenderMale577 (50.5%) Female565 (49.5%) Times Listed as Most LikedLow389 (34.1%) Medium376 (32.9%) High377 (33.0%) Reciprocal FriendsLow480 (42.0%) Medium328 (28.7%) High334 (29.3%) Get Others to Do Things My WayM = 3.15SD = 1.24N = 1142 Talk More Than OthersM = 3.45SD = 1.38N = 1142 Stick Up For OthersM = 4.14SD = 1.16N = 1142 Table 2 Summary of ANOVA Analysis N = 1142; df = 1124 Get Others to Do Things My Way Gender Zmost Recipfr Gender*Zmost Gender*Recipfr Zmost*Recipfr Gender*Zmost*Recipfr Talk More Than Others Gender Zmost Recipfr Gender*Zmost Gender*Recipfr Zmost*Recipfr Gender*Zmost*Recipfr Stick Up For Others Gender Zmost Recipfr Gender*Zmost Gender*Recipfr Zmost*Recipfr Gender*Zmost*Recipfr Table 3 Descriptive Statistics for Get Others to Do Things My Way GenderMost likedRecip.FrndMeanStd. Dev.N Male LowLow Medium High Total MediumLow Medium High Total HighLow Medium High Total TotalLow Medium High Total Female LowLow Medium High Total MediumLow Medium High Total HighLow Medium High Total TotalLow Medium High Total Table 5 Descriptive Statistics for Stick Up For Others GenderMost likedRecip.FrndMeanStd. Dev.N Male LowLow Medium High Total MediumLow Medium High Total HighLow Medium High Total TotalLow Medium High Total Female LowLow Medium High Total MediumLow Medium High Total HighLow Medium High Total TotalLow Medium High Total This study used data from a survey of 1,142 ninth grade students to investigate the relationship between gender, reciprocal friends, and number of times listed as most liked by peers as they relate to the following social behaviors: getting others to do things my way, talking more than others, and sticking up for others. Gender, reciprocal friends, and times listed as most liked by peers interacted differently across the three social behaviors. Abstract Results