An examination of associations between children's popularity and mothers' and children's views of relationships

The purpose of this study was to assess the associations between children's popularity, as indexed by peer sociometric nominations, and aspects of mothers' and children's views of social relationships. Specifically, this study examined the association between peer acceptance of third grade children (based on sociometric nominations; Coie, Dodge, & Coppetelli, 1982), and the following variables: mothers' representations of attachment relationships, mothers' perceptions of the quality of their own childhood peer relationships and current social support from family and peers, and children's perceptions of their own current peer relationships and their relationships with their mothers. Several potential pathways were considered, and it was hypothesized that mother's representations of attachment relationships, children's views of the mother-child relationship, and children's views of peer relationships would combine to provide the strongest prediction of children's sociometric status. Factor analysis, multiple regression analyses, and discriminant function analyses were employed to develop a predictive model. The hypothesized model was not supported.