Peer Acceptance and Friendship: An Investigation of their Relation to Self-Esteem

The present study examined the relationship between peer relations and self-esteem. Specifically, this study investigated how peer acceptance and friendship were related to self-esteem in an adolescent population. Five hundred and forty-two ninth-grade students were classified by sociometric group and presence or absence of reciprocal friendships. Results indicate no significant difference in self-esteem scores across sociometric groups. However, subjects with at least I reciprocal friend had higher self-esteem scores than subjects without a reciprocal friend. Furthermore, there did not appear to be a cumulative effect of number of friendships on self-esteem scores. The importance of friendship to the development of self-esteem is discussed, as are the implications for intervention programs such as social skills training for children who may lack a close friendship. The authors indicate a need for further study of the relationship between peer relations and the correlates of self-esteem.