A Study of the Relation of Intellioence, Family Size, and Six Differences With Mutual Friendships in the Primary Grades1

A number of techniques have been used by different investigators to determine mutual friendships. The most important of these are: teacher judgment (16), observation of spontaneous contacts (22), the Guess Who device (13), the paired comparison technique (11), direct questioning of the subjects as to their best friends (6), and the use of pupil choices in various situations that naturally arise in classroom activities (5). In the study which is herein reported the last two of these methods were utilized. The data were gathered over a two-year period (1940-1941) during which time the pupils studied were in the second and third grades of three schools in Denton, Texas. The three schools consisted of two public schools and the demonstration school associated with the North Texas State Teachers College. Denton is a town of approximately 12,000 population. Although the study followed the pupils through the two years there were numerous changes in the pupil personnel between the two grades. School A (Demonstration School) had the most stable population, but even here with a class of 23 children 26 per cent of the third graders had not been in the second grade. In School B (Sam Houston School) with a typical class of around 33 there was a difference of 30 per cent in the population of the third grade over the second. In School C (Robert E. Lee School) with a typical class size of 34 there was a difference of 41 per cent in the third over the second grade. These changes in pupil personnel meant many changes in interpersonal relationships. Consequently, the data for the third grade should not be regarded as being obtained on the same children who were simply a year older. In order to make clear the basis for the mutual friendships a brief description of the choosing situations will be given. There were three situations which were common to all the schools both years. One was the taking of pictures in October. The children listed three others in the room with whom they would like to have their pictures taken. They were told to put their choices in order of preference. The pictures were taken and each child received a print. Another common choosing situation was in December of each year. The pupils wrote the names of all the children to whom they would like to give Christmas presents, as well as those to whom they were actually going to give presents. The latter were given higher scores since it was assumed that they represented a closer degree of attachment. The third situation utilized in all three schools was the giving of Valentines in February. The scores in this instance were obtained by taking the Valentines out of the