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This study examined the effects of gender and context on relations between children's friendship features (intimacy, exclusivity, and aggression) and socially exclusive gestures and remarks. One hundred forty dyads of mutually nominated close friends (N = 280, ages 10, 12, and 14) participated in a laboratory study of social exclusion toward a newcomer and then rated features of their friendship. As compared to boys, in the presence of the provoking peer, girls' aggressive friendship features were less strongly related to exclusive verbalizations but more strongly related to observed exclusive gestures. In the absence of the provocateur, girls' aggressive friendship features were more strongly related to exclusive remarks than were boys' friendship features. These findings suggest that the relation between friendship features and social exclusion may be influenced more by context for girls and that girl friends may dissemble more when excluding a newcomer, perhaps in keeping with their interpersonal needs for communion and harmony.
Underwood et al. (Mon,) studied this question.