Sex differences in social networks
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meaningful for children and may be the main context where gendered behaviour socialisation takes
place.
A question that arose during the research is whether observation alone can identify networks.
Networks must be perceived to exist by members as much as be observed by others and thus an
approach that combines observational and peer report may offer the greatest insights into network
membership. Related to this issue is whether in all cases the social networks identified actually exist
as real entities. Some large male networks appeared to be a collection of playmates than groups with
an identity and norms. This distinction is important because a pool of playmates, as opposed to
coherent groups with norms, may have a limited role in the socialisation of an individual. Given the
fluidity of boys’ large social networks, though possibly not the cores of these networks, it is possible
that network members are less socialised by peers than members of more coherent social networks.
The current findings indicate that there are sex differences in the structure of social
networks, in the forces that control involvement in them and suggest differing implications of being
involved in these diverse network contexts. However there is a need for ever more sophisticated
longitudinal studies which track children before social networks form and which can distinguish the
causal forces that function to bring children together from the implications of the structural
differences in these network contexts.
Findings from the current study generally support the two worlds perspective and highlight
variation in network size and structure which, in some cases, may be greater within than between
the sexes. The presence of this variability is consistent with the marked variability in sex differences
in individual level factors observed (Maccoby, 1998). The existence of small male networks (2-4
members) containing approximately a quarter of boys, networks of girls that spend little time
together and female networks of 6-7 members containing a third of girls in the sample, are therefore
suggestive of multiple rather than two worlds. Research could examine and consider the
implications of these different network structures which may have implications for differences
within as well as between the sexes. But there is also a sense in which these different micro-contexts