Sex differences in the structure and stability of children’s playground social networks and their overlap with friendship relations

Sex differences in social networks       5

sustain one large highly interconnected network where they spread themselves thinly across
members and interact as a whole large group (Best, 1983; Belle, 1989; Benenson et al., 1998). This
may explain reported sex differences in content, since in these large whole group contexts there is
less call for intimacy and greater opportunity for autonomy between play mates (Leaper, 1994).
However studies have noted the presence of sub-structures within boys’ large networks (Best, 1983;
Benenson et al., 1998) and boys’ larger networks may consist of sub-groups which cohere into
larger units because they engage in large team activities. We know that, as well as engaging in team
games, boys do participate in smaller group games such as fantasy play and chasing and catching
games (Blatchford et al., 2003; Pellegrini, Kato, Blatchford & Baines, 2003). Maccoby (1998)
reports research showing that girls occasionally congregate in larger groups but these are not
sustained and girls fall back into smaller cliques. Boys’ networks may function in a similar way but
because of the mutually motivating nature of team games, sub-groups are less transparent. In this
study we examined the internal structure of social networks and, on the basis of claims of higher
intimacy and equality in girls groups, hypothesised that girls would spend large but relatively
equivalent amounts of time together in a network. Boys on the other hand would spend relatively
little time in the company of particular others and would tend to be interconnected as a whole
network.

The third issue addressed in this paper, relates to the overlap between social networks,
friendship and best friendship relations. Since girls show greater interest in establishing intimate
relationships, a greater overlap would be expected between social networks and friendship and best
friendship relations for girls than for boys. Few studies have examined the overlap and none, as far
as we are aware, have focused on this in terms of sex differences. General findings suggest a
moderate overlap with around 60% to 80% of total friends also being part of the network (Cairns,
Leung, Buchanan & Cairns, 1995; Kindermann, McCollam & Metzler, 1996). Kindermann et al.
(1996) found, however, that only 26% of network members were also reciprocal friends indicating
that in many instances other network members were not friends. These two different representations

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