Children's Problems in Peer Relations and Severity of Behavior Disorders

From 150 clinical records those of 24 children and youths (range = 3 to 19 yr.) assessed as having difficulty with peer relations were compared with the records of referred children who did not present difficulties with peers. Children in the target group were judged to be more psychologically impaired at time of first assessment and to experience difficulties in more areas than the comparison group. They tended as well to require more counselling sessions. Also, for boys but not girls, results indicated that problems in the parent-child relationship may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for the emergence of difficulties with peers.