◎Contents PART Ⅰ Culture and family 1. Peer contact patterns, parenting practices, and preschoolers Social competence in China, Russia, and the United States 2. Further explorations of family-peer connections : the role of parenting practices and parenting style in children's development of social competence PART Ⅱ Gender and ethnicity 3. Gender and ethnicity 4. Aggression in the Social relations of school-aged girls and bodys 5. The impact of race and ethnicity on children's peer relations PART Ⅲ Disability / illness / isolation 6. The development of friendships and the puzzle of autism 7. Social skills and peer relationships of siblings of children with disabilities : parental and family linkages 8. Aggression at school, post-traumatic stress disorder and peer relations 9. Peer relationships of children with chronic illnesses 10. Isolated children, bullying and peer group relations PART Ⅳ Peer status 11. The location and arrangement of peer contacts : links with freendship initiation knowledge in 4- to 7-year-olds 12. Who says? Associations among peer relations and behaviour Problems as a function of source of information, sex of child and analytic strategy 13. Bullying amongst Australian primary school students : some barriers to help-seeking and links with sociometric status 14. Australian schoolchildren's perceptions of television representations of bullying and victimization PART Ⅴ Intervention 15. An overview of prevention and treatment programmes fordeveloping positive peer relations 16. Developing a social skills programme for use in school 17. Pride, shame and empathy among peers : community conferencing as transformative justice in education 18. Children's comments about their social skills training ◎ Abstract This text presents a late 1990s overview of the latest findings in the area of childhood relationships. An international group of researchers and clinicians review current theory, research and intervention strategies across a wide range of topics including: peer status, gender and ethnicity, disability, illness and loneliness. There is also critical examination of methods of intervention to improve children's relations with others in school, family and community. It should provide social researchers, school counsellors, psychologists and students of child development with a comprehensive handbook on this topic.