ABSTRACT
According to Piaget (1932/1965), moral character and social skills evolve primarily through children's emerging understanding of mutual exchange and practice of reciprocity in peer interactions. The capacity to negotiate rather than aggress or withdraw from conflict was presumed difficult to learn in the parent-child relationship because of the hierarchical structure inherent in the family system and the unilateral power wielded by the authority figure. Problematic peer relations are now known to reflect more than poor social skills and inadequate conscience development; often they portend later behavior problems and psychopathology. Until recently there has been little interest in family factors that may contribute both to strengths and problems in child's peer relations (Hartup, 1979).
