ABSTRACT
The child’s effectiveness in dealing with the social world emerges mostly from experience in close relationships. In these contexts, language and communication skills emerge; the self is shaped; much of what one knows about the world is accumulated; and strategies of cooperation and conflict resolution are acquired. Social effectiveness is also measured largely in terms of success in constructing and maintaining close relationships. Children’s relationships thus serve both as the contexts in which adaptive behavior arises and the contexts in which adaptive success is measured.
