DYAD GENDER AND FRIENDSHIP DIFFERENCES IN SHARED GOALS FOR MUTUAL PARTICIPATION ON A COLLABORATIVE TASK JoNell Strough

Relationships among peer partnerʹs shared mutual-participation goals, gender, friendship, and collaborative task performance were investigated. Fifty-two preadolescent dyads of varying degrees of friendship (18 girl, 17 boy, and 17 mixed-gender dyads, II to 13 years of age) worked on a 4-week-long creative-writing task. Goals and task performances were assessed twice. Greater shared goals for mutual particip tion were associated with greater degrees of friendship. Shared goals for mutual participation were more prevalent in same-gender dyads than in mixed-gender dyads. Greater shared goals were related to better task performance in girl dyads, friend dyads, and liked-classmate dyads, but not in boy dyads, mixed-gender dyads, or disliked-classmate dyads. Social-contextual influences on goals for peer collaboration and the implications of shared goals for task performance in same- and other-gender dyads of varying friendship are discussed.