PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143)-- Speeches /Conference Papers (150)

This study documents the differential sex and age influences on children's judgments of each other's humorousness, whom they prefer for friends, and the relationship between perceptions of humorousness and choice of friends. Two groups of children from a university-operated laboratory school participated in this study: one group consisted of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-old students in the age-heterogeneous Intermediate Unit, and the second consisted of 11-, 12-, and 13-year-old students in the age-homogeneous Advanced Unit. Both groups of children responded to two rating scales measuring the children's interpersonal ratings of social distance and humorousness. Responses were analyzed using repeated measures and two-way between subjects ANOVAs. The results support the notion that gender and age influence friendship preferences and humor perceptions. Within the age levels encountered in this study, cross-sex humorous perceptions are considerably lower than same-sex pe-ceptions, and cross-sex social distance preferences are considerably higher than same-sex preferences. Twenty-two tables and 14 charts are appended. (BB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best '..hat can be made from the original document