Physical attractiveness as a correlate of peer status and social competence in preschool children

The physical attractiveness of 59 preschoolers (aged 4 yrs 8 mo to 5 yrs 7 mo) was rated by 77 undergraduates. Two measures of social competence, sociometric status and rank in an attention structure, were also obtained. Rank-order correlations among the 3 measures indicated that physical attractiveness was a significant correlate of sociometric rank but not of attention rank. Sociometric and attention ranks were also significantly interrelated. The relationship between attractiveness and sociometric status was stronger for girls than for boys, and attractiveness was not significantly related to attention rank. Partial correlation analyses indicated that attractiveness did not mediate the relationship between attention and sociometric rank. Results suggest that sociometric data may be influenced by variables such as physical attractiveness that are not necessarily related to social competence. (30 ref)