This important collection brings together topical research on children who encounter difficulty in gaining acceptance and having friendships among their peers. The volume's contributors, development and clinical psychologists who have been involved in research in this area for over a decade, seek to advance the study of peer rejection by giving careful attention to the psychological processes that create and maintain peer rejection in childhood. Topics addressed include how certain children come to be disliked by their peers; the factors that maintain their rejection; the consequences of poor peer relations; and the results of intervention with various subgroups of rejected children. The volume describes the many advances that have been made in the study of peer rejection, and provides organizing models that point to avenues for future inquiry.