Relación entre pares y género: Aportaciones de la adaptación del Peer Relations Questionnaire entre adolescentes portugueses

Understanding the differences in peers’ relationships between genders, whether these relationships are characterized by the existence of prosocial behavior or violence towards others, are essential for education. Only with the appropriate knowledge of this reality we can recognize signs and behaviors but also adjust the psycho-educational intervention to promote the integral development of all students. Therefore, this paper is focused on two goals: to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Peer Relations Questionnaire in the Portuguese population and, using the results obtained in it, to explore the existence of differences in the relationships between peers by gender. Two studies have been conducted using two samples, composed of 304 and 712 adolescents aged between 11 and 16 years old. The results provided evidence for the instrument validity and reliability. Results from the differences and association tests, also allowed us to find significant differences in peer relationship by gender, with boys being more violent to peers but also being more victims that type of violence, and girls demonstrating more prosocial behavior. A negative relationship between violent behavior and age was also found, as well as between violent behavior of the adolescents and the father’s academic qualifications. These results are discussed based on the literature, and implications for research and intervention are presented.