The gendered nature of children's peer relationships has received little attention as a mechanism of change for students’ social-emotional competencies. To address this gap, we tested the effects of an easy-to-implement universal intervention (Buddy Up) that paired preschoolers with other-gender peers for enjoyable, cooperative, and structured classroom activities. We considered whether the Buddy Up intervention, relative to a control condition, predicted changes in children's aggression and prosocial behavior. Participants were 140 preschoolers (53.6% boys; M_age = 56.49 months; 78% Mexican/Mexican-American) from the Southwestern United States. Following a 2-week pretest period in January (T1), teachers in intervention classrooms implemented the Buddy Up program, which continued until the end of the school year. Post-test data were collected in May (T2). As hypothesized, Buddy Up was associated with increased prosocial behavior and reduced aggression. Testing other-gender friendship participation as a moderator indicated that Buddy Up's effectiveness on prosociality and aggression was not significantly moderated by children's other-gender friendship. We also tested other-gender friendship participation as a mediator and found that Buddy Up increased children's likelihood of having other-gender friends which led to greater prosocial behavior. These findings demonstrated the utility of Buddy Up and the potential for positive outcomes associated with the facilitation of other-gender relationships in early childhood.

儿童同伴关系的性别性质作为学生社会情感能力变化的机制很少受到关注。为了解决这一差距，我们测试了一种易于实施的普遍干预 ( Buddy Up ) 的效果，该干预将学龄前儿童与其他性别的同龄人配对，以进行愉快、合作和结构化的课堂活动。我们考虑了Buddy Up干预是否相对于控制条件预测了儿童攻击性和亲社会行为的变化。参与者为 140 名学龄前儿童（53.6% 男孩；M_年龄=56.49 个月；78% 墨西哥人/墨西哥裔美国人）来自美国西南部。在 1 月份（T1）为期 2 周的预测试期之后，干预教室的教师实施了Buddy Up计划，该计划一直持续到学年结束。测试后数据于 5 月（T2）收集。正如假设的那样，Buddy Up与亲社会行为的增加和攻击性的减少有关。作为调节者测试其他性别友谊的参与表明，Buddy Up在亲社会性和攻击性方面的有效性并未受到儿童的其他性别友谊的显着调节。我们还测试了作为调解员的其他性别友谊参与，发现Buddy Up增加儿童结交其他性别朋友的可能性，从而导致更多的亲社会行为。这些发现证明了Buddy Up的效用以及与促进儿童早期其他性别关系相关的积极成果的潜力。