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Abstract
When a childs personality is poorly matched with the demands and expectations exercised by members of the childs friendship group, stress and maladjustment might occur. Typically, children tend to associate with others similar to themselves across a variety of domains (e.g., demographics, cognitive ability, behavior), a phenomenon known as homophily. However, discord caused by discrepant personality characteristics may impact a childs feelings regarding group identification as well as their intentions to conform to normative group behaviors. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship among personality homophily, social identity, and conformity among third through fifth grade students. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the degree of personality similarity with the friendship group was a significant predictor of childrens self-reported social identity and intention to conform, even after controlling for individual personality characteristics. Interestingly, perceived similarity and actual similarity with friends had differential impacts on outcome variables.