Grounding their efforts on results of previous research, investigators have sought to improve peer relationships of unpopular children through direct instruction in social skills. Generally, such interventions have been effective in promoting specific outcomes. For example, skill-training programs improve children's ability to form colleague relations but do not lead to more intimate friendship relationships. To assess the reasons social skill training is effective, further research should investigate (1) children's knowledge of social interaction principles or strategies, (2) children's confidence in their ability to produce satisfying social relationships with other children, (3) children's ability to monitor their social interactions with others, and (4) the influence of intervention on the way children construe goals in social situations. Since the construction of social goals may directly affect children's peer relationships, the last of these four areas seems particularly important. Research also indicates that differences exist in the ways popular and unpopular children construe social goals; that aggressive, as opposed to nonagressive, boys read social situations in ways that preclude prosocial goals; that children's goals differ with respect to their status and age; and that individual differences in goals in game-playing contexts exist. (Appended materials include a "loneliness scale" and a list of strategies popular and unpopular children suggested for use in a conflict situation.) (RH)