Information on social behavior independence, and intelligence was gathered on 74 Head Start subjects (Anglo, Negro, and Mexican-American) aged 5 to 7 years, for the development of a scale to measure the level of independence in small children. The following hypotheses were tested: (1) Level of independence will differentiate ethnic groups. Ranking order will be Negro, Anglo, Mexican. (2) Level of independence will correlate positively with the following measures of social behavior: (a) teacher's estimated rank of child's social competence; (b) teacher's estimated rank of child's popularity; (c) interpersonal and communicative score; (d) status among peers; and (e) school adjustment. (3) Status among peers will be lower for high dependent girls than for high dependent boys. (4) Intelligence will correlate positively with level of independence. (5) Achievement will correlate positively with level of independence. (6) Age will correlate positively with level of independence. The results supported only the second and sixth hypotheses with low correlations. Results were not conclusive for the fifth hypothesis. Extremes in dependence and independence for each sex and age level must be established before studies relating level of independence with other variables can be fruitful. References and tabulated data are included. (JS)