A detailed description and sociological analysis were made of peer interaction in a public school kindergarten located in a large urban school district. Data collected over a 5-month observation period included field note transcriptions of hundreds of interaction events, records of formal and informal interviews with classroom participants, and various unobtrusively obtained data. Analysis focused on identifying the social goals of children in child-to-child interactions. Affiliation, competence, and status goals were identified. Affiliation goals enabled children to feel they are connected with others, that others perceived them as worthy social interactants, and that others cared about them and wanted to do things with them. Competence goals promoted children's feelings of competence, conveyed the sense that they were capable of accomplishing school tasks, and suggested that they were recognized as members of the group achieving what is expected in school. Status goals enabled individuals to feel superior to or more important than others, to manipulate or control the actions of others, and to assert their own status in relationship to the status of others. Findings related to each goal area are described, and reference is made to the interactions of children in the contexts of their kindergarten. Within each goal area, sets of strategies for accomplishing social motives are identified. A taxonomy of social goals in outline form is appended. A three-page list of references is also included. (RH)