An emphasis on the functional role of self-presentation or self-concept has received an increasing amount of attention in the last 10 years. As a result of recent studies which have suggested the importance of self-esteem as a factor which influences motivation, this study examined the relationship between peer relations and self-esteem. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of both peer acceptance and friendship on self-esteem in an adolescent population. Ninth-grade students (N=542) were classified by sociometric group and presence or absence of reciprocal friendships. Results indicated no significant difference in self-esteem scores across sociometric groups. However, subjects with at least one reciprocal friend had higher self-esteem scores than subjects without a reciprocal friend. Furthermore, there did not appear to be a cumulative effect of number of friendships on self-esteem scores. Results of this study provide some evidence that friendship is more important than peer acceptance to self-esteem levels in adolescents. Results also indicate that self-esteem, as a measure of the self-concept, is an important variable to investigate due to its crucial role as a predictor of motivation. (ABL)