A sociometric approach to understanding characteristics of same- and other-gender friendships in young children

•Friendship ties were balanced in terms of language matching, with the most common pairing was same gender, same language status, and the least common pairing was same gender, differing language status.•Similarity of language skill was a positive predictor of both same-gender and other-gender friendship ties.•There was noticeable between-classroom variation in the differences between same- and other-gender friendships.