This study is based on video-recorded observations of 64 children during free play at their nursery. A measure of "social focus" in the preschool, regarded as an indicator of social status, was constructed from the amount of positive and neutral contacts children received from their peers. Only six children often received positive or neutral contacts from their peers. The majority of the children were relatively seldom focused on by the others. A total of 16 contact categories were observed which reflected the content, manner and social function of the contacts. Twelve of the contact categories were significantly correlated with social focus. A "contact score" was constructed based on the child-child contacts that were significantly correlated with social focus. The contact score predicted to a large extent social status assigned to the child by other children, sharing about 60% variance with social focus. Age did not have a significant independent contribution to the prediction of social focus, when the contact score and age were tested together in a variance analysis. This is indicative of a strong relationship between social behaviour and social status among preschool children. The relation between social focus, age and social behaviour is discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)