1 Similarity in Gender and Self-Esteem for Supportive Peer Relationships: The Mediating Role of Cooperative Goals Yi-feng Chen Department of Management, Lingnan University, Hong Kong Tel (852) 2616-8308, Fax (852) 2467-0982 Email: yifeng@ln.edu.hk Xu Huang Department of Management and Marketing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Tel (852) 2766 4067, Fax (852) 2765 0611 E-mail: mshuangx@polyu.edu.hk Dean Tjosvold Department of Management, Lingnan University, Hong Kong Tel (852) 2616-8308, Fax (852) 2467-0982 Email: tjosvold@ln.edu.hk June, 2005 Note: The authors thank their research assistants from Sichuan University for their assistance in conducting this study. They also appreciate the financial support of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, grant project No: A-PF43 to the second author.