The present study was carried out with 5th‐graders with the object of examining the effects of elementary students’ sports participation with their peer status. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 100 male and 94 female 5th‐graders, so a total of 194 elementary students using a questionnaire composed of 6 questions on the degree of sports participation. In addition, peer status was surveyed by providing the children with a list of classmates of the same gender and an answer sheet, asking them to choose ‘the best friends,’ ‘the classmates I want most to sit together,’ ‘the classmates I want most to invite to my birthday party’ and ‘the classmates I hate to be together,’ 3 for each. By analyzing the answers, we divided the students into 6 groups according to peer status. Those whose peer status was ambiguous and those who were unclassified were excluded, and sports participation was analyzed with 142 students in the popular group, the ordinary group, the rejected group and the neglected group. According to the result, statistically significant difference was observed among the groups of different peer status in whether to participate in sports, sports participation period, and subjective athletic ability, but no statistically significant difference was observed among them in sports participation type, sports participation frequency and activeness of sports participation. These results suggest that, through sports participation, elementary students can enhance their sociality and play a leading role in peer relation based on high athletic abilities. Accordingly, elementary students’ sports participation had positive effect on their peer status. ※ Key words : elementary student, sports participation, peer status