Dyadic Analyses of Preschool‐aged Children's Friendships: Convergence and Differences between Friendship Classifications from Peer Sociometric Data and Teacher's Reports

Peer sociometrics and teachers' friendship reports were compared in 2179 preschool dyads. One hundred twenty of 306 reciprocated friend dyads from peer sociometric data were also identified as good friends by their classroom teachers, and 301 of 600 of non‐reciprocated dyads in peer data were named as friends by one or both classroom teachers (overall kappa = .16). Friendship classifications from both peer and teacher data had significant relations with variables relevant to peer interactions, social skills, peer acceptance, and teacher‐rated scales (six of seven tests significant for peer data; five of eight significant for teacher data). Multilevel analyses indicated that friendship status effects were not qualified by classroom‐level differences. Findings suggest that sociometric tasks can identify preschoolers' peer friendships and that the range of correlates may be broader in peer‐choice data than in teachers' friendship evaluations.     

Forms and Functions of Aggression in Adolescent Friendship Selection and Influence: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis

Aggressive children are known to have friends. However, less is known about the impact of aggression on friendship development and how this can differ for overt and relational (i.e., the forms) and instrumental and reactive (i.e., the functions) aggression. This longitudinal study utilized the forms and functions perspective on aggression to assess social selection and influence in adolescents' (N = 337, 12–14 years) friendship networks. Instrumentally and relationally aggressive peers became mutual friends with similar peers. Influence effects were observed in all types of aggression except overt aggression, suggesting that instrumental, reactive, and relational aggression may be the most susceptible to social influence. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and methodological implications for the study of aggression and adolescent friendships.     

Friendships of Indonesian Children: Adjustment of Children Who Differ in Friendship Presence and Similarity Between Mutual Friends

Two aspects of the friendships of 960 Indonesian 10‐year‐old children were assessed. First, the characteristics of children with and without mutual friends were compared. Children without friends were more aggressive, withdrawn, and lower in academic achievement and social preference than those with friends. Second, similarities between children and their friends were assessed by comparing 132 target children with their friend and non‐friend classmates. Children were more similar to their friends than to non‐friends in social preference, achievement, peer and teacher rated antisocial behavior, and peer and teacher rated social withdrawal. The similarities of the friendships of Indonesian children to those of Western children with respect to these two features provide evidence of construct equivalence of friendships across cultures.     

The role of interactions with teachers and conflict with friends in shaping school adjustment

Fifth grade children (N = 346) identified school friends and reported on levels of conflict in relationships with these friends as well as perceived stress in relationships with teachers. Teachers and children provided ratings of problem behaviors at school, and children reported on their own perceptions of stress at school. Both less conflictual school friendships and less stressful relationships with teachers were linked with fewer feelings of stress and lower levels of problem problems at school. For the problem behaviors outcome, having more positive relationships with one set of others (teachers or friends) buffered children from experiencing negative consequences of poor relationships with the other set of individuals. The interaction effect involving friendship conflicts and stressful teacher interactions in relation to school stress was more complicated, differing for boys versus girls.     

Continuity in Children's Relations with Peers

Social competence with peers of 55 (27 girls) children was examined from ages one to nine. In the toddler and preschool periods, social competence with peers was observed and rated by independent observers and rated by teachers. Teachers reported on children's social competence with peers at age nine. Children who engaged in more complex play with peers as toddlers were more prosocial, engaged in complex play, were less withdrawn as preschoolers, and were less aggressive and withdrawn as nine-year-olds. Children who were more aggressive and withdrawn as preschoolers were more aggressive as nine-year-olds.     

Teacher Reports of Children's Friendships and Social Groups: Agreement with Peer Reports and Implications for Studying Peer Similarity

Teacher–peer agreement about children’s friendships and social group affiliations was examined in a sample of 219 children in grades 1, 3, and 5. Peer reports were used to identify reciprocated friendships and informal social groups. Teachers listed each child’s closest friends and described the informal social groups existing in their classrooms. Teachers also rated children’s externalizing behavior problems and academic orientation and provided direct ratings of the externalizing behavior problems and academic orientation of children’s friends. Teacher–peer agreement was reliable for friendships and social groups and was stronger in the upper elementary grades. Estimates of peer similarity were highest when teachers provided global ratings of the behaviors of the children’s friends. Results suggest that teacher reports of children’s peer affiliations have some validity but result in inflated estimates of peer similarity.     

The Communication of Differential Relationships in Preschool Children: Preference and Social Theme

We examined the conversations of 14 preschool children to explore differences in communication between friends and nonfriends in a well-established group. Children's social preferences were identified by analysing relative utterance frequencies which revealed a network structure of 4 cliques. We then examined whether the integration (inclusion/exclusion) and social theme (person/action) content of children's utterances, and the responses (accept/oppose) to these utterances, discriminated relationships in the social network. Our main findings were 1) Exclusive utterances were more likely to occur between nonfriends and to be opposed. Inclusive utterances were more likely to occur between friends and to be accepted. 2) Person and action themes were used differentially. In exclusion statements, nonfriends were more likely to be personally rejected whereas friends were more likely to have their actions rejected. In inclusion statements, personal references were more likely to be accepted between friends whereas references to a peer's actions tended to be accepted by both friends and nonfriends. We concluded that children adapted the integration and social theme content of their utterances to relationship context in order to establish more intimate interactions between friends and more distant interactions between nonfriends.     

Toddlers' Social‐emotional Competence in the Contexts of Maternal Emotion Socialization and Contingent Responsiveness in a Low‐income Sample

Early social‐emotional development occurs in the context of parenting, particularly via processes such as maternal emotion socialization and parent–child interactions. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that maternal contingent responsiveness partially mediated the relationship between maternal emotion socialization of toddlers (N = 119, ages 12–36 months) and toddlers' social‐emotional competence. Effect size was strongest for the direct path between maternal emotion socialization and toddler social–emotional competence. Toddler age and maternal demographic risk status (covariates) predicted toddler competence. Study results extend the previous literature on early competencies by focusing on toddlers rather than preschool‐aged children and by employing a contextual model in which both low‐income mothers' emotion socialization and their contingent responsiveness predicted toddlers' competencies.     

Concepts of Real and Imaginary Friendships in Early Childhood

This investigation focused on the friendship concepts of pre‐school‐aged children. Eighty‐four 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children responded to questions about social provisions, or benefits of relationships, available from reciprocal friends (both children in a pair nominate each other as friends), unilateral friends (one child nominates the other), non‐friends (neither child of a pair nominates the other), and imaginary friends (for those who had them). Results indicated that reciprocal and imaginary friends were the best sources of social provisions, followed by unilateral friends and non‐friends. Major implications are that children draw distinctions between reciprocal and unilateral friends based on the levels of social provisions available in these relationships, and that relationship schemas underlying relationships with imaginary companions may be akin to those for reciprocal friends. Children's friendship schemata may also differ by gender, as girls discriminated more than boys between reciprocal and unilateral friends for the social provision of companionship.     

Affiliative Structures in Preschool Peer Groups.

Changes in affiliative organization of 15 age-graded toddler and preschool play groups were examined in terms of assessed similarity in patterns of playmate association. Measures of peer association were derived from direct observation of social interaction during free play. The degree of between subject similarity in association profiles was derived using complete linkage hierarchical clustering procedures. Findings revealed distinct social subgroups in all social groups. Secondary analyses showed a linear increase in the size of affiliative subgroups as a function of age. Measures of interactive reciprocity within social subgroups suggested progressive consolidation of affiliative structures with age. Among older children, membership within affiliative subgroups was associated with more frequent preferences for subgroup members. Findings are discussed in terms of how children's insertion within the affiliative network of their peer group constrain socialization of their behavior and provide specific experiences that serve as contexts for the construction of more intimate interpersonal relationships.     

Social Competence with Peers in Third Grade: Associations with Earlier Peer Experiences in Childcare1

The early developmental antecedents of individual differences in children's social functioning with peers in third grade were examined using longitudinal data from the large‐scale National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) study of early child care. In a sample of 1,364 children, with family and child factors controlled, the frequency of positive and negative peer interactions in childcare between 24 and 54 months and the number of hours spent in childcare peer groups of different sizes (alone, dyad, small, medium, large) predicted third graders' peer competence at three levels of analysis: individual social skills, dyadic friendships, and peer‐group acceptance. Children who had more positive experiences with peers in childcare had better social and communicative skills with peers in third grade, were more sociable and co‐operative and less aggressive, had more close friends, and were more accepted and popular. Children with more frequent negative experiences with peers in childcare were more aggressive in third grade, had lower social and communicative skills, and reported having fewer friends. When children spent more time in small‐sized peer groups in childcare (four or fewer children at 24 months of age up to seven or fewer at 54 months), they were more sociable and co‐operative in third grade, but their teachers rated them as more aggressive, suggesting that such children may be more socially outgoing and active both positively and negatively. Like those who spent more time in small peer groups, children who spent more hours in medium‐sized groups received higher ratings for peer aggression by their third‐grade teachers. Children who spent more time with one other child in childcare or in small peer groups had fewer classroom friends in third grade as reported by the teacher but not according to maternal report or self‐report. There were no significant associations between the amount of time children spent in large childcare‐based peer groups and third‐grade peer social competence.     

Interrelation between empathy and friendship development during (pre)adolescence and the moderating effect of developmental language disorder: A longitudinal study

The association between empathy and friendship quality in children and adolescents is well established, but longitudinal studies are lacking. Because social interactions typically involve language, these relations might be moderated by children's communication problems. The current study examined the interrelation of friendship quality (positive and negative) and empathy (affective, cognitive, and prosocial motivation) development of 317 children (8–16 years old) at three time points across 18 months. Of these children 112 had a developmental language disorder (DLD). Results confirmed a bidirectional relation between empathy and friendship quality across time. Cognitive empathy and prosocial motivation contributed to the development of more positive friendship features in children with and without DLD. For children with unstable friendships, more cognitive empathy was related to fewer negative friendship features. Positive friendship features in turn contributed to higher empathy on all three aspects. Negative friendship features were related to higher affective empathy and lower prosocial motivation in both groups, but did not predict empathy development across time. These results imply that positive friendship features are important for development of empathic skills and vice versa that empathy enables children to grow in friendship quality in children with and without DLD.     

Relations between close friendships and adolescent aggression: Structural and behavioral friendship features

Friendships have the potential to perpetuate or mitigate youth's aggressive behavior. We investigated concurrent and longitudinal effects of friendships on aggression by examining both structural (size and interconnectedness of the local friendship network) and behavioral (friends' aggression) friendship features. Participants were 868 sixth to eighth grade middle‐school students (M = 12.10 years; 49.9% girls; 44% Latina/o) who completed questionnaires at two time points. Participants nominated their friends; reciprocal friendship nominations were used to calculate structural friendship group features (size and interconnectedness). Peer nominations were also used to measure youth's and their friends' aggression. Having more reciprocal friends was associated with more aggression concurrently (particularly for youth whose friends were highly aggressive), and having an interconnected friendship group was associated with decreased aggression over time. Given that findings were different for group size and interconnectedness, we discuss the unique importance of each of these structural friendship features. Practical implications regarding the potential to decrease aggressive behavior based on specific friendship features are also discussed.     

家庭背景、班级情境与青少年的跨群体交往

通过分析“中国教育追踪调查”（CEPS）数据,本文考察了家庭背景和班级情境对流动儿童和本地儿童跨群体交往的影响。研究发现,家庭社会经济地位对流动儿童的跨群体交往具有积极作用,但本地儿童的家庭社会经济地位越高,跨群体朋友数量反而越少。总体而言,班级异质性与学生的跨群体朋友数量之间呈倒“U”型关系,但随着班级异质性的上升,流动儿童的跨群体朋友数量呈下降趋势,本地儿童则正好相反。所属群体跨群体社会交往越多,学生拥有的跨群体朋友数量越多,并且这种积极作用对本地儿童的影响更大。而外部群体的封闭性越强,学生跨群体朋友数量就越少,并且这种消极作用对流动儿童更强。最后还发现,上述班级情境影响效应的群体性差异主要存在于本地儿童数量占优势的班级。     

“Like Two Musketeers”: Socialization beliefs about toddler's friendships among Dominican,Mexican, and African American mothers

Parental ethnotheories shape socialization beliefs around childrearing more broadly, and children's friendships more specifically. While prior work has examined aspects of parental socialization of friendships among school-aged children and adolescents, no studies have examined beliefs held around the function of friendships among ethnically diverse mothers of toddlers from low-socioeconomic contexts. Toddlerhood marks a point in development when the concept of “friendship” gains impact and relevance due to leaps in children's social, cognitive, and motor skills, as well as children's increasing access to contexts where they organically encounter peers. Toddlerhood is also a time when caregivers may initially consider the influence of peers on their children, beliefs that could eventually guide and shift how they navigate socialization practices around friendship. In the present study, we document U.S. Dominican American, African American, and Mexican American mothers’ socialization beliefs around functions of friendship for their 2-year-old children. We found that mothers emphasized a variety of friendship functions, including learning of social skills and morality, and communicating and experiencing emotions. A majority of mothers viewed their children's friendships as unidirectional, and framed their children as undiscerning in their engagement with social information from peers. Findings are discussed in relation to mothers’ orientation to children and “childhood” via cultural and developmental beliefs.     

Relating Individual Control, Social Understanding, and Gender to Child–Friend Interaction: A Relationships Perspective

According to a relationships perspective, it is critical to consider how the individual behaviors and characteristics of both partners shape their social interaction. Adopting a relationships approach to the investigation of children's friendships, we examined how preschool children's and their friends’ controlling behaviors, social understanding, and gender were related to their dyadic interaction. Child–friend dyads (n = 49) were videotaped in two laboratory play sessions (free play and sharing task), and child interviews assessed understanding of emotions and false beliefs. Both children's indirect control was associated with coordinated play during the free play session, and both children's direct control was associated with conflict during the sharing task. Moreover, dyadic interaction varied as a function of study children's social understanding, friends’ social understanding, and play session. An interaction between gender composition and play session also emerged for dyadic conflict. Multiple regression analyses suggested that study children's controlling behaviors accounted for associations between dyadic interaction and more ‘distal’ individual factors (i.e., social understanding, gender). The findings underscore the need to examine how both children's individual competencies are related to the quality of their dyadic interaction and illuminate how the associations between individual factors and dyadic interaction are moderated by the interactive context.     

A Cross-Cultural Exploration of the Stability of Children's Friendships and the Predictors of their Continuation

The purpose of this study was to explore cultural differences in children's perceptions of friendship quality and in the predictors of the subsequent continuation of their relationships. Participants were third and fourth-grade children in Florence, Italy, and Toronto, Canada. A total of 184 dyads of children who indicated that they were friends near the beginning of the school year completed questionnaires regarding the quality of their relationships. Among the Italian children, especially the girls, a higher proportion of friendships remained intact at the end of the school year than among the Canadians. Positive aspects of relationship quality at the first data collection point were associated with future friendship status, but earlier conflict within the dyad was unrelated to the continuation of friendship. The levels of conflict reported by the children were lower in the Italian sample than in Canada.     

Peer Experience: Common and Unique Features of Number of Friendships, Social Network Centrality, and Sociometric Status

Three conceptually distinct dimensions of classroom social position (number of mutual friendships, social network centrality, and sociometric status) were examined in relation to each other and to peer-nominated behavioral reputation among 205 7- and 8-year old children. There were moderate correlations in children's standing across the three dimensions, but categorical analyses underscored the limits to these associations (e.g., 39% of Rejected children had at least one mutual friendship; 31% of Popular children did not). Each dimension was associated with a distinct profile of peer-nominated social behavior and, in multiple regression analyses, accounted for unique variance in peer-nominated behaviors. Number of friendships was uniquely associated with prosocial skills; network centrality was uniquely associated with both prosocial and antisocial behavioral styles; and being disliked was uniquely associated with the full range of social behaviors. Results provide empirical validation for the conceptual distinctions among number of reciprocated friendships, social network centrality and being liked or disliked.     

Social Networks Derived from Affiliations and Friendships, Multi-informant and Self-reports: Stability, Concordance, Placement of Aggressive and Unpopular Children, and Centrality

This study compares three variations in how researchers construct middle childhood social networks: (1) with friendships or affiliations as a relational tie; (2) with children providing self reports of relationships, or in addition, multi-informant reports of relationships in which they are not involved; and (3) whether network computation is correlational or distance-based . The sample was 357 fourth- and fifth-grade students in 17 classrooms. The strongest differences were between self-reported friendship and affiliative networks. Results showed that compared with affiliations, friendship networks had smaller groups, more isolates, and lower fall-to-spring stability. Agreement in social placement between friendship and affiliative networks was generally average, but poor for unpopular and aggressive children. Multi-informant affiliative networks were most robust in their positioning of aggressive children. Multi-informant centrality was uniquely uncorrelated with aggression. Network computation differences were not substantial. Discussion focuses on recommendations for research and the educational promise of network technology.     

With a Little Help from Your Friends: The Importance of High‐quality Friendships on Early Adolescent Adjustment

The unique contributions of peer acceptance, friendship, and victimization to adjustment were examined. How these relational systems moderate the influence of one another to influence adjustment was also investigated. Friendship quality, a unique aspect of friendship, was expected to be especially important for adjustment when other relational systems were poor. A total of 238 fifth to eighth graders (boys = 109) participated in the survey‐style paradigm. Youth participants completed measures assessing their friendships and peer relationships. Teachers provided assessments of adjustment. Adolescents who had lower levels of peer acceptance, number of friends, and friendship quality had greater teacher‐reported maladjustment. Friendship quality was also an important buffer against adjustment problems when peer acceptance and number of friends were low. The outcomes of this article suggest that an approach that includes examining the quality of adolescents' friendships, peer interactions, and interactive models of relationship dimensions are informative for understanding adolescents' general adjustment.