Friendship in children with internalizing and externalizing problems: A preliminary investigation with the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships |
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Authors: | Fiorenzo Laghi Roberto Baiocco Eleonora Cannoni Anna Di Norcia Emma Baumgartner Anna Silvia Bombi |
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Affiliation: | Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Via dei Marsi, 78, 00185 Roma, Italy |
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Abstract: | This study examined the relationship between friendship representation and internalizing and externalizing problems in school-aged children. One hundred Caucasian 6–7 year-old children (50 males and 50 females) and their mothers took part in the study. The Draw-a-Man Test, the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/6-18) were used. Children with internalizing problems, externalizing problems, comorbid internalizing and externalizing problems, and a control group were compared on their pictorial representations of friendship. Results showed that children with externalizing problems included more pictorial indices of each friend's autonomy and a larger imbalance of importance between them; children with internalizing problems drew themselves as less similar to their friends. In conclusion, children's pictorial representation allows exploring some aspects of their tacit knowledge about the relationship with a best friend, which is not easily expressed verbally by young children. Finally, the implications of these findings for theoretical and empirical research development on friendship are discussed. |
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Keywords: | Friendship Internalizing Externalizing Early childhood |
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