Children’s Reciprocal Perceptions of Friendship Quality in the Sociocultural Contexts of East and West Berlin

Abstract

Testing 551 East and 210 West Berlin children (grades 2-5), we sought to: (1) gain a broader understanding of the reciprocal nature of children’s friendships, especially their perceptions of friendship quality; and (2) examine sociocultural influences on such perceptions. We expected friends’ perceptions to form two distinct types of perceptions: (i) objectively perceived and, thus, shared interpersonal perceptions; and (ii) subjectively interpreted and, thus, nonshared intrapersonal perceptions. Mean and covariances structures analyses revealed that: (a) our distinction was well supported and generalisable across both contexts; and (b) East Berlin children reported more perceived friendship conflict, fewer mutual visits and sleep-overs, and less fun in their play activities than did their West Berlin age-mates. These differences are consistent with known characteristics of these two distinct sociocultural contexts.