Concurrent and longitudinal links between children's and their friends’ antisocial and prosocial behavior in preschool

Abstract

► Preschool children chose best friends with similar behavior characteristics. ► No long-term effects of nominated friends’ behavior on child behavior over one year. ► Not nominating any best friends was linked to lower levels of prosocial behavior. Concurrent and longitudinal links between children's own and their nominated best friends’ antisocial and prosocial behavior were studied in a normative sample of 3–5-year-olds ( N = 203). Moderating effects of age and gender were also explored. Subscales of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were used to obtain teacher ratings of behavior for each target child and his/her nominated best friends. Nomination of best friends with higher levels of antisocial behavior and lower levels of prosocial behavior was concurrently linked to more antisocial behavior in boys. Nomination of highly prosocial best friends was concurrently linked to more prosocial behavior in both boys and girls. However, the study found no longitudinal effects of best friends’ behavior on target child's behavior over a one-year period. A group of children who nominated no best friends at T1 were generally perceived as less prosocial, but not more antisocial, than other children.