Friendships in Early Childhood, and Social Understanding

Abstract

This study had two goals. The first was to provide descriptive data on the nature of individual differences in young children’s close friendships, and the second, to examine the relations between these individual differences and children’s earlier understanding of others’ emotions and mental states, and their later appreciation of ambivalent or mixed emotions. A total of 41 children participating in a longitudinal study from 33 months to 6-7 years were studied with their close friends as 6-year-olds, with a combination of observations and standard sociocognitive assessments. The results showed that different aspects of friendship interactions, such as co-ordination of play and amity, were neither closely related nor linked to power assertion. Early differences in the assessment of social understanding were associated with later differences in pretend play with the friend, and friendship interactions at 6 years were linked to later appreciation of mixed emotions. The two-way process of influence linking individual development and friendship quality is discussed.