Self-Perceptions of Friendship-Making Ability and Perceptions of Friends’ Deviant Behavior:

Abstract

Stability and change from middle childhood to middle adolescence in participants’perceptions of their friendship-making ability and their friends’ deviant behavior were examined. Third-grade, fourth-grade, and sixth-grade children completed questionnaires that assessed those constructs and did so again 5 years later. Participants perceived their friendship-making ability as greater during childhood than during adolescence. Adolescents perceived their friends as more deviant than did children. Each of the two perceptions was not highly stable over 5 years. Aspects of children’s perceived social competence were examined as predictors of adolescents’ perceived friendship-making ability and the deviant behavior of their friends. Children’s perceived friendship-making ability and value, and frequency of friend interaction significantly predicted adolescents’ perceived friendship-making ability, whereas children’s perceived deviant behavior of friends, friendship-making ability (a negative predictor), and popularity with boys and with girls significantly predicted adolescents’ perceived deviant behavior of their friends.