Children's Friendships Research Articles

Reducing Prejudice Through Promoting Cross-Group Friendships

Around the globe, individuals are affected by exclusion, discrimination, and prejudice targeting individuals from racial, ethnic, and immigrant backgrounds as well as crimes based on gender, nationality, and culture (United Nations General Assembly, 2016). Unfortunately, children are often the targeted victims (Costello & Dillard, 2019). What is not widely understood is that the intergroup biases underlying systemic racism start long before adulthood with children displaying notable signs of intergroup bias, sometimes before entering grade school. Intergroup bias refers to the tendency to evaluate members of one’s own group more favorably than someone not identified with one’s group and is typically associated with prejudicial attitudes. Children are both the victims and the perpetrators of bias. In this review, we provide evidence of how biases emerge in childhood, along with an analysis of the significant role of intergroup friendships on enhancing children’s well-being and reducing prejudice in childhood. The review focuses predominantly on the context of race, with the inclusion of several other categories, such as nationality and religion. Fostering positive cross-group friendships in childhood helps to address the negative long-term consequences of racism, discrimination, and prejudice that emerges in childhood and continues through to adulthood.

A Phenomenological Study of Arranged Friendships between Young Boys and Men

We explore the experience and meaning of being in an arranged male adult friendship for 7–10-year-old boys from single-mother families; we look at this from the perspective of the boys, their mothers, and their adult friends. In analyzing empirical material from a two-year fieldwork study, we draw on methodology and concepts from phenomenology. We propose that boy–adult friendships provide boys with a realization of masculine embodiment and reflect hierarchical masculinity, but that the presence of the male body is essential. We discuss how the analysis contributes to the literature on adult–child friendships, particularly between boys and male nonrelative adults, and to that on masculinity and boyhood studies, exploring boys’ embodiment from a phenomenological perspective.

Parenting Of Parents Work In Instilling Religious Attitudes And Respectful Attitudes In Adolescents

Parents, especially mothers are responsible for instilling the value of religious and social life in children, including adolescents through proper parenting. However, many parents choose to entrust the child completely to the school because it is busy with their work. This study aims to explain the parenting of working parents in instilling religious attitudes and respectful attitudes in adolescents, explain the factors that influence parenting, and explain the obstacles and solutions parents work in foster care. This study is a qualitative descriptive field study involving ten working parents. This research data is obtained through observation, interviews, and documentation. The results of this study found that the parenting used by sources is democratic parenting. Trust factors, comparison of parenting models, child gender, parental behavior, and character of children are factors that influence parenting in instilling religious attitudes and respectful attitudes in adolescents. In addition, there are obstacles in applying parenting, such as limited time together between parents and children because parents are busy working, child characters, mobile phones, child association, and social media. The solution in overcoming these obstacles is to be a good role model, make the best use of time to get to know the child's friendship environment, not only be a parent but can be a good friend and listener, and have to check the child’s phone.

From “The Importance of Fantasy, Fairness, and Friendship in Children’s Play,” American Journal of Play Interview with Vivian Gussin Paley (2009)

Next article No AccessRear Cover TextFrom “The Importance of Fantasy, Fairness, and Friendship in Children’s Play,” American Journal of Play Interview with Vivian Gussin Paley (2009)PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Schools Volume 18, Number 2Fall 2021 Published in association with the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/716632 Views: 6Total views on this site © 2021 Francis W. Parker School, Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Importance of Fantasy, Fairness, and Friendship in Children’s Play

The Importance of Fantasy, Fairness, and Friendship in Children’s Play

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

The characteristics of Chinese anxiously withdrawn children's friendships: Quantity, quality, and protecting against loneliness

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to compare the friendship quantity and quality of urban Chinese anxiously withdrawn children with those of typical children, and to examine the moderating role of friendship in the relation between anxious withdrawal and feelings of loneliness. Anxiously withdrawn (n = 66) and typical children (n = 170) were identified from a complete sample (N = 572) using classroom nominations collected in grades 3–6 (Mage = 10.51, SD = 1.13). At the group level, compared with typical children, anxiously withdrawn children received fewer friendship nominations from their classmates, and particularly from male classmates. Anxiously withdrawn boys nominated fewer male classmates as friends than typical boys and anxiously withdrawn girls had fewer mutual friendships with girls than typical girls. Anxiously withdrawn children reported more conflicts within their friendships than typical children; and anxiously withdrawn girls reported lower positive friendship quality than typical girls. Using a variable‐centred approach with the complete sample, a Bayesian multilevel regression analysis revealed that positive friendship quality moderated the association between anxious withdrawal and feelings of loneliness.

Sport Participation Associations With Child Friend Selection and Physical Activity While at Summer Care Programs

ABSTRACT Child physical activity (PA) declines during summer reducing PA-related health benefits. Summer care programs (e.g., Boys & Girls Clubs) can promote active play while providing opportunities for friendships. Sport participation is a positive influence on PA and social development. Purpose: This article investigates the role of sport participation in PA attainment, perceived skill competency, and social connection at a summer care program. Methods: Children self-reported PA, sport participation, and the names of up to five peers whom they played with most at the program at the start (T1; n = 100; M age = 9.94 years; SD = 1.34; 47% male) and end (T2; n = 77; M age = 9.83 years; SD = 1.46; 51% male) of summer. Network autocorrelation models were used to determine if child sport participation was significantly associated with those they played with at the program. Results:Children who reported sport participation reported significantly more PA than those who did not at T1, but not T2. Child sport participation was significantly related to that of the peers they said they spent time with while at the program for T1 (β = 0.07, p < .01), but not T2 (β = 0.06, p = .10). Additionally, PA (β = 0.08, p < .01; β = 0.07, p = .01) and skill competency (β = 0.11, p = .02; β = 0.15, p < .01) were significantly associated with sport participation at both time points. While sports participation was a key factor in child friendships at the start of summer, the program allowed children, regardless of sport participation, to become friends outside of sports. Conclusions: These results suggest summer care programs promote PA through play and provide opportunities for children to facilitate friendships regardless of sport participation.

The role of home language in children's friendship choice and peer acceptance

The present study examined the role of home language and school climate in children's friend preferences and peer liking. Participants were 109 elementary school-age students (50% girls, 47% boys; m = 7.9 years old) enrolled in a dual-language (English & Spanish) immersion school. Students were asked to identify, by circling names from a class list, their three best friends and the three classmates they liked most. Students were also interviewed about their perceptions of the school climate. Results showed that children nominated significantly more same-language peers as best friends compared to chance. Third graders, who were separated for part of the day based on home language, selected more same-language best friends than did second graders, who spent the whole day together with classmates. Students from English-speaking homes received a greater number of “most liked” nominations than did those from Spanish-speaking homes. Implications for practice and future research are addressed.

Evaluating the generality and social acceptability of early friendship skills.

The development of prosocial skills is considered pivotal to childhood development. The friendship unit of the Preschool Life Skills program teaches early prosocial skills likely to facilitate socially desirable behaviors in young children; however, the friendship unit is the most understudied unit and has produced modest, inconsistent outcomes across children. The current study aimed to evaluate procedures necessary to (a) teach friendship skills to 4 children, with and without developmental disabilities, in an applied context and (b) promote the use of these skills with a same-aged peer. Teaching 5 friendship skills in a 1-to-1 format with the addition of tangible reinforcement, if necessary, was efficacious at increasing the children's friendship skills with an adult. Additional tactics were necessary to promote prosociality with a peer. We discuss refinements to the teaching procedures and additional considerations to improve the social acceptability and durability of prosocial skills.

‘Self’ (ziji), ‘others’ (taren) and ‘collective’ (jiti): Friendships at school embedded with China's Confucian–collectivist sociocultural values

AbstractFriendship, an important type of interpersonal relationship, has been studied in various disciplines. When studying friendship, sociologists highlight the importance of placing friendships in context to build up a connection between friendship, a type of interpersonal relationship between individuals, and the surrounding social and cultural environment. In sociological studies of friendship, children's friendships in the Chinese context have not been explored thoroughly. To contribute to closing this gap, this article places children's peer friendships in a rural Chinese primary boarding school context and focuses on exploring Chinese Confucian–collectivist sociocultural values that emerged in these children's daily practices of peer friendships.

3-D health trajectories and related childhood predictors among older adults in China

This study aimed to identify the multi-trajectories of 3-D health of older adults in China and to explore whether the childhood predictors are associated with 3-D health trajectory. Data came from five waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011 to 2018). A multi-trajectory modeling approach was carried out to jointly estimate the trajectories of 3-D health. A multinomial regression model was used to investigate the relationships between childhood predictors and the joint trajectories. We identified three typical joint 3-D health trajectories. Female, childhood health, maternal and paternal educations, childhood friendships, family and neighborhood predictors could all affect 3-D health trajectories of older adults directly or indirectly through adult variables. The 3-D health trajectories showed increasing trends, thus the government should perform more interventions toward the childhood predictors for better health of older adults.

Physical and relational aggression as predictors of children's friendship experiences: Examining the moderating role of preference norms.

Aggressive behavior is generally detrimental to children's friendships, both in terms of having friends and in terms of keeping friends. Despite this general tendency, many aggressive children have friends and some of these friendships are stable. We examined the moderating role of preference norms in the classroom and child's sex in the association between children's physical and relational aggression and their friendship experiences. A total of 1135 children (M = 10.24 years, SD = 1.01) in Grades 4 to 6 completed a peer nomination inventory in the Fall (T1) and Spring (T2) of the same school year. Norms were operationalized as the class- and sex-specific correlation between physical or relational aggression and social preference. Norms moderated associations between each form of aggression and number of friends. At T1, physical and relational aggression were concurrently associated with having more friends when norms favored this behavior and with fewer friends when norms were unfavorable. The latter effect was especially pronounced in girls. Over time, youth lost friends when norms favored physical aggression and gained friends when norms favored relational aggression. T1 friends' physical and relational aggression were strong predictors of new friends' aggressive behavior, suggesting that friends provide a type of norm more significant to new friend selection than norms of the peer group and individual aggressive behavior. Overall, our results suggest that physical and relational aggression are not necessarily detrimental to children's friendship experiences and may even be beneficial in specific social contexts.

Sex Differences in Play Networks and Self-Reported Physical Activity Among Children at Summer Care Programs

This study examined sex differences in child friendship networks relative to summer care programs and associations with self-reported physical activity (PA) across summer. Children (n = 182; mean age = 9.93 years; SD = 1.28) at two summer care programs reported PA and information about up to five people they hung around with at the program and five outside the program at the beginning and end of summer. Male children reported significantly more PA than females at both timepoints. Average PA of in-program friends was significantly associated with PA for both sexes. More studies should acknowledge access to summer care programming when assessing summertime PA.

Effect of family-related adverse childhood experiences on self-rated health in childhood and adulthood——childhood friendships as moderator

Although many existing studies have shown that family-related adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a negative effect on individual health, few studies have examined the role of childhood friendships in the relationship between ACEs and health outcomes. The present study used ordered logistic regression analyze the data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) conducted in 2014, which is a national representative survey, to investigate the impact of family-related ACEs on self-rated health in childhood and adulthood and the moderating effects of childhood friendships. We found that respondents whose ACEs included physical and emotional neglect, parental physical illness, parental mental illness, family economic hardship, experience of starvation, lived in insecure neighborhood, and lived in unclean community, had a lower self-rated health in childhood and adulthood than those without ACEs. Peer relationship moderates the impact of family-related ACEs—namely, family economic hardship and parental physical illness—on health outcomes, and the increase of peer relationship can reduce adverse effects. Our findings suggest that family-related ACEs are not only related to health in the early life, but also to health outcomes in adulthood. Childhood friendships can reduce the adverse effects of ACEs on health outcomes throughout an individual's life course. Therefore, it is necessary to actively cultivate children's peer relationship networks and improve the quality of childhood friendship.

Navigating young children's friendship selection: implications for practice

ABSTRACT Friendship is of great concern to young children (Unicef 2011. The State of the World's Children. New York: United Nations Children's Fund). Research also suggests the positive outcomes friendships have on children's development, learning and well-being (Daniels, Tina, Danielle Quigley, Lisa Menard, and Linda Spence. 2010. “My Best Friend Always Did and Still Does Betray Me Constantly: Examining Relational and Physical Victimization Within a Dyadic Friendship Context.” Canadian Journal of School Psychology 25 (1): 70–83; Hedges, Helen, and Maria Cooper. 2017. “Collaborative Meaning-Making Uusing Video Footage: Teachers and Researchers Analyse Children's Working Theories About Friendship.” European Early Childhood Educational Research Journal 25 (3): 398–411). This paper highlights how young children select their friends and how practitioners might use these data to support children's friendship choices. It draws upon on a phenomenological study of 5 and 6 year olds during which data were collected through small world play interviews. Findings provide new insights into how children select their friends, including pre-selection, using a selection criteria and putting selection into action. This paper argues for the need to listen to children's friendship selections and consider potential implications for practice.

Capturing talk and proximity in the classroom: Advances in measuring features of young children's friendships

Young children's friendships fuel essential developmental outcomes (e.g., social-emotional competence) and are thought to provide even greater benefits to children with or at-risk for disabilities. Teacher and parent report and sociometric measures are commonly used to measure friendships, and ecobehavioral assessment has been used to capture its features on a momentary basis. In this proof-of-concept study, we use Ubisense, the Language ENvironmental Analysis (LENA) recorder, and advanced speech processing algorithms to capture features of friendship – child-peer speech and proximity within activity areas. We collected 12,332 1-second speech and location data points. Our preliminary results indicate the focal child at-risk for a disability and each playmate spent time vocalizing near one another across 4 activity areas. Additionally, compared to the Blocks activity area, the children had significantly lower odds of talking while in proximity during Manipulatives and Science. This suggests that the activity areas children occupy may affect their engagement with peers and, in turn, the friendships they development. The proposed approach is a groundbreaking advance to understanding and supporting children's friendships.

Early Life Circumstances and Cognitive Aging: Longitudinal Evidence From China Health and Retirement Study

Objectives: This study examines the long-term relationship between early life circumstances and later life cognitive aging. In particular, we differentiate the long-term effects of early life circumstances on level of cognitive deficit and rate of cognitive decline. Methods: Cognitive trajectories were measured using three waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Surveys (CHARLS 2011-2015). Linear mixed-effect model was used to decompose the individual level of cognitive deficit and rate of cognitive change in a sample of Chinese middle-aged and older adults 45-90 years of age (N=6,700). These two dimensions of cognition were matched to four domains of early life circumstances using CHARLS Life History Survey (2014), including childhood socioeconomic status, neighborhood environment, social relationships and health conditions. Their associations were examined by linear regressions. Stratification analysis was further conducted to investigate the mediating effect of education on early life circumstances and cognitive aging. Results: Childhood socioeconomic status, childhood friendship and early life health conditions were significantly associated with both the level of cognitive deficit and rate of decline. In contrast, the community environment, including childhood neighborhood safety and social cohesion, only affected the baseline level of cognitive deficit; and childhood relationship with parents only affected the rate of cognitive decline. Moreover, education was found to be a mediating factor of these relationships. Conclusion: Exposure to disadvantaged early life circumstances have significant negative effects on later life cognitive deficit as well as rate of cognitive decline. Nevertheless, these long-term impacts can be partially ameliorated by higher educational attainment.

Star of The Week Programs Based on Peer Relationship for Children Social Emotional Development

Star of The Week Programs Based on Peer Relationship for Children Social Emotional Development

Treatment of friendship problems in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Initial results from a randomized clinical trial.

This study evaluated a novel intervention for friendship problems in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parental Friendship Coaching (PFC) teaches parents to coach their children in targeted friendship behaviors that are lacking in children with ADHD and that help children develop good quality friendships. Participants were 172 families of children with ADHD and social impairment (ages 6-11; 29.7% female) at two Canadian sites, randomized to PFC or to an active comparison intervention (Coping with ADHD through Relationships and Education; CARE) to control for common therapy factors. Questionnaire and observational measures assessing primary outcomes of children's friendship quality and secondary outcomes of children's friendship behaviors were collected at baseline, posttreatment, and 8-month follow-up. Across both treatment conditions, children showed improvements in positive friendship quality and in friendship behaviors. Relative to CARE, PFC was associated with somewhat more positive and less negative friendship behaviors at posttreatment and follow-up, but no difference between conditions was found in friendship quality. However, moderation analyses suggested that PFC may contribute to better friendship quality among families who had previous psychosocial treatment, as well as children with comorbid externalizing disorders. Although PFC showed some efficacy for affecting children's friendship behaviors, these changes may not translate into friendship quality. Nevertheless, PFC may improve friendship quality for at-risk subgroups of children with ADHD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).