Reciprocal Friendships Research Articles

Perceptions of reciprocity in friendship by community dwelling people with mild to moderate dementia.

Positive social interaction is important for people with dementia, providing emotional and psychological benefits. Friendships may retain more reciprocal balance than caregiver relationships, which often become one-sided. This qualitative study investigates the meaning that friendship has for people with dementia, and how reciprocity relates to positive social identity. Individuals experiencing dementia were recruited from programs sponsored by a Midwest chapter of The Alzheimer’s Association. In a face-to-face, one-time interview, participants were asked to share their perceptions about reciprocal friendship. Participants included 10 individuals who were primarily White, averaged 76 years old, with at least some college education. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach that revealed five themes of reciprocal friendship: recognizing the importance of longevity in friendship, helping one another is a normal part of friendship, feeling “alive” through the give and take in friendship, knowing somebody is there for them, and seeking security through friendship.

Quality of play, social acceptance and reciprocal friendship in preschool children

ABSTRACTPlaying with peers is one of the most important contexts for the acquisition of social competencies in early childhood. This study examined the relation between children’s play behavior, social acceptance in the peer group, and number of reciprocal friendships. One hundred and twenty eight children, aged between three and five years, participated in the study. Social acceptance and number of reciprocal friendships were assessed using two sociometric measures: nomination and comparison among peers. Children’s behavior during play activities was assessed by a Portuguese version of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale. Global results showed positive and significant correlations between positive interaction and sociometric measures, indicating that children who manifest positive play behaviors are more accepted by peers and have more reciprocal friendships. On the other hand, play disruption and disconnection were negatively correlated with sociometric measures, indicating that children who show these types of play behaviors have lower social acceptance and fewer reciprocal friendships. Parsing the correlations by the three age groups, results show distinct patterns of associations between quality of play, social acceptance and friendship in function of age. Our results stress that already at an early age, behavior during play is related to friendship and social reputation.

Links between friends’ behaviors and the emergence of leadership in childhood: A genetically informed study of twins

AbstractUsing a genetically informed design, this study examined whether children's leadership behavior varied as a function of their reciprocal friends’ behavioral characteristics. Specifically, we tested (a) whether friends’ use of a dual strategy (specifically, indirect aggression with prosocial behavior) was associated with children's leadership behavior and (b) whether, in line with a gene‐environment interaction (GxE), the predictive association between friends’ behaviors and children's leadership behavior varied depending on the child's genetic likelihood for leadership. The sample comprised 239 Monozygotic and same‐sex Dizygotic twin pairs (50% boys) assessed in grade 4 (mean age = 10.4 years, SD = 0.26). Reciprocal friendship and children's and their friends’ prosocial, indirectly aggressive, and physically aggressive behaviors were measured via peer nominations. Children's and friends’ leadership was measured through teacher ratings. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that children's genetic likelihood for leadership was positively associated with their leadership behavior. Moreover, the higher their genetic likelihood for leadership, the more children displayed increased leadership behavior when friends showed a combination of indirect aggression and prosocial behavior (GxE). These results underline the role of friends’ behaviors in explaining children's leadership. Socializing with bistrategic friends seems to foster leadership skills especially in children with a genetic likelihood for leadership.

Natural philanthropy: a new evolutionary framework explaining diverse experimental results and informing fundraising practice

Philanthropic decision-making is important both for its potential to provide insight into human behaviour and for its economic significance. In recent years, investigations of charitable-giving behaviour have expanded substantially, including explorations from a variety of disciplinary perspectives such as economics, marketing, sociology, public administration, anthropology, evolutionary biology, political science and psychology. These investigations have resulted in a wealth of experimental results with each investigation accompanied by a discussion of potential theoretical implications. Most commonly, the various theories employed are helpful with regard to the narrow result of the investigation, but are not always useful in explaining the wider universe of results. Taking a comprehensive view of charitable-giving behaviour is thus limited to either employing a wide assortment of overlapping theoretical models, selectively applying each to fit individual phenomena, or merely referencing an ad hoc assortment of potential motivations. This circumstance suggests the value of a more unified, comprehensive approach to understanding the complete range of experimental and empirical results in charitable giving. This article proposes a comprehensive framework for philanthropic decision-making using a simple evolutionary approach incorporating interrelated fitness-enhancing strategies. The framework is then used in an extensive review of experimental and other empirical results in philanthropic decision-making. This review supports the framework proposition that giving depends on the tangibility of a gift’s impact on altruism (direct or code), reciprocity (transactional or friendship) and possessions relative to its alternatives. Five example principles of fundraising practice demonstrate the practical applicability of this proposition: advance the donor hero story (tangibility of direct or code altruism); make the charity like family (friendship reciprocity); provide compatible publicity and benefits (transactional reciprocity); minimize perceived loss (possessions); and manage decision avoidance (relative to its alternatives). Understanding philanthropic behaviour from this perspective provides explanation and guidance for a wide range of charitable-giving behaviours and fundraising practices even in areas less amenable to traditional experimental investigation, such as charitable bequests and major gifts.

Evaluating the quality of peer interactions in children and adolescents with autism with the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS)

BackgroundA core difficulty for individuals with autism is making friends and successfully engaging and interacting with peers. The majority of measures to assess peer interactions are observations in a school setting or self-report. The present study examined the convergent validity of using a teacher rating scale, the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS), for collecting information about the quality of peer interactions at school.MethodsTeachers completed the PIPPS for 107 children with ASD when the child was 9 and 13 years of age. Clinicians completed diagnostic and cognitive assessments and caregivers completed the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) when the child was 9.ResultsParent report of reciprocal friendships from the ADI-R was associated with teacher report about how socially connected the child was at school on the PIPPS, indicating strong convergence between teachers and parents. Children with more severe restricted and repetitive behaviors and lower verbal abilities were less connected with peers. Children with access to typical peers had more connections with peers compared to those who were in a special education classroom.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that teacher ratings from the PIPPS can accurately capture the quality of peer interactions in children and adolescents with ASD and may be useful for clinicians and researchers to evaluate peer engagement in the classroom.

Depression in Groups of Bullies and Victims: Evidence for the Differential Importance of Peer Status, Reciprocal Friends, School Liking, Academic Self-Efficacy, School Motivation and Academic Achievement

Depression in Groups of Bullies and Victims: Evidence for the Differential Importance of Peer Status, Reciprocal Friends, School Liking, Academic Self-Efficacy, School Motivation and Academic Achievement

The Role of Friendship Reciprocity in University Freshmen's Alcohol Consumption.

The similarity of friends in the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption is explored. During their first semester, 57 psychology freshmen indicated weekly drinking frequency and quantity and nominated the three peers of this group they liked most. These nominations were then used to derive the weekly alcohol consumption of friends that either did or did not reciprocate a nomination. Multilevel modeling of weekly variations showed that individuals' drinking frequency was similar to peers who reciprocated a friendship (b = 0.15, p = .001), but not to non-reciprocating peers (b = -0.01, p = .720). In contrast, weekly variation in quantity of individual students' drinking was similar to both reciprocating (b = 0.11, p = .018) and non-reciprocating peers' drinking (b = 0.10, p = .014). Yet across all weeks, quantity tended only to be similar to non-reciprocating peers (b = 0.49, p = .020). Freshmen might spend drinking time with peers who reciprocate a friendship, but are similar regarding the quantity of drinks consumed to all people they find interesting. Thus, alcohol consumption is used strategically for social purposes. This social purpose should also be acknowledged in alcohol-reduction interventions.

Pathways to Reciprocated Friendships: A Cross-Lagged Panel Study on Young Adolescents' Anger Regulation towards Friends.

Adolescents' close friendships are an important and unique learning context in which adolescents can practice and hone their emotion regulation skills within an egalitarian, supportive relationship structure that provides important feedback on the effectiveness of the regulation strategies. This longitudinal study examined whether adolescents' involvement in supportive reciprocal friendships influenced the way in which they regulated angry feelings arising in these friendships. A sample of 299 German adolescents began a 30-month, 3-wave longitudinal study in grade 7 (151 boys, M age = 12.6 years; 100% White). They completed a social network inventory (LueNIC), a peer-nomination measure, and the questionnaire on Strategies of Anger Regulation for Adolescents (SAR-A) in every wave. Cross-lagged-panel modeling indicated a pattern of socialization effects even when controlling for previous friendship involvement, previous anger regulation, peer acceptance, gender, classroom membership, and possible friendship selection influences. Adolescents with more reciprocal friends at Time 1 (T1) reported using aggressive strategies of anger regulation (i.e., verbal and relational aggression, fantasies of revenge) and ignoring the friend less often at Time 2 (T2). Similar results were obtained between T2 and Time 3 (T3). There was a marginally significant effect for one of three non-aggressive strategies such that a higher involvement in friendships at T2 explained more reappraisal of the anger-eliciting event at T3 but significant effects did not emerge for the strategies of redirection of attention and explanation and reconciliation. The results are discussed within a socialization of emotion framework with implications for social skills training modules.

LOS AMIGOS DE LOS NIÑOS Y NIÑAS RECHAZADOS. UN ANÁLISIS DE LA SIMILITUD CONDUCTUAL.

Abstract.FRIENDS OF THE REJECTED GIRLS AND BOYS. AN ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIORAL SIMILARITY.This work carries out a first approach to analyzing the relations of reciprocal friendship of children in situations of rejection at the beginning of primary education. The focus is to verify the hypothesis of behavioral similarity among friends, by contrasting a sample of 111 sociometrical average children with 111 rejected children. The variables of social behavior that are used to study the behavioral similarity are social skills, direct aggression, social aggression, hyperactivity and withdrawal. Nearly a third of the rejected children have no one single mutual friendship. The scores of the friends of the rejected children are lower at social skills and higher at all the behavioral difficulties. Among the average children used for the comparison, some correlations between one’s own behavior and that of friends were also found, but not in all the variables. There is a significant correlation between the negative social behavior of the rejected children and that of their friends. The hypothesis of behavioral homophily is verified, but not the second stated hypothesis which refers to a greater behavioral similarity between the rejected children and their friends.Keywords: Peer rejection, friendship, behavioral similarity, homophily, social skills, aggression, hyperactivity, withdrawal.Resumen.En este trabajo se presenta una primera aproximación al análisis de las relaciones de amistad recíprocas de niños y niñas en situación de rechazo al comienzo de la escolarización primaria. El eje central del trabajo es confirmar la hipótesis de la similitud conductual de las amistades contrastando una muestra de 111 niños rechazados y 111 niños promedios. Las variables de conducta social que se utilizan para estudiar la similitud en la conducta son habilidades sociales, agresión directa, agresión social, hiperactividad y retraimiento. Casi una tercera parte de los niños rechazados no tienen relación recíproca de amistad. Los amigos de los rechazados tienen puntuaciones más bajas en habilidades sociales y más altas en todas las dificultades conductuales. Entre los promedios de contraste también se encuentra relación entre la propia conducta y la de los amigos, aunque no para todas las variables. Existe una relación significativa entre la conducta social negativa de los niños y niñas rechazados y sus amigos. La hipótesis de la homofilia conductual se confirma, no así la segunda hipótesis formulada que hace referencia a una mayor similitud conductual entre los rechazados y sus amigos.Palabras Clave Rechazo entre iguales, amistad, similitud conductual, homofilia, habilidades sociales, agresión, hiperactividad, retraimiento.

Academic Functioning and Peer Influences: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of Network-Behavior Dynamics in Middle Adolescence.

In this study, the associations between peer effects and academic functioning in middle adolescence (N=342; 14-15years old; 48% male) were investigated longitudinally. Similarity in achievement (grade point averages) and unexplained absences (truancy) was explained by both peer selection and peer influence, net of acceptance, and connectedness. Friendships were formed and maintained when adolescents had low levels of achievement or high levels of truancy. Friends influenced one another to increase rather than decrease in achievement and truancy. Moreover, friends' popularity moderated peer influences in truancy in reciprocal friendships but not in unilateral friendships, whereas friends' acceptance moderated peer influences in achievement in both unilateral and reciprocal friendships. The findings illustrate the dynamic interplay between peer effects and academic functioning.

Preadolescents and their friends

In the current study, associations between individual and friends’ direct and indirect aggression and depressive problems were examined. It was expected that social status would moderate these associations such that low-status preadolescents would be more similar to their unilateral friends with regard to indirect, but not direct, aggression. Furthermore, it was expected that preadolescents’ depressive problems were positively associated to reciprocal friends’ depressive problems, in particular in low-status preadolescents. The hypotheses were tested by studying unilateral and reciprocal friendships in 204 children (Mage=10.90; SD=0.78; 44.1% girls). Direct and indirect aggression and depressive problems were assessed via both self- and peer-reports. Social status was assessed via peer-reported rejection (i.e., dislike) and popularity (i.e., who do others want to be associated with). Analyses showed partial support for the hypotheses, showing that individual and unilateral friends’ self-reported indirect and direct aggression were positively associated in preadolescents who were lower on popularity. Moreover, in preadolescents who were more rejected by peers, depressive problems were positively associated to reciprocal friends’ depressive problems. The current study highlights the importance of including social status and distinguishing between unilateral and reciprocal friendships when examining associations between individual and friends’ behavior.

Dropping out of high school: The role of parent and teacher self-determination support, reciprocal friendships and academic motivation

The purpose of this study was to examine whether parent and teacher support for basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence and relatedness), students' reciprocal friendships, and academic motivation assessed in Grade 10 (N = 624) could predict dropping out of high school two years later in Grade 12. Results revealed that reciprocal friendships contributed to the prediction of dropping out of high school, above and beyond the effects of academic motivation, or parent and teacher support for basic psychological needs. Although parent support for basic psychological needs appeared to be the most significant predictor of academic motivation and dropping out of high school, results suggested that reciprocal friendships represented an important factor that affect both motivation and persistence. Most specifically, our findings demonstrated that a lack of reciprocal friendships had detrimental effects on these aforementioned processes, whereas having reciprocal friendships lead to favorable outcomes.

‘Sentimental Follies’ or ‘Instruments of Tremendous Uplift’? reconsidering women's same-sex relationships in interwar Britain

In 1985 Sheila Jeffreys alleged that the rise of sexological discourse concerning female inversion in the early twentieth century obliged women of the interwar period in the UK to reject female affection for fear of being labelled lesbian. Several historians have demonstrated that sexological ideas gained very little general currency before Radclyffe Hall's novel The Well of Loneliness (1928). Research on specific women suggests that such fears were less prevalent than surmised. An influential discourse invoking tropes of emotional femininity, rather than inversion, was embodied in Clemence Dane's Regiment of Women (1917), presenting female same-sex relationships as mired in morbid emotions and parasitic manipulation. It had significant cultural resonance for well over a decade. A counter-discourse argued that emotionally healthy, reciprocal female friendship might form a sustaining element for women unable to marry. Stress, however, was laid on the need for self-knowledge and psychological understanding.

Loneliness in Early Adolescence: Friendship Quantity, Friendship Quality, and Dyadic Processes

Friendship quantity and quality are related to adolescent loneliness, but the exact link between these constructs is not well understood. The present study aimed to examine whether adolescents’ perception of friendship quantity and quality, and the perceptions of their peers, were related to loneliness. We examined the relation between loneliness and the number of unilateral and reciprocal friendships and compared the views of best friendship quality. Overall, 1,172 Dutch adolescents (49.1% male, M age = 12.81, SD = .43) nominated their friends and rated their friendship quality. Friendship quantity was measured using sociometrics to distinguish reciprocated and unilateral (i.e., one-sided) friendships. The analyses indicated that loneliness was related to fewer reciprocal and unilateral-received friendships (i.e., the adolescent received a friendship nomination but did not reciprocate that nomination) and a lower quality of best friendship. Actor–partner interdependence analyses revealed that adolescents’ loneliness was related to a less positive evaluation of their friendship, as reported by adolescents themselves (i.e., a significant actor effect) but not by their friends (i.e., nonsignificant partner effect). These findings (a) indicate that loneliness is negatively related to the number of friends adolescents have, as perceived by themselves and their peers and (b) suggest that, once a friendship is established, lonely adolescents may interpret the friendship quality less positively compared to their friends. Implications of these findings for our current understanding of adolescent loneliness are discussed, and suggestions for future research are outlined.

Perceptions of intimacy and friendship reciprocity moderate peer influence on aggression

Previous research has shown that close friends' influence can exacerbate adolescents' aggressive behavior, but results of studies which examine whether friendships of greater or lesser qualities moderate peer influence effects are inconsistent. The present study tested whether the perception of the positive friendship quality of intimate exchange and friendship reciprocity moderated best friend influence on participant aggression over time. The 243 participants were approximately 12 years old and ethnically diverse. Neither intimate exchange nor reciprocity significantly moderated friend influence on aggression in a simple way, but the interaction of intimate exchange and friendship reciprocity predicted peer influence on participants' aggression over time. Specifically, highly intimate, nonreciprocal best friendships and less intimate, reciprocal best friendships showed greatest influence when friends' proportion of peer nominations for aggression was high. Reciprocity and intimacy should be considered when predicting peer influence on aggression.

Effects of psychosocial variables in the similarity and interdependence of physical activity levels among adolescent best friend dyads

ABSTRACTGiven that physical activity (PA) tends to decrease with age during adolescence, addressing factors that affect change is important. This study examined the similarity and interdependence of PA as influenced by psychosocial factors among adolescent best friend dyads. A total of 660 adolescents, representing 330 best friend dyads, completed questionnaires with regard to PA, sitting time, perceived exercise benefits and barriers, physical self-perception and social support for PA. Dyads were also identified as reciprocal and non-reciprocal best friends; reciprocal means that both considered each other best friends and non-reciprocal were those in which only one considered the other a best friend. Data were analysed using a hierarchical linear model framework. Results indicated significant similarities between reciprocal best friend dyads for PA and sitting time, and for sitting time in non-reciprocal best friends (P values <.01). Psychosocial variables were associated with PA in reciprocal best friend dyads and with sitting time in reciprocal and non-reciprocal best friend dyads. Best friend gender, regular sports practice of the person, perceived exercise barriers of the best friend and best friend social support were the best predictors for PA.

Choice of specialization: do peers matter?

Social influence is an important factor in learning and decision-making. We estimate peer influence on student choice of specialization using data on undergraduate students of a Russian university. Information about individual social ties has been gathered from a questionnaire survey. We show that specialization choice is significantly influenced by friends as well as by study partners. The strongest effect is produced by friends who are study partners and those who have similar academic achievements. Reciprocal friendship ties have a stronger influence on the choice than nonreciprocal ones. Also, the decision is affected by classmates with similar academic achievement. The results allow us to better understand the mechanisms of peer effects in the specialization choice.

Friendship Experiences and Anxiety Among Children: A Genetically Informed Study

This study examined (a) whether, in line with a gene-environment correlation (rGE), a genetic disposition for anxiety puts children at risk of having anxious friends or having no reciprocal friends; (b) to what extent these friendship experiences are related to anxiety symptoms, when controlling for sex and genetic disposition for this trait; and (c) the additive and interactive predictive links of the reciprocal best friend's anxiety symptoms and of friendship quality with children's anxiety symptoms. Using a genetically informed design based on 521 monozygotic and ic twins (264 girls; 87% of European descent) assessed in Grade 4 (M age = 10.04 years, SD = .26), anxiety symptoms and perceived friendship quality were measured with self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that, in line with rGE, children with a strong genetic disposition for anxiety were more likely to have anxious friends than nonanxious friends. Moreover, controlling for their genetic risk for anxiety, children with anxious friends showed higher levels of anxiety symptoms than children with nonanxious friends but did not differ from those without reciprocal friends. Additional analyses suggested a possible contagion of anxiety symptoms between reciprocal best friends when perceived negative features of friendship were high. These results underline the importance of teaching strategies such as problem solving that enhance friendship quality to limit the potential social contagion of anxiety symptoms.

Utilizing spatial autoregressive models to identify peer effects among adolescents

This study analyzes peer influences in a variety of adolescent developmental outcomes and explores the robustness of the results with regard to alternative specifications of the interaction matrix and the model. I employ the spatial autoregressive (SAR) model with group fixed effects in Lee et al. (Econom J 13(2):145–176, 2010) to separately identify endogenous, contextual, and correlated effects. I find evidence for both endogenous and contextual effects for all outcomes under consideration, even after controlling for confounding effects. I also find that a simple spatial weights matrix with equal weight among friends will serve the estimation purpose satisfactorily for the standard SAR model with a single row-normalized weighting matrix. The results are sensitive to the friendship reciprocity assumption as well as alternative model specifications.

A peer-mediated school intervention significantly improved the social skills and playground interactions of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Summaryof:Kasari,C.,Rotheram-Fuller,E.,Locke,J.G the study in cluded 30 different schoolsin the United States.Intervention: Children allocated to the CHILD interven-tion met with a trained therapist during lunch for 20 min-utes, twice per week, for six weeks. The therapist useddirect instruction and role-playing to target skill develop-ment. In the PEER intervention, three typically developingpeers from the target child’s classroom met with a therapistfor 20 minutes, twice per week, for six weeks. Throughdirect instruction, modelling and role-playing, peers weretaught how to: encourage positive social interactions, initi-ate play, and facilitate games for children who had diffi-culty making friends.Outcome measures: Primary measures. The Social Network(SN) Survey was administered to children in classrooms toexamine social network salience before, after and three -months following the intervention. The Playground Obser-vation of Peer Engagement was scored by blinded asses-sors: before, after and at the three-month follow-up.Secondary measures. The Teacher Perception of Social Skillsand the SN Survey (measuring: received friendship nomi-nations, nominations of friendship, rejections and recipro-cal friendship nominations).Results: There was a significant group effect on chil-dren’s social network salience (P < 0.001). The PEERintervention had a significant, large effect (P < 0.001,d = 0.76), while the CHILD intervention had a non-sig-nificant, small effect (P = 0.06, d = 0.36). Children whoreceived the PEER intervention also had an improvednumber of received friendship nominations ( P < 0.001)and teacher report of social skills in the classroom(P < 0.001); with gains persisting at follow-up. By thethree-month follow-up, playground isolation had signifi-cantly decreased (P<0.001) and joint engagement hadsignificantly increased (P = 0.01). There were no signifi-cant between group differences in secondary outcomesof: friendship nominations by the child, rejections orreciprocal friendships.Author’s conclusions: Peer-mediated treatments weresuperior to non-peer-mediated treatments on several out-comes. The school setting offers unique opportunities toteach typically developing peers to become sensitive andhelpful towards peers with different learning and develop-mental needs.Contact details of the original author : kasari@gseis.ucla.eduSarah Wilkes-GillanCAPs Advisory Board MemberFaculty of Health Sciences, the University of Sydney,Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaEmail: sarah.wilkes-gillan@sydney.edu.au