ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the friendships and their developmental significance without distinguishing between having friends, the identity of the child’s friends, and friendship quality. On 16 February 1995, in the small Minnesota town of Delano, a 14-year-old boy and his best friend ambushed and killed his mother as she returned home. On the too-rare occasions in which friendships are taken into account developmentally—either in diagnosis or research—children are differentiated merely according to whether or they have friends. Striking differences exist, however, among these relationships—both from child to child and companion to companion. Cross-sectional comparisons show that, first, children who have friends are more socially competent and less troubled than children; they are more sociable, co-operative, altruistic, self-confident, and less lonely. Some similarities among friends derive from the well-known tendency among human beings for choosing close associates who resemble themselves. Children and the friends are similar to one another, especially in attributes with reputational salience.
