ABSTRACT
Sociological definitions of friendship are usually quite broad and inclusive. Friends are often assumed to be the peers with whom a child frequently interacts, or they may leave it up to the children to label other children as ‘friends’ with no check on reciprocity. And with young children, friendship may be defined simply as the relative amount of time they are in physical proximity to one another compared to other peers. At the most basic level, friendship is important because value it, and children value it from a very young age. Children will go to great lengths to maintain friendships, and they value their friends as sources of fun, excitement, happiness and good ideas. One of the clearest ways in which friendships contribute to a child’s development is that they provide a context for learning and practising social skills and competencies.
