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The mutual best friendships of shy/withdrawn and control children were examined for prevalence, stability, best friend's characteristics, and friendship quality. Using peer nominations of shy/ socially withdrawn and aggressive behaviors, two groups of children were identified from a normative sample of fifth-grade children: shy/withdrawn (n = 169) and control (nonaggressive/ nonwithdrawn; n = 163). Friendship nominations, teacher reports, and friendship quality data were gathered. Results revealed that shy/withdrawn children were as likely as control children to have mutual stable best friendships. Withdrawn children's friends were more withdrawn and victimized than were the control children's best friends; further, similarities in social withdrawal and peer victimization were revealed for withdrawn children and their friends. Withdrawn children and their friends reported lower friendship quality than did control children. Results highlight the importance of both quantitative and qualitative measures of friendship when considering relationships as risk and/or protective factors.Keywords social withdrawal; friendship; adjustment Long ago, Jean Piaget and Harry Stack Sullivan posited that peer relationships provide children with a unique context for emotional and social development (Piaget, 1932;Sullivan, 1953). Piaget maintained that the symmetrical power relationship unique to peer relationships afforded children the opportunity to develop perspective-taking abilities, social competence, and advanced moral reasoning. Sullivan emphasized the intimacy of children's same-gender chumships, arguing that such intimacy promotes identity development and contributes to later successes in romantic relationships. The implication of their arguments was that children who were not involved in peer relationships would miss out on developmental opportunities important for positive adjustment and growth (Rubin, Burgess, Kennedy, & Stewart, 2003).Today, the peer relationships literature supports Piaget's and Sullivan's early contentions, clearly demonstrating the significance of peer relationships, particularly friendships, in children's emotional and social development (see Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998 NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript development of perspective-taking and moral reasoning skills (e.g., McGuire & Weisz, 1982). Friendship also has been positively associated with measures of self-esteem and feelings of general self-worth (e.g., Bagwell, Newcomb, & Bukowski, 1998) and is considered an important source of social support, particularly under potentially stressful situations (Berndt & Keefe, 1995;Ladd, 1990). Further, researchers have shown that friendship can protect children from the negative externalizing and internalizing "costs" associated with peer victimization (e.g., Hodges, Boivin, Vitaro, & Bukowski, 1999).It also has been shown that children who are without close peer relationships altogether or those who have difficulties with their peers, often experience ...

The primary objectives of this investigation were to examine the attributions, emotional reactions, and coping strategies of shy/withdrawn and aggressive girls and boys and to examine whether such social cognitions differ within the relationship context of friendship. Drawn from a sample of 5 th and 6 th graders (M age = 10.79 years; SD = .77), 78 shy/withdrawn, 76 aggressive, and 85 control children were presented with hypothetical social situations that first involved unfamiliar peers, then a mutual good friend. Results revealed group and gender differences and similarities, depending on the relationship context. From our findings emerges a central message: friends' involvement during interpersonal challenges or stressors mitigates children's attributions, emotions and coping responses.The ways in which children process information about social situations and others' behaviors have been the subject of much scrutiny in the social-cognitive and developmental psychology literatures. For example, Crick and Dodge (1994) proposed that when children find themselves in social company, and when a dilemma confronts them, they first encode and interpret social cues and information; next, they access their cognitive repertoires, decide upon, and evaluate possible responses to the given situation; and lastly, they select and enact the chosen response. Researchers who have applied this model have typically reported that aggressive or rejected children attribute hostile intent to the actions of others (e.g., "The child did X on purpose to hurt or harm me."), even when the behaviors leading to untoward consequences may be objectively appraised as having an ambiguous cause (e.g., Dodge et al., 2003).More recently, Lemerise and Arsenio (2000) integrated emotional experiences within Crick and Dodge's (1994) social information processing model. For example, aggressive children's emotional reactions to problematic social situations might include frustration or anger. These emotions, in turn, may influence the information attended to, the information recalled, and the ways children respond to negative events befalling them. Non-aggressive children, particularly those who may be described as socially wary and withdrawn, may view interpersonal situations such as peer group entry as stressful and anxiety-producing; in their case, avoidance evoked by fear or wariness may be the social consequence. Thus, an inability to regulate emotional arousal under certain circumstances could influence several steps of the information processing and behavioral enactment process.Whereas the majority of attention has been devoted to the study of aggression (see Orobio de Castro, Veerman, Koops, Bosch, & Monshouwer, 2002), social information-processing models have also been proposed as being relevant for the understanding of peer victimization (Graham & Juvonen, 1998), childhood anxiety (Bell-Dolan, 1995;Daleiden & Vasey, 1997;Suarez & Bell-Dolan, 2001), and childhood/adolescent depression (e.g., Garber, Keiley, & Martin, 2002). Although not al...

This column reviews and comments on studies of the outcome of older-child and adolescent adoption. The research demonstrates that children adopted at older ages are more likely to exhibit higher levels of some problem behaviors than children adopted at younger ages. Gender, age and the placement of sibling groups are among the variables that seem to influence outcome. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@ haworthpressinc.com ]

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