Fifth-graders' (N = 162; 93 girls) relationships with parents and friends were examined with respect to their main and interactive effects on psychosocial functioning. Participants reported on parental support, the quality of their best friendships, self-worth, and perceptions of social competence. Peers reported on aggression, shyness and withdrawal, and rejection and victimization. Mothers reported on psychological adjustment. Perceived parental support and friendship quality predicted higher global self-worth and social competence and less internalizing problems. Perceived parental support predicted fewer externalizing problems, and paternal (not maternal) support predicted lower rejection and victimization. Friendship quality predicted lower rejection and victimization for only girls. Having a supportive mother protected boys from the effects of low-quality friendships on their perceived social competence. High friendship quality buffered the effects of low maternal support on girls' internalizing difficulties.Keywords friendship; parent-child relationships; attachment; social withdrawal; aggression From the earliest years of childhood, children develop significant relationships with family members and, with increasing age, their peers. Over the years, researchers have examined the influence that children's experiences with these relationships may have on their functioning. Links have been established between parent-child relationship quality and adjustment during the pre-, elementary, and middle school years as well as later adolescence (see Rubin & Burgess, 2002, for a relevant review). Likewise, aspects of children's peer relationships and friendships have been associated with psychosocial functioning. Recently, researchers have examined relations between relationship systems and the manner in which experiences in both familial and extrafamilial relationships may interact to influence psychosocial functioning. The focus of this study was on parent-youth adolescent and friendship relationships and whether and how friendships serve to moderate the association between parent-adolescent relationship quality and psychosocial functioning.
NIH Public Access
An Attachment FrameworkAlthough there are a number of ways in which relationships with parents may influence relationships with friends and psychosocial functioning, our framework in the present study is based on premises drawn from attachment theory. According to attachment theorists, the child who receives responsive and sensitive parenting from the primary caregiver forms an internal working model of that caregiver as trustworthy and dependable when needed and develops a model of the self as someone who is worthy of such care (Bowlby, 1973(Bowlby, , 1982. Through experience with a responsive and sensitive caregiver, the child learns reciprocity in social interactions (Elicker, Englund, & Sroufe, 1992) and a set of specific social skills that can be used in relationships that extend beyond the child-caregiver relationship. Also, the securely attac...