Predicting Children's Friendship Status from Their Dyadic Interaction in Structured Situations of Potential Conflict

Abstract

Dyads of 8-year-old friends identified by sociometric friendship nominations were followed through the end of the school year to determine if they remained friends. These dyads as well as a control group of nonfriends were observed while participating in two structured tasks designed to stimulate real life social situations of potential conflict. When negotiating the sharing of an object, friends made more proposals than nonfriends, spent more time negotiating, and compromised more in making their counterproposals. Compared with dyads in which the friendship did not continue through the end of the school year, dyads of continuing friends exhibited greater sensitivity in their negotiations. During a fast-paced, competitive game, friends engaged in more competitive behavior and followed the rules more closely than did nonfriends. However, behavior in this game was unrelated to the continuation of friendship.

How Do Children with ADHD (Mis)manage Their Real-Life Dyadic Friendships? A Multi-Method Investigation

“…Following the procedure used by Blachman and Hinshaw (2002), we used only parental ratings in situations where teachers had seen children exclusively on medication (n=24 or 27.6% of the ADHD sample). Consistent with the criteria for mutual friendship proposed by Bukowski and Hoza (1989) and used in previous friendship studies (e.g., Fonzi et al, 1997;Parker & Hererra, 1996), dyads in which one or both participants failed to nominate his or her partner as a friend…”

“…Corsaro (1992) argues that conflicts are important in friendships as they allow children, by negotiation and problem solving, to learn about themselves, their friends and what is important in their friendships. In line with Corsaro's contentions, researchers have found that friends show greater concern for the resolution of conflict (Newcomb & Bagwell, 1995) and, in dealing with conflict, show greater sensitivity to the needs of their friends than do non-friends (e.g., Fonzi, Schneider, Tani, & Tomada, 1997). …”

“…Our observational measures had also been used successfully in previous research on the dyadic interactions of delinquent adolescents (e.g., Dishion, Eddy, Haas, Li, & Spracklen, 1997), socially anxious early adolescents (Schneider, 2009), aggressive children (Dane, 2001), and "normal" school-aged children (e.g., Fonzi et al, 1997). These tasks were designed to mirror the real-world interactions of friends and to elicit a variety of social interactions.…”

“…The correlation between these dimensions was moderately high (r = -.33, p < .01), indicating that are related but independent aspects of friendship quality. In order to gauge overall friendship satisfaction, we The car-race task (Fonzi et al, 1997) simulates interaction between children in a fastpaced and engrossing game. This game permits the distinction between fine competition that is friendly, enjoyable, and fair and competition that is less amicable in tone and that might involve cheating.…”

“…Rewarding, even exciting companionship remains a building block of friendship, as it is for younger children, although simply being an accessible playmate does not lead as readily to friendship formation as in the younger years . Fairness in play and respect for the rules of a game are now among the features that make for enjoyable company (Fonzi et al, 1997). Psychological support variables such as intimacy, reciprocity, sensitivity to feelings, cooperation, help, Friendship Interactions of Children with ADHD 9 self-disclosure, and trust assume greater roles in the formation of friendships in preadolescence (Berndt & Perry, 1986;Bukowski & Kramer, 1986;Buzzelli, 1988;Hartup, 1989;McGuire & Weisz, 1982).…”