The Correlates and Consequences of Friendship Change and Friendlessness During Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

Abstract

The present study is designed to identify the consequences of losing friends, gaining friends, and being friendless. Participants were public primary and middle school students (ages 8–14 years, M_age = 11.35, SD_age = 1.41) in Florida and Lithuania (481 boys). Participants completed friend and peer reputation nominations twice during an academic year (fall and spring semesters), with friendships defined by reciprocated nominations. Six friend change groups were identified: Net friend loss-became friendless (n = 69), net friend loss-remained friended (n = 255), net friend gain-initially friendless (n = 90), net friend gain-initially friended (n = 242), no change in number of friends (n = 269), and chronically friendless (n = 46). Among those who lost friends but remained friended, academic achievement and perceptions of being fun decreased; relational aggression increased for those who became friendless. Among those who gained friends and were initially friendless, perceptions of being fun increased; academic achievement and perceptions of being fun increased for those who were initially friended.

Keywords

friendship academic achievement aggression victimization cross-cultural

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bagwell

C. L.

Bukowski

W. M.

(2018). Friendship in childhood and adolescence: Features, effects, and processes. In Bukowski

W. M.

Laursen

Rubin

K. H.

(Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups (2nd ed., pp. 371–390). The Guilford Press.

Bowker

J. C.

Fredstrom

B. K.

Rubin

K. H.

Rose-Krasnor

Booth-LaForce

Laursen

(2010). Distinguishing children who form new best-friendships from those who do not. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(6), 707–725. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407510373259

Bowker

J. C.

Rubin

K. H.

Burgess

K. B.

Booth-Laforce

Rose-Krasnor

(2006). Behavioral characteristics associated with stable and fluid best friendship patterns in middle childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52(4), 671–693. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2006.0000

Bukowski

W. M.

Laursen

Hoza

(2010). The snowball effect: Friendship moderates escalations in depressed affect among avoidant and excluded children. Development and Psychopathology, 22(4), 749–757. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457941000043X

Coyne

J. C.

(1976). Depression and the response of others. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85(2), 186–193. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.85.2.186

Dijkstra

J. K.

Cillessen

A. H.

Borch

(2013). Popularity and adolescent friendship networks: Selection and influence dynamics. Developmental Psychology, 49(7), 1242–1252. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030098

Faul

Erdfelder

Lang

A.-G.

Buchner

(2007). G*power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146

Flannery

K. M.

Smith

R. L.

(2021). Breaking up (with a friend) is hard to do: An examination of friendship dissolution among early adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 41(9), 1368–1393. https://doi.org/10.1177/02724316211002266

Hamm

J. V.

Faircloth

B. S.

(2005). The role of friendship in adolescents' sense of school belonging. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2005(107), 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.121

10.

Hartl

A. C.

Laursen

Cantin

Vitaro

(2020). A test of the bistrategic control hypothesis of adolescent popularity. Child Development, 91(3), e635–e648. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13269

11.

Kendrick

Jutengren

Stattin

(2012). The protective role of supportive friends against bullying perpetration and victimization. Journal of Adolescence, 35(4), 1069–1080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.02.014

12.

Knifsend

C. A.

Camacho-Thompson

D. E.

Juvonen

Graham

(2018). Friends in activities, school-related affect, and academic outcomes in diverse middle schools. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(6), 1208–1220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0817-6

13.

Kochel

K. P.

Ladd

G. W.

Bagwell

C. L.

Yabko

B. A.

(2015). Bully/victim profiles' differential risk for worsening peer acceptance: The role of friendship. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 41(1), 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2015.05.002

14.

Laursen

Altman

R. L.

Bukowski

W. M.

Wei

(2020). Being fun: An overlooked indicator of childhood social status. Journal of Personality, 88(5), 993–1006. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12546

15.

Laursen

Bukowski

W. M.

Aunola

Nurmi

J. E.

(2007). Friendship moderates prospective associations between social isolation and adjustment problems in young children. Child Development, 78(4), 1395–1404. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01072.x

16.

Leggett-James

M. P.

Laursen

(2023). More about being fun: Making friends to maximize social status. Journal of Personality, 92(5), 1438–1450. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12899

17.

Lessard

L. M.

Juvonen

(2018a). Losing and gaining friends: Does friendship instability compromise academic functioning in middle school? Journal of School Psychology, 69(1), 143–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2018.05.003

18.

Lessard

L. M.

Juvonen

(2018b). Friendless adolescents: Do perceptions of social threat account for their internalizing difficulties and continued friendlessness? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 28(2), 277–283. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12388

19.

Markovic

Bowker

J. C.

(2017). Friends also matter: Examining friendship adjustment indices as moderators of anxious-withdrawal and trajectories of change in psychological maladjustment. Developmental Psychology, 53(8), 1462–1473. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000343

20.

McDonald

K. L.

Asher

S. R.

(2018). Peer acceptance, peer rejection, and popularity: Social-cognitive and behavioral perspectives. In Bukowski

W. M.

Laursen

Rubin

K. H.

(Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups (2nd ed., pp. 429–446). Guilford.

21.

Merton

R. K.

(1968). The Matthew effect in science. The reward and communication systems of science are considered. Science, 159(3810), 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.159.3810.56

22.

Parker

J. G.

Seal

(1996). Forming, losing, renewing, and replacing friendships: Applying temporal parameters to the assessment of children's friendship experiences. Child Development, 67(5), 2248–2268. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131621

23.

Poulin

Chan

(2010). Friendship stability and change in childhood and adolescence. Developmental Review, 30(3), 257–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2009.01.001

24.

Scheuplein

van Harmelen

A. L.

(2022). The importance of friendships in reducing brain responses to stress in adolescents exposed to childhood adversity: A preregistered systematic review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45(1), Article 101310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101310

25.

Schneider

B. H.

(2016). Childhood friendships and peer relations: Friends and enemies (2nd ed.). Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

26.

Scholte

R. H.

Overbeek

ten Brink

Rommes

de Kemp

R. A.

Goossens

Engels

R. C.

(2009). The significance of reciprocal and unilateral friendships for peer victimization in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38(1), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9287-6

27.

Vaughn

B. E.

Colvin

T. N.

Azria

M. R.

Caya

Krzysik

(2001). Dyadic analyses of friendship in a sample of preschool-age children attending Head Start: Correspondence between measures and implications for social competence. Child Development, 72(3), 862–878. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00320

28.

Wang

Iannotti

R. J.

Nansel

T. R.

(2009). School bullying among adolescents in the United States: Physical, verbal, relational, and cyber. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(4), 368–375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.03.021

29.

Wentzel

K. R.

Barry

C. M.

Caldwell

K. A.

(2004). Friendships in middle school: Influences on motivation and school adjustment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(2), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.96.2.195

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.20 MB