“…Vygotskian sociocultural theory predicts that collaboration leads to cognitive growth when partners arrive at a shared or intersubjective understanding of the situation (Bearison, Magzamen, & Filardo, 1986;Gauvain & Rogoff, 1989;Glassman, 1994;Hartup, 1996a;Russell, 1982;Tudge, 1992;Tudge, Winterhoff, & Hogan, 1996). Researchers have begun to address whether friendship of partners is associated with the development of a shared understanding of tasks and performance on such tasks (Azmitia & Montgomery, 1993;Strough, Berg, & Meegan, 2001;Strough & Cheng, 2000;Strough, Swenson, & Cheng, 2001). This focus on friendship comes from research indicating that having a friend is beneficial to adjustment in general (Demir & Urberg, 2004;Dunn, 2004;Hartup, 1996b;Hartup & Stevens, 1997;Ladd & Kochenderfer, 1996).…”