Similarities between Friends and Nonfriends in Middle Childhood

Abstract

Similarities were assessed between target children (mean age, 11.1 years) and their friends and nonfriends, respectively. One target child of each sex (N = 192), along with one same-sex friend and one nonfriend, were selected from 102 participating classrooms. "Guess who" nominations obtained within these classrooms were used to measure prosocial behavior, antisocial behavior, shyness / dependency, and sociometric status; selfreports were used to measure depressive symptoms. Children and their friends were more similar to one another than nonfriends across the entire data set-as the participants were rated by their classmates and as their classmates were rated by the participants. Friendship similarities varied from attribute to attribute, being greater in antisocial behavior than in the other domains. Similarities between friends in sociometric status and size of the friendship network were also greater among socially accepted than nonaccepted children.

The Best Friendships of Shy/Withdrawn Children: Prevalence, Stability, and Relationship Quality

“…Importantly, these findings also provide support for the "reputationalsalience hypothesis," or the notion that similarities between friends vary according to the salience of the attribute in determining the social reputations of the children involved (Haselager et al, 1998). In other words, it would be expected that aggressive children would be more likely to have friends who were highly aggressive, and withdrawn children would have friends who were highly withdrawn because such similarities would be consistent with their reputations.…”

“…Specifically, they posited that friendship might function protectively when children are similar to their friends in terms of prosocial tendencies. Alternatively, friendship can be a risk factor when there are behavioral concordances in aggression and displays of antisocial behaviors, a view that has been supported in empirical studies by Dishion and colleagues (e.g., Dishion, Andrews, & Crosby, 1995).Importantly, these findings also provide support for the "reputationalsalience hypothesis," or the notion that similarities between friends vary according to the salience of the attribute in determining the social reputations of the children involved (Haselager et al, 1998). In other words, it would be expected that aggressive children would be more likely to have friends who were highly aggressive, and withdrawn children would have friends who were highly withdrawn because such similarities would be consistent with their reputations.…”

“…6 Similar analyses have been conducted in the past to examine similarities between friends (e.g., Haselager et al, 1998). The correlations were computed separately within group, and also separately by gender, and are shown in Tables III and IV. For the shy/withdrawn children and their best friends, significant dyadic correlations were found for victimization/exclusion, prosocial behaviors, and popularity/sociability.…”

“…The "homophily" hypothesis suggests that children are attracted to, and become friends with, others who are similar to them. Haselager, Hartup, van Lieshout, and Riksen-Walraven (1998) found behavioral similarities to be greater between friends than non-friends in late childhood, with the relation particularly strong for aggressive and antisocial behaviors. These researchers also found that children's friendships were with others who resembled them in terms of prosocial behavior and shyness/dependency.…”

Early childhood anxious solitude and subsequent peer relationships: Maternal and cognitive moderators

“…Anxious solitary children may have friends with similar behavioral tendencies. Indeed, evidence indicates that children tend to become friends with peers with whom they share behavioral characteristics (homophily) (Farver, 1996;Haselager, Hartup, van Lieshout, & Riksen-Walraven, 1998;Hogue & Steinberg, 1995;Rubin, Lynch, Coplan, Rose-Krasnor, & Booth, 1994). Although this effect has most often been demonstrated for conconcordance in aggressive behavior (Farver, 1996;Hanish, Martin, Fabes, Leonard, & Herzog, 2005), Rubin and colleagues have demonstrated that children develop preferences for interacting with playmates who resemble themselves with respect to rate of solitary behavior ; see also French, Jansen, Riansari, & Setiono, 2003;Haselager et al, 1998).…”