Is a friend truly a treasure? Evolution of friendship competence from pre-school up to the last year of primary school

ABSTRACT

A Friend is truly a treasure, in accordance with age and competence’s qualitative changes. The aim of this study was to confirm the increase in friendship competence and its multifactorial nature in 3- up to 10-year-old children, and to verify gender differences, and parenting influences on the concept of friendship. A semi-structured interview was administered in a natural context to 3- to 10-year-old children (N = 167; Mean = 7.6 years; SD = 2.16). According to Selman’s Model, the coding provides five sub-categories: (1) friendship; (2) social perspective taking; (3) emotions understanding; (4) social interaction strategies; and (5) aggressiveness. Three parental style questionnaires were administered to parents. Results point up an increase in social skills according to age. The Friendship Interview turned out to be a reliable tool able to investigate how the concept of friendship is also structured in preschool children.

KEYWORDS:

• Friendship
• social competence
• primary school
• children
• parenting
• social perspective taking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Roberto Marcone is a Psychologist, a Ph.D. and Assistant Professor in Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Department of Psychology of University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”. His research interests focus on Child Development, Social Competence, Down Syndrome, and Special Educational Needs.

Antonietta Caputo is a Psychologist and a Ph.D. student in Mind's Science at the Department of Psychology of University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”. Her research interests focus on Social Competence, Friendship and Social Perspective Taking in Childhood and Early Adolescence.

ORCID

Roberto Marcone http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7871-3575