Peer relationships and quality of life

Measures of peer relationships during childhood have been shown to be reliable predictors of several indicators of functioning during adulthood. Within each of these areas of functioning, children who have troubled peer relationships are more likely to show signs of distress than are other children. In addition, experiences with peers appear to provide a context for the development of many fundamental human capacities (e.g., moral judgment, conflict resolution skills, emotional regulation, etc.). Three interrelated levels of analysis can be used to assess a child's experiences with peers: the level of the individual (i.e., what the child is like); the level of the dyad (e.g., experiences with friends); and the level of the group (e.g., experiences with the set of individuals with whom the child typically associates). By determining a child's functioning at these three levels of analysis (using assessments from teachers, parents, and peers), it is possible to obtain a good assessment of a central portion of the quality of a child's life. Such measures have been used to assess the quality of life of children across the height spectrum and preliminary findings show that the peer experiences of children who are substantially shorter than their peers are remarkably similar to those of other children.