Children's Conceptions of Friendship: A Multimethod Study of Developmental Changes

Although previous research has examined the development of children's conceptions of friendship, two major limitations currently exist. First, previous investigators have relied principally on a single methodological approach-the open-ended interview. Second, little is known about children's expectations of other peer relationships or how friendship expectations are distinguished from them. These two issues were addressed in the present study by administering second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children three measures: (a) an open-ended interview, (b) a story-recognition task, and (c) a questionnaire about the importance of different characteristics to friendships and acquaintances. In general, friendship expectations based on dispositional characteristics increased in saliency with age, whereas characteristics referring to overt behaviors remained constant. Several substantive differences were found among the three measures. Children recognized the importance of different friendship expectations before spontaneously reporting them in the interview. Moreover, the recognition tasks yielded a more complete set of friendship expectations than the interview did. Finally, children of all ages differentiated between expectations for friends and acquaintances, but the degree of differentiation increased with age.