Friendship Relationships in Children and Adolescents: Positive Development and Prevention of Mental Health Problems

Abstract

Studying childhood and adolescence from the perspective of Positive Development involves seeing them from the creation of skills and values that allow the child and the adolescent to move towards adulthood in a successful way, as well as considering them from the avoidance and prevention of violence, addiction, depression and other mental health problems.Developmental Psychology theorists such as Harry Stack Sullivan have put forward that friendships can provide a unique developmental context in which children and adolescents learn about Conflict and Negotiation and develop Perspective Taking Skills and Empathic Concern; also in that relationship, furthermore, they satisfy social needs of Companionship and Intimacy.First of all, in this chapter it is presented the Argentine adaptation of Bukowski Friendship Quality Scale (children´s version), an instrument that evaluates friendship quality and explores six dimensions of peer relationships: Companionship, Balance, Conflict, Help, Security and Closeness.Subsequently, two studies conducted with this instrument, in the adolescent version, are presented. The first study evaluates the relationship between Friendship quality and Loneliness feelings in adolescents. It is observed that the rejection of peers and loneliness self-perception feelings with their peers, are negatively correlated with Friendship quality dimensions: Balance, Companionship, Help, Security and Closeness. The Conflict Friendship dimension correlates positively with Family loneliness and Peer loneliness.In the second study, it is presented the results of the hierarchical regressions performed to evaluate Empathy and Values dimensions as predictive variables of Friendship Quality dimensions. Regarding Value Scale, Honesty is the best predictor of Friendship Quality dimensions; and regarding Empathy, Perspective Taking and Empathic Concern are the best predictors of Friendship Quality dimensions.Finally, it is considered how these contributions highlight the important role of friendship and peer relationships in the prevention of mental health problems.