Unilateral Friendship Outcomes and Preschool Friendship Formation

Unilateral friendships provide a powerful mechanism to study friendship formation, because these friendships contain interest in friendship, but have not yet become full, reciprocated friendship. This longitudinal study investigated whether the conversations of unilateral dyads identified in the fall were predictive of that dyad’s relationship status in the winter. I hypothesized that the conversations of unilateral dyads would vary widely. I also hypothesized that unilateral dyads that develop into reciprocal friendships will speak more to each other, make more mutual/partner play statements, make more noncompliant/disapproving statements, and more commands/requests than unilateral friendships that remained unilateral or became nonfriend relationships. Seventy-four preschool-aged children (37 boys, 37 girls, Mage = 49.26 months, SD = 7.29 months) from 5 classrooms participated in sociometric interviews in the fall. Unilateral dyads were identified from the sociometric data, and the dyads were observed during a 10-minute free play session. The conversations of the dyads were analyzed, and the outcomes of each of the unilateral dyads were determined using data from a second round of sociometric interviews conducted in the winter. The conversations of the dyads had wide variation in the amount of conversation and the number of the different conversational statements, although, conversations of unilateral dyads in the fall did not predict relationship status in the winter. Future research that examines how a child speaks to the other member of a dyad, and the intent behind their speech, may be more relevant than the content of the conversation when studying preschool friendship formation. PRESCHOOL UNILATERAL FRIENDSHIP OUTCOMES 4 Unilateral Friendship Outcomes and Preschool Friendship Formation The ability to make and maintain friendships in childhood is critical, as it has been linked with later academic achievement, self-image, and mental health (Berndt, 2002). The preschool years are characterized by the rapid development of social skills needed to make these important friendships. Historically, work in this area has focused on characteristics and social skills of individual children as predictors of success in friendship formation (Drewry & Clark, 1985). However, these approaches ignore the fact that any relationship is dependent not just upon the characteristics of the individuals, but also upon the properties of the dyad – properties that exist independently of either dyad member alone. Consequently, this study examines friendship formation during the preschool years by focusing on dyadic behaviors in relation to later friendship outcomes. Many studies have explored the characteristics of friendship, and this research reveals the qualities associated with positive, reciprocal friendship. Less work has focused on processes that lead to this outcome, particularly during the preschool years. One feature of preschool friendship that has received some attention and might be related to friendship formation at this age, is the quality of unilateral friendships, or a relationship in which one child has nominated the other as a friend, but that nomination is not reciprocated. Unilateral relationships are powerful mechanisms to study friendship formation, because in unilateral friendship there is interest in friendship, but not yet reciprocated friendship. In particular, the mechanisms by which unilateral friendships become reciprocal friendships have yet to be thoroughly explored. Examination of the insights provided by unilateral relationships requires understanding the nature of preschool friendships generally, the qualities of unilateral friendships in particular, and the process of friendship formation in early childhood. PRESCHOOL UNILATERAL FRIENDSHIP OUTCOMES 5 Friendship in Preschool For many children, preschool presents the first significant opportunity to interact with children of their own age (Kerns, 2000). Preschool friendships share some characteristics with older friendships; as in adults, friendship in children is defined as a close relationship between two peers (Bukowski & Hoza, 1989). Unlike friendships in older children and adults, however, which are characterized by high levels of prosocial behavior, intimacy, authenticity, and other positive features, while maintaining low levels of conflict, rivalry and other negative features (Berndt, 2002), preschool friendships tend to be characterized by more overt properties of friendship. Thus, elements of friendship such as common activities, propinquity, and sharing secrets are key elements of preschool friendship. Children place increasing value on dispositional characteristics of friendship (e.g., consideration of others’ feelings) as they grow older (Furman & Bierman, 1984). Despite their young age and relative inexperience with peers, preschoolers’ behaviors with friends are distinct from those with non-friends or acquaintances. When placed in a social situation with both a friend and a non-friend, children consistently share toys more equitably, play in closer physical proximity, verbalize more frequently, and express greater satisfaction with friends than with non-friends (Garcia Werebe & Baudonnière, 1988). The differences between friends and non-friends are apparent in other social contexts as well. When pairs of preschoolers are randomly assigned to be either a teacher or a learner, friends are more involved with their partners, more emotionally expressive, and more competitive than nonfriends. Teachers who are friends are rated as more domineering, and learners as more playful and friendly. Thus, preschool friends engage in distinctly different kinds of interactions than non-friends in a variety of social contexts (Brachfeld-Child & Schiavo, 1990). PRESCHOOL UNILATERAL FRIENDSHIP OUTCOMES 6 Kerns’ (2000) analysis of the behaviors of pairs of preschool best-friends during a 1-hour free-play session revealed substantial variation on measures of positive social orientation, harmony, control, responsiveness, cohesiveness, and coordinated play. While the majority of friendships in this study were characterized by harmonious, responsive, and interactive play, some friendships were characterized by harmonious and independent play, and others were disjointed, marked by low levels of both coordinated play and positive interaction. A majority of the friendships in this study, whether highly harmonious or disjointed, remained stable over the course of one year; however, somewhat unexpectedly, the most stable friendships were those that were characterized by low levels of coordinated play and positive interaction. The generally high rates of friendship stability in this study may be attributed to the fact that only best friendships were recruited. The unexpected results regarding which type of friendships were the most stable may also be related to the manner in which the participants were recruited. Participants in this study were recruited via advertisements and by asking mothers whether her child had a best friend who would be available to participate in the study with her child. That the mothers of the children in the study were not only aware of their children’s friendship, but also had the ability to coordinate with the other child’s parents, indicates that the friendships in this study were likely to have a high degree of parental support, be formed at a relatively young age, and have relatively frequent interaction. Such a relationship may begin to take on the properties of a sibling relationship, which is often characterized by relatively high rates of conflict and disjointed behavior (Recchia & Howe, 2009). If this study were conducted in a preschool context, as is the current study, where children have access to a greater choice of friends, children might be more likely to pursue and maintain friendships with high levels of coordinated play and positive affect. Indeed, PRESCHOOL UNILATERAL FRIENDSHIP OUTCOMES 7 kindergarten friendships characterized by high validation and low rates of conflict were found to be the most stable over a 4-month period (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996). The different results regarding the stability of preschool friendship indicate that the children’s environment may be a key variable in the children’s development of friendships over time. Consequently, environment may also play a role when children originally develop, or form, these friendships. Unilateral Friendship A unilateral friendship is one in which an individual nominates another as a friend, but that friendship nomination is not reciprocated. Unilateral relationships differ from other relationships; elementary-aged children report liking unilateral friends less than reciprocal ones but more than non-friends. Elementary-aged children also report liking unilateral-given friends, friends they nominated, more than unilateral-received friends, friends from whom they received (but did not give) nominations (Hundley & Cohen, 1999). Children also tend to know more about their reciprocal friends than their unilateral ones; for example, children are more accurate at predicting shared characteristics of reciprocal friendships than unilateral ones (Ladd & Emerson, 1984). Reciprocal friends are more likely to be similar to each other with regard to interpersonal understanding, proximity, popularity, and self-concept than unilateral friends (Drewry & Clark, 1985; Kurdek & Krile, 1982). While unilateral friendships have characteristics that distinguish them from other peer relationships, unilateral friendships can take on characteristics of both reciprocal and non-friend relationships. For instance, the nature of conflict between unilateral dyads contains some characteristics of reciprocal friends and some of non-friends. The nature and intensity of conflicts resemble reciprocal dyads; however, the manner in which unilateral pairs negotiate their conflict, with bot