Friendship groups

Where preschoolers will often say that they have lots of friends, by the time a child reaches 8 to 9 years of age many will often only have a handful of good friends.

Girls tend to be more exclusive in their friendships as they often demand a greater closeness than boys. In addition children tend to select friends that they perceive to be similar to themselves in terms of age, gender, personality, popularity, academic achievement and prosocial behaviour.

Through the development of friendships children can come to realise that relationships can survive disagreements as long as friends are secure in their liking for each other. As such, friendship provides an important social context in which children can learn to tolerate criticism and resolve disagreements.

Children in later childhood show a strong desire to belong to a group. They form peer groups that will often generate unique values and standards for behaviour, they also provide a social structure of leaders and followers. Peer groups tend to organise on the basis of proximity, for example being in the same class or neighbourhood, as well as similarity in gender, ethnicity, popularity and aggression. Peer groups provide children with an insight into larger social structures.