Daily Companionship in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Changing Developmental Contexts
Abstract
The study employs time-sampling data to examine age differences in the quantity and quality of children's and young adolescents' daily experience with their families, friends, and alone. Participants (ages 9-15) carried electronic pagers for 1 week and reported their companionship, location, and affect at random times when signaled by the pagers. Findings show a dramatic decline in amount of time spent with family, with older students reporting half as much time with their families as younger students. Among boys, this family time was replaced by time spent alone; among girls, by time alone and with friends. Affect reported when with family became less positive between the fifth and seventh grade, but was more positive again in the ninth grade for boys. Affect with friends became more favorable across this age period; affect when alone did not vary. These age differences suggest changes in adolescents' daily opportunities for cognitive growth, emotional development, and social support.
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Substantial changes in social exposure and orientation take place during adolescence, with more time spent with peers than family, increased influence of friends/peers, and decreased influence of parents/adults.
“Substantial changes in social exposure and orientation take place during adolescence, as more time is spent with peers than with family, 131-134 the influence of friends or peers increases, and the influence of parents or adults decreases (appendix p 11). 135,136”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [134]
The finding that adolescents spend more time with peers and report more positive affect is dependent on gender and culture.
“However, this finding is dependent on gender and culture [18][19][20].”
From Is there heightened sensitivity to social reward in adolescence? (2016) · cites this paper as [19]
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- Authors
- Larson, R., & Richards, M. H.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Loyola University Chicago (US)
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1991-04
- Volume
- 62
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 284
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1976049156
- Cited by
- 992
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 45 · 2015: 47 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 55 · 2012: 44
- FWCI
- 8.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh038324-08)
- National Institute of Mental Health (1 R01 MH38324)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Youth Development and Social Support
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychosocial Factors Impacting Youth
- Keywords
- family time, peer time, time alone, affect, age differences, late childhood, early adolescence, gender differences, social support, emotional development, cognitive development, temporal sampling
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Age Factors, Child, Child Behavior, Child Development, Family, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Sex Factors, Social Behavior, Multivariate Analysis
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