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Friendships and Social Networks in Childhood and Adolescence: Fluidity, Reliability, and Interrelations
Abstract
Social networks and friendships were tracked over a 3-week period for 132 students enrolled in fourth- and seventh-grade classrooms. Individual interviews were employed to collect data on friendships. Social group membership was determined by the composite social-cognitive map (SCM) procedure and by self-reports. Considerable overlap was found among the methods for establishing relational patterns (i.e., friendships, self-reported groups, composite social-cognitive maps). When loose criteria for stability were employed, high stability was found in friendships (p = .56-.75) and social group membership (p = .90) over a 3-week period. But when stringent criteria were employed, only modest social relationship stability was observed in both methods, suggesting that there is much greater fluidity in peer bonds than has been generally recognized. The relationship between friendship and social network measures, the distinctive information yielded by social networks, and gender and age differences in group structure, fluidity, and friendships are discussed.
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“Adolescents spend more time with peers (42), experience more fluidity in social groups (43), and encounter more frequent feedback from peers (44).”
From Development of self-protective biases in response to social evaluative feedback (2017) · cites this paper as [43]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Cairns, R. B., Leung, M.-C., Buchanan, L., & Cairns, B. D.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1995-10
- Volume
- 66
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1330
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1985521685
- Cited by
- 385
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 10.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01hd023302-07, 5r01mh045532-12)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH-45532, P50-MH52429-01, P50MH052429)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD-23302-04)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- friendship, social networks, peer relationships, social group membership, friendship stability, children, adolescents, gender differences, age differences, group structure
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Psychology, Adolescent, Child, Psychology, Child, Female, Gender Identity, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Personality Development, Social Environment, Social Support, Sociometric Techniques
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