Social Withdrawal and Friendships in Childhood

학령기 아동의 사회적 위축성과 친구관계

The present study investigated the influence of withdrawal on children's best friendship including prevalence of best friendship, friendship quality, and friends' psychosocial characteristics. Subjects were 471 fifth and sixth graders recruited from two public schools. The peer nomination index was used to assess peer victimization, withdrawal, and prosocial behavior. Peer rejection and acceptance were also measured. Children reported on the quality of their friendships using the Friendship Quality Scale(Bukowsi et al., 1994). Results showed that compared to control group, withdrawn children had fewer best friends and perceived their friendship quality more negatively. Moreover, withdrawn children are similar with their best friends in respect with prosocial behavior, withdrawal, peer victimization, and peer rejection level.