Citation

Laghi F, Baiocco R, Cannoni E, Di Norcia A, Baumgartner E, Bombi AS. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 2013; 35(7): 1095-1100.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.05.007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between friendship representation and internalizing and externalizing problems in school-aged children. One hundred Caucasian 6-7 year-old children (50 males and 50 females) and their mothers took part in the study. The Draw-a-Man Test, the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/6-18) were used. Children with internalizing problems, externalizing problems, comorbid internalizing and externalizing problems, and a control group were compared on their pictorial representations of friendship.

RESULTS showed that children with externalizing problems included more pictorial indices of each friend's autonomy and a larger imbalance of importance between them; children with internalizing problems drew themselves as less similar to their friends. In conclusion, children's pictorial representation allows exploring some aspects of their tacit knowledge about the relationship with a best friend, which is not easily expressed verbally by young children. Finally, the implications of these findings for theoretical and empirical research development on friendship are discussed.