%0 Journal Article
%T Friendship in children with internalizing and externalizing problems: a preliminary investigation with the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships
%J Children and youth services review
%D 2013
%A Laghi, Fiorenzo
%A Baiocco, Roberto
%A Cannoni, Eleonora
%A Di Norcia, Anna
%A Baumgartner, Emma
%A Bombi, Anna Silvia
%V 35
%N 7
%P 1095-1100
%X 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. <br><br>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.<p />
%G en
%I Elsevier Publishing
%@ 0190-7409
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.05.007