Describe the features of friendship in middle childhood

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: During the school years, friendship becomes more complex and psychologically based. Friendship is no longer just a matter of engaging in the same activities. Instead, it is a mutually agreed-on relationship in which children like each other's personal qualities and respond to one another's needs and desires. And once a friendship forms, trust becomes its defining feature. School-age children state that a good friendship is based on acts of kindness, signifying that each person can be counted on to support the other. Consequently, older children regard violations of trust, such as not helping when others need help, breaking promises, and gossiping behind the other's back, as serious breaches of friendship.
School-age friendships are more selective. Whereas preschoolers say they have lots of friends, by age 8 or 9, children name only a handful of good friends. Girls, who demand greater closeness than boys, are more exclusive in their friendships. In addition, children tend to select friends like themselves in age, sex, race, ethnicity, and SES. Friends also resemble one another in personality, peer popularity, academic achievement, and prosocial behavior.
Over middle childhood, high-quality friendships remain fairly stable: About 50 to 70 percent endure over a school year, and some last for several years. Friendships spanning several contexts—such as school, religious institution, and children of parents' friends—are more enduring.
Yet the impact of friendships on children's development depends on the nature of their friends. Children who bring kindness and compassion to their friendships strengthen each other's prosocial tendencies. But when aggressive children make friends, the relationship is often riddled with hostile interaction and is at risk for breakup, especially when just one member of the pair is aggressive. Aggressive girls' friendships are high in exchange of private feelings but also full of relational hostility, including jealousy, conflict, and betrayal. Aggressive boys' friendships involve frequent expressions of anger, coercive statements, physical attacks, and enticements to rule breaking.