Friendship Moderates Prospective Associations Between Social Isolation and Adjustment Problems in Young Children

This longitudinal study investigated prospective links between social isolation and adjustment problems among 166 (77 girls, 89 boys) Finnish children ages 7 to 9. Peer nominations for social engagement and self-reports of internalizing and externalizing problems were collected in the spring of the 1st and 2nd grade. Friendship moderatedprospective associations betweenpeer and adjustment variables.Among friended children, therewere no prospective associations between social isolation and either internalizing or externalizing problems. Among unfriended children, initial social isolation was positively linked to subsequent increases in internalizing and externalizing problems, and initial internalizing and externalizing problems predicted subsequent increases in social isolation. The findings suggest that friendship buffers against the adverse consequences associated with being isolated and presenting adjustment difficulties. Strong evidence implicates peer experiences in indi-vidual adjustment. Social isolation and friendlessness have been linked to adverse outcomes beginning in early childhood and running across the life course (Gest, 1997; Hartup & Stevens, 1997). Most studies of peer influence describe either direct effects, in whic